The Road Home: Razor Shines’ Path to Becoming One of One

Razor Shines sits at his son’s home just north of Orlando, Florida. Five championship rings he won with the Indianapolis Indians in the 1980s are on the dining room table behind him. In January, he received a phone call from the Indians’ board chairman Bruce Schumacher, president and CEO Randy Lewandowski and director of communications Cheyne Reiter, who told Shines the organization – set to embark on its 122nd season on March 29 – wanted to do something it had never done before – retire the number of one of its former players.

“With your permission, we would like to retire your uniform number 3,” Schumacher, son of Indians chairman emeritus Max Schumacher who almost single-handedly revived Shines’ career, said.

“Oh, my goodness,” Shines, astonished and seemingly smiling ear-to-ear, said on the other end. “First of all, let me say that’s quite an honor. And secondly, Schu, you have my permission, my family would love nothing more.”

It’s now the middle of March, six months away from mid-September when the Indians will affix Shines’ historic No. 3 jersey number on the left-field wall at Victory Field next to Jackie Robinson’s 42. MLB Spring Training is in full swing around the state he now calls home, and he’s taking a trip down memory lane; his thoughts penned into the record for generations of baseball fans to come. All, whether they witnessed the magic at Bush Stadium on West 16th Street in person or were passed down the tales from previous generations, will know his name.

Howard Kellman ­– longtime Voice of the Indians – breaks through the static of a 1986 broadcast with a call that has stood the test of time. Razor’s face is serious, molded in concentration as the events he described in flawless detail minutes before play out in front of him.

In the ninth inning of the seventh game. The set at the belt. The pitch. LINED…

Razor smiles.

… A BASE HIT TO LEFT FIELD. HERE COMES ROMANO. HERE COMES CANDAELE, THE INDIANS ARE CHAMPIONS. UNBELIEVABLE.

It’s a story fans of Indians baseball in the 1980s know all too well, one singular hit that defines a decade of excellence for Minor League Baseball in the Circle City. And, if you had to choose one, Shines – a player who made a home for himself not in the majors but somehow exactly where he wanted to be, maybe where he was meant to be – is the face of it all.

Anthony Razor Shines was born on July 18, 1956, two months prior to the sun setting on Jackie Robinson’s playing career. With what would one day become his dream – his livelihood – realized on a national stage, Shines grew up digging his cleats into baseball in the segregated South.

In 1957, North Carolina became one of only four southern states to have integrated schools. Desegregation came to Shines’ hometown of Durham in 1959, but it wasn’t until Shines was a teenager that Durham County elementary schools were fully integrated.

So, the significance of having his jersey number next to Robinson’s 42 isn’t lost on him.

“When you take me back to Durham, North Carolina, when I first started playing baseball, there were certain teams we couldn’t play against… because it wasn’t integrated.” Shines said. “It’s going to be hard to be around, to have my number next to Jackie Robinson’s number – the man who is responsible for giving me the opportunity to do what I did. It’s going to be really, really good for me and my family.”

As he grew up in the projects of Durham with his single mother, Doris, and two siblings, Shines showed sparks of baseball talent early on. As a quickly growing boy, he attracted accusations that he was too old for the youth leagues he participated in. Instead, he was the youngest one tearing up the ballpark against kids two to three years his senior.

That athletic achievement never slowed. He cracked the varsity roster at St. Augustine High School as a sophomore and went on to be one of the best players in the state of North Carolina.

“There are a lot of things that go into [having my number next to Robinson’s],” Shines said. “My mom used to tell me [not to] worry about it [and to] just keep playing. It was difficult, but it made things worthwhile.

“Even through high school, being voted the most valuable player in the state of North Carolina and not even the most valuable player on my team. Being the only minority on my team, it was different. It was hard. I didn’t have many friends at the time when the team was picked because some of the players didn’t want me on that team.”

Shines attended Louisburg (N.C.) College and played three seasons at St. Augustine’s (Raleigh, N.C.) University before being drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 18th round of the 1978 First-Year Player Draft. With his chance to play professional baseball, he was set on a course straight for the Circle City.

As fate would have it, his dream of playing in the major leagues was a stop before his final destination. Shines first reached Triple-A for a short stint in 1983 with Wichita – Indianapolis was then in its final year of 16 consecutive seasons as a Cincinnati Reds affiliate – before making his major league debut on Sept. 9 as a pinch hitter without ever walking to the batter’s box. On the mound just two outs away from a complete-game win was Mets right-hander Tom Seaver, a three-time Cy Young winner, 12-time All-Star and future Hall of Famer pitching in his age-38 season, but he was lifted for closer Jesse Orosco, and so, too, was Shines, replaced by pinch hitter Jim Wohlford.

Shines didn’t have to wait long for his first major league at-bat, which came a few days later on Sept. 12, a dark and cloudy evening at Wrigley Field, where he entered as a defensive replacement for left fielder Tim Raines in the seventh inning of an 8-0 loss to the Cubs. He took to the batter’s box two innings later and grounded out against right-hander Dick Ruthven, who went all 9.0 innings in a four-hit shutout.

