CULTURETECHLENSHarold Baines
VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)
Combined Graph record U-07693 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6821.
Harold Douglas Baines (born March 15, 1959, in Easton, Maryland) was an American baseball right fielder and designated hitter whose quiet consistency produced one of the longest productive careers in American League history. The story, retold by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and by SABR, is that White Sox owner Bill Veeck first saw the 12-year-old Baines playing Little League on Maryland's Eastern Shore and remembered him when Chicago held the first overall pick in the 1977 draft. Baines rewarded that faith: he became a fixture in the White Sox lineup, was named to three All-Star teams in his first Chicago tenure, and led the club to the 1983 American League West title, its first postseason appearance since 1959. Knee problems moved him increasingly to designated hitter, and he returned to Chicago for two further stints amid seasons with Texas, Oakland, Baltimore and Cleveland. According to the Hall of Fame (accessed 2026-11-03), he spent 14 of his 22 seasons with the White Sox and retired after 2001 with 2,866 hits, 384 home runs, 1,628 RBI and six All-Star selections. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2019.
Answer summary · this record in brief, from its own record text
Harold Douglas Baines (born March 15, 1959, in Easton, Maryland) was an American baseball right fielder and designated hitter whose quiet consistency produced one of the longest productive careers in American League history. The story, retold by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and by SABR, is that White Sox owner Bill Veeck first saw the 12-year-old Baines playing Little League on Maryland's Eastern Shore and remembered him when Chicago held the first overall pick in the 1977 draft.
The record
- Also known as: Harold Douglas Baines
Notes
Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0286. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Baines is the archive's argument for durability over flash — the Eastern Shore prodigy a Black Little Leaguer spotted by an owner became the standard for professional hitting across three decades; CTL should also treat his contested Hall of Fame election honestly, presenting both the case and the criticism. Career statistics in this record are attributed to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, accessed 2026-11-03. STAGED record — not merged into any live store.
Relationships
- Chicago White Sox — played for
National Baseball Hall of Fame: Baines spent 14 of his 22 seasons with the Chicago White Sox across three stints. - Chicago White Sox — drafted by
National Baseball Hall of Fame: Baines began his career as the No. 1 pick in the 1977 amateur draft by the Chicago White Sox.
Sources
- National Baseball Hall of Fame. “Baines, Harold.” Accessed 2026-11-03. https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/baines-harold (primary source · build store)
- Society for American Baseball Research. “Harold Baines.” SABR Biography Project. Accessed 2026-11-03. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Harold-Baines/ (build store)
- Baseball-Reference. “Harold Baines.” BR Bullpen. Accessed 2026-11-03. https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Harold_Baines (build store)
Photograph · rights-cleared record, CultureTechLens Photo Rights Log
Harold Baines, Major League Baseball player and coach, in 2011
Harold Baines, Major League Baseball player and coach, in 2011 — Keith Allison, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source: CultureTechLens · view at source
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Record CTL-E-6821 · Combined Graph record U-07693 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources · 2 mapped relationships.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.
Cite this record
Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Harold Baines (CTL-E-6821).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6821/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Harold Baines (CTL-E-6821) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Combined Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6821/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Harold Baines (CTL-E-6821).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6821/
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