SOMETHING OLD, NEW : AN EXPO . . . AGAIN : Roof Finally in Place, but It Still Raines in the Montreal Outfield

The roof finally covers Le Stade Olympique. It cost $180 million and is 10 years behind schedule. If it doesn’t become regularly retractable until next season, c’est la vie.

The Montreal Expos, by contrast, needed only seven months and $5 million to restore the foundation of their modest hopes in the National League’s East Division.

In this, however, they had help. It’s being called collusion. Is there a better example than Tim Raines?

All the Montreal left fielder did last year was win the National League batting title at .334, finish third in steals with 70, post the best on-base percentage at .413, wind up in the top 10 of five other offensive categories and build on his reputation as a quiet and respected clubhouse leader, not to mention one of the all-time best leadoff hitters.

He was 27 and in his prime. He knew there was a risk to free agency, but who could resist those credentials?

Who couldn’t, it turned out. No other team even offered him the $1.5 million he made last year. No team except the San Diego Padres really offered him anything.

The Dodgers were his first choice, but club President Peter O’Malley said thanks, but no thanks, he already had a center fielder.

A center fielder?

It was ultimately established that he was alluding to Ken Landreaux. Rookie Mike Ramsey didn’t emerge until late in spring training.

Ramsey is hitting .250 as the Dodgers open a three-game series here tonight.

Said Raines of the Dodgers’ refusal to respond to his interest: “I don’t think I’ll ever understand it.”

One thing is clear, though. Spring training may be in jeopardy.

Raines missed both the official encampment and the first month of the season.

He is now hitting .354. Since his name does not appear on the All-Star ballot because of his late signing, that lofty average has already inspired a Canadian write-in campaign.

With no alternative except retirement, he returned to the Expos May 1 and delivered four hits in his first game against the New York Mets, including a triple, two singles and a grand slam, which proved decisive.

He has appeared in only 10 games but already leads the Expos with four game-winning hits, three of which have been homers.

He has driven in 11 runs and scored 12. His revived team, which was 8-13 when he returned, is 7-5 since then.

Raines said he is not out to prove anything to anyone. The game is his motivation, his joie de vivre. He said he seeks only to improve each year, which he has for the last four, fashioning a series of career highs for hits and batting average.

The anger, frustration and disappointment he experienced as a free agent have dissipated, Raines said--though he is still perplexed, by the industry-wide attitude that has put economics ahead of winning.

“It comes down to a situation where the Dodgers and other clubs are willing to take a chance on winning with a rookie without paying the price for a player who would virtually assure them of winning,” Raines said.

“As far as the Dodgers are concerned, what other answer is there? I mean, it’s not age. I’m still a young veteran. I’m younger than most of the guys on that team. I feel I can play 10 or 12 more years.

“It can only be the money, but I don’t see the logic there either because the Dodgers weren’t going to lose any on me. How many more people would they draw? How much would they make reaching the playoffs and World Series?

“The kid (Ramsey) is supposed to be a great defensive player, but now I hear they’re not that high on him. Is there any doubt I would have made them better? Is there any doubt as to what I could have done for them?”

Done for anyone, really, but particularly a contender.

Raines has a career average of .305 and has stolen 70 or more bases in each of his six full seasons.

The fortitude he displayed in dealing with a cocaine problem in 1982 generated an admiration that has since been multiplied by his warm personality and leadership ability.

“He makes us at least 25% better--on and off the field,” Montreal infielder Vance Law said. “I can’t believe no one signed him but I’m glad they didn’t.”

Why the interest in the Dodgers? Raines said he was attracted by the stability of the organization, the tradition, the attendance, the chance to win and the fact that it would have put him in a position that “I should have been in years ago if I had been playing in a bigger city.”

He was talking about media attention and endorsement opportunities.

“I felt that if there was a chance to work out anything anywhere, it would be with the Dodgers,” Raines said. “But we never got a foot in the door. We pushed a couple times, but they wouldn’t give.”

Neither did anyone else, though at one point Raines said he felt that San Diego was a phone call away from meaningful negotiations. He got the call, but it was to tell him that the Padres were dropping out.

It is believed that San Diego’s offer of $1.1 million was the highest he received from any team other than the Expos.

“Anyone who thought I could be forced into signing for less than I made last year was sadly mistaken,” Raines said. “I wasn’t going to take a pay cut.”

Neither, however, was he interested in serving as a martyr or breaking new ground for the players’ association.

“I simply felt that I was doing the right thing for me and my family,” Raines said. “It certainly had a bearing on player relations, but as for doing it on behalf of the union, that wasn’t my thinking.

“I mean, if I had felt that the Expos had acted fairly in November, I would never have become a free agent in the first place. I like the city and have grown to love the fans. I’m one of the few guys they’ve never booed. You have to like that.”

What Raines didn’t like was the Expos’ initial offer of $1.5 million a year, the same as he made last season. Then, when they went to $4.8 million for three years and he rejected it, the Expos held a press conference to say what they had offered and that they would go no higher.

Raines called that a breach of faith, an attempt to hold him up to public scorn. He said at that point that he couldn’t have worked for the Expos.

Two factors ultimately changed his thinking.

The first, of course, was the free-agent freeze-out.

The second was an invitation by club owner Charles Bronfman to meet at the team’s training base in late March and clear the air. The meeting was probably illegal, since Raines was prevented from discussing employment with his former club until May 1. Nevertheless, Raines says that it served to dissolve the “bad blood” and provide a foundation for settlement.

“I finally felt it was a chance to sit down and talk reasonably, to get rid of the negativity on both sides,” Raines said. “It made it a lot easier to come back and be happy about it. I didn’t have to feel that I was coming back because the Expos were my only choice.”

The agreement was reached in the early hours of May 1, with Raines receiving $5 million for three years. That was a Friday. On Saturday, joining the Expos in New York, he swung at the first major league pitch he had seen since Oct. 4 and drilled a triple off the fence, batting left-handed.

He then singled twice--once left-handed and once right-handed--before connecting against Jesse Orosco in the 10th inning for his right-handed slam.

“I’d done a lot of thinking and a lot of dreaming about that day but I never thought it would be like that,” Raines said. “It was a great thrill. I just hoped they didn’t expect