He made the most of his only other at-bat of the season, lining a pinch-hit single off Mets right-hander Tim Leary in the seventh inning on Oct. 2 at Shea Stadium. The knock turned out to be the first of 15 in 68 career major league games with Montreal spanning four seasons, eight coming against pitchers with at least one All-Star honor – four of whom were future Hall of Famers.

Success blossomed quickly as the Indians joined Montreal’s farm system for the 1984 season, a move that led to Shines, Andrés Galarraga, Delino DeShields, Marquis Grissom and future Hall of Famers Randy Johnson and Larry Walker passing through Indy in the late 80s.

While the Expos rode the .500 line from 1984-89 – topping out at 91-71 (.562) in 1987 – the Indians finished below .500 only once (1985) in that six-year span. Indianapolis owned the best regular season record in the American Association four times and capped the decade with an incredible stretch of championships.

“When you talk about family, that was an example of a family – those teams we had in Indianapolis,” Shines said. “When guys got called up to the big leagues, they said ‘Man, I’m getting sent down.’

“In fact, it happened to me, too. I got sent down to Montreal a couple of times, but I also got sent back to the big leagues in Indianapolis.”

After being greeted with a not-so-warm welcome by Mother Nature in Indianapolis in April 1984 – “It was cold,” he adamantly said, as his first impression of the Circle City. “It was really cold. It was snowing.” – Shines first suited up in his now legendary No. 3.

It was the combination of a player and his all-out style, jersey number and name that just seemed to belong within the hallowed walls of Bush Stadium, thanks in part to the 1984 installment of a famous introduction to Shines’ at-bats by former public address announcer Kurt Hunt.

Now batting for your Indianapolis Indians, number 3, R-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-azor Shines!

“The first time I heard it when I was walking to the plate, it startled me,” Shines said. “The crowd got into it, and I hit a double. From then on, I don’t ever remember not hearing it.

“When Kurt Hunt would drag it out, the people would go crazy. It would pump me up, all these people screaming my name: Ra-zor, Ra-zor. I’m not making an out there.”

Bush Stadium and its intimacy – the locker rooms, specifically, were smaller than those in new stadiums around the league – soon began to feel like home to Shines.

The No. 3 became home to him, too. So, while there’s significance to his number sitting next to that of Robinson, there’s also significance in the number itself.

“Well, first of all, it’s my number,” Shines said. “It was the first number I wore in Indianapolis, and it’s the only number I wanted to wear in Indianapolis… It became a part of me.”

Shines was named Indians Team MVP at the end of his debut season in Indy behind 26 doubles, 18 home runs and 80 RBI, but Indianapolis was defeated in the semifinals by Louisville. So, he returned to the big leagues and once again found himself in the opposing dugout with Montreal at the Friendly Confines on Sept. 12, exactly one year after his first official plate appearance in The Show. Cubs closer Lee Smith, who led the National League with 29 saves in his first of seven All-Star bids in 1983, was on the mound for the final six outs of an 11-5 Chicago win.

“I used to sit [leaning forward] on the bench with my bat, I wanted to be a pinch hitter if we needed a pinch hitter,” Shines said. “This time, Lee Smith came in… and was throwing what looked like 900 miles per hour. The manager took his hat off and looked at his lineup card… I sat back because I didn’t want to hear my name. He said, ‘Razor!... Second hitter!’

“That might be the first time I’ve ever been nervous in a baseball game.”

Shines fouled off tough pitches before striking out. Two days later, he laced a pinch-hit single off Philadelphia’s Steve Carlton, a four-time Cy Young winner who went on to record his 312th of 329 career wins that day. His last of six big-league hits that season was a single against Cardinals closer Bruce Sutter, who nailed down his 44th of a major league-leading 45 saves in a 6-4 triumph for St. Louis. Shines swore he’d found a home in the big leagues and had his sights set on a long career at the top.

The next year, Shines’ third career at-bat at Wrigley Field – fittingly for No. 3 – proved to be the charm. He made Montreal’s team out of camp and in the Expos’ fourth game of the young 1985 season, bested Smith in their second career meeting with a pinch-hit, run-scoring single in the ninth inning in his first at-bat of the campaign. Later that summer, he added a pinch-hit single in the sixth inning off Cubs righty Dennis Eckersley – breaking up Eckersley’s bid at a second career no-hitter, no less – to his resume. But on the final day of the season at Shea Stadium, he entered as a pinch runner and tore his ACL on a stolen-base attempt, leading to his release that offseason.

After rehabbing his knee and getting into playing shape, Shines and his wife, Leann, spent the Fourth of July driving 10 hours from Wichita, Kansas to Bush Stadium, where he convinced then-president Max Schumacher to sign him as a bullpen catcher. Three weeks later, an injury to catcher Randy Hunt opened the door for him to be added to the active roster, and the rest was history.

