Dawson and Raines share a bond so deep, they might as well be family

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. - As they kicked the ball around a drenched but brilliant golf course Saturday morning, battling each other much more than they did the 18 holes, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines couldn't have sounded more like teenage brothers if they tried.

The former Expos teammates actually consider each other siblings, and their genuine affection, born of six years laboring together in Montreal, is so obvious as to be envied.

"Man, I carried Hawk all those years up there, and now I got to carry him on a golf course. My back is killing me," said Raines, shrieking with laughter. "Man that big man hits a baseball 500 feet when it's thrown at him 95 miles per hour, but can't hit a ball sitting still. Ought to be ashamed."

In fairness, Dawson doesn't play golf, so he offered the foursome his putting prowess and little else in the annual Hall of Fame golf outing, while Raines pounded the ball off tee box after tee box into fairway after fairway, leading his group to victory - heavily aided by Dawson's 28 handicap.

"Gotta let the new guy win, huh?" Wade Boggs hollered at Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson during the 19th hole presentation. "They must have had the eraser working overtime today."

Of course, the final score mattered not a bit, as the day was about fun and laughter for all the Hall of Famers on the Otesaga Hotel's breathtaking track, the Leatherstocking Golf Course.

For Raines and Dawson, it was like a family reunion.

"In Montreal, we would just beat on each other to amuse ourselves," Raines laughed. "I would sneak up on him and pop him in the face, and then I'd run and there was no way he could catch me.

"But when he surprised me, man, he's so strong he didn't know how bad it hurt when he punched me. Of course, I never let on I was hurting."

But Raines really does love Dawson like a brother, naming his second son Andre - he calls him "Little Hawk" - and he drove through tornado warnings overnight to get here from New Jersey, where Raines manages the Newark Bears of the Independent League.

Raines, who played for the White Sox for five years and later coached three years for Ozzie Guillen, currently has ex-Sox Ron Karkovice and ex-Cub Willie Banks on his staff.

"No way was I missing this," Raines said. "No way."

Dawson hopes Raines gets to join him in the Cooperstown club someday, and says he'll make that pitch on Raines' behalf in his speech Sunday.

Raines hasn't gotten very far in his first few tries on the ballot, receiving 24 percent of the vote in 2008, far short of the required 75, followed by 22 percent in 2009 and 30 percent this year.

But he is gaining support among the new generation of stats gurus, many of whom consider him the best base stealer in history.

He's fifth all time with 808 but has the best success rate ever among the leaders at 85 percent.

"He was as good at leading off and stealing bases as anyone ever," Lou Brock said of Raines on Saturday. "He was one heck of a baseball player."

Saturday, he was one heck of a golfer