In his first game back on July 25 at Iowa, he delivered the game-winning blow with a pinch-hit RBI double in the 11th inning. He was at it again two nights later with a pinch-hit, two-run, go-ahead single in the seventh to spark a 7-3 win at Iowa. The Indians rode the momentum home, where Shines smacked a tiebreaking solo home run in the bottom of the eighth inning on Aug. 6 vs. Omaha to move Indy into sole possession of first place in the American Association Eastern Division. When he joined the active roster, the Indians were 50-49 and 4.5 games back of Buffalo. When the last out of the regular season was recorded, Indy’s record stood atop the league at 80-62, 9.0 games clear of the Bisons.

The longer Shines played in the Circle City – delivering clutch hit after clutch hit – the more he became part of the community beyond Bush Stadium’s ivy walls. Despite the cold weather that jarred him upon his first arrival, Shines eventually made Indianapolis home in the offseason, growing his connection to the city and the fans that gravitated toward him from day one.

“Anytime the Indianapolis Indians wanted something done, they knew I was home and that Indy was home for me… I would be there,” Shines said. “The little leagues had different things going on and the Indians were a part of it, so I would be there.”

As his popularity grew in central Indiana, just attending little league clinics evolved into Shines running them himself. After all, he had a pretty hefty resume to back up his teaching skills.

Across 793 total regular season games with the Indians, Shines hit .274 (696-for-2,539) and currently ranks among franchise career batting leaders with 68 home runs (T-3rd), 404 RBI (4th) and 138 doubles (5th). He was sent off as one of, if not the most loved player in franchise history with Razor Shines Appreciation Night on Sept. 4, 1993, his final game at Bush Stadium.

While the focus will be on Shines as thousands of fans of 1980s Indians baseball – and those they’ve passed stories down to – flood through Victory Field’s gates from Sept. 13-15 for the retiring of his jersey number and a poetic three-day celebration for No. 3, his individual accolades aren’t what he fixates on.

“I don’t really equate my career to numbers,” Shines said. “It wouldn’t bother me if I hit .230 and we won a championship. It wouldn’t bother me at all because all I wanted to do was win. It didn’t matter who got the credit for winning.”

And oh, did they win.

Indians fans know that one of the most historic and improbable moments in franchise history came to life when Billy Moore, with two outs in the ninth inning of the seventh game of the American Association Championship Series vs. Denver at Bush Stadium, lined a 2-2 pitch into left field. The game-winning hit, scoring Tom Romano and Casey Candaele, was the moment that defined the decade for the Indians and propelled them to their first of four straight league titles.

Indians diehards might not know, or remember, the whole story. Shines lived it and can recite the events by heart:

How Derrell Baker – known as “The Hitman” by his teammates – sparked the comeback with a rallying cry before hitting a leadoff single.

“We didn’t come this far to lose,” Shines recalled Baker saying. “Let’s go, I’ll lead it off. Follow me.”

How the team rallied to bring the deficit to one run before Shines stepped to the plate with two outs and runners on second and third.

“I don’t even hear the crowd,” Shines said. “I’m focused right there, I’m going to see the ball out of your hand and I’m going to beat you, and you know it.”

How he – a hitter who had an affinity for relaxing in clutch moments ­­­– was intentionally walked, a plate appearance that led to him slamming his bat on home plate, breaking it into pieces.

How a potential check-swing third strike to Moore had the Denver Zephyrs celebrating a championship they hadn’t yet clinched.

And the single and aftermath. Oh, how Indianapolis celebrated in a way that modern baseball can only dream of.

“The whole crowd was on the field,” Shines said. “We were celebrating, just having fun. We were celebrating back in the clubhouse, but at that time that was a huge thing. Just being able to hug the fans and celebrate with them, it was unbelievable.”

That 1986 championship was only the beginning. They repeated their American Association title in 1987, with Shines hitting .368 (7-for-19) as the Indians took four of five games in the best-of-seven rematch vs. Denver.

The stretch continued with Three Straight in ’88 and Four is Fine in ’89, both league titles coming against Omaha, followed up by Triple-A Classic championships over Rochester and Richmond of the International League.

There was a moment after the Indians were eliminated from the 1984 American Association playoffs that Shines didn’t know if he would again suit up in Indianapolis.

“I told Max, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know if I’m ever going to play here again.’” Shines said. “’But I do know that [if I come back], we’re not ever going to lose again. I’ll make you that promise.’

“And, man, we had a pretty good run.”

Shines sits back in his seat and looks down at his left hand, adorned with five championship rings from the Indians’ decade of dominance.

“I was fortunate,” Shines says. “All those guys – Alonzo Powell, Dallas Williams, Rene Gonzales, Casey Candaele…Billy Moore – those guys are responsible, just as much as I am, for these rings. Really a good group of guys, too.”

Shines has a much larger collection of rings – 12 total, to be exact – than these that sit on his hand, including two World Series rings. He managed Double-A Birmingham when the Chicago White Sox won the 2005 World title and High-A Clearwater when the Philadelphia Phillies won it all in 2008.

The five from Indianapolis, however, are his favorite.

“Because they were in my hometown,” Shines says without missing a beat. “And it was for the people in Indianapolis. That’s what it was about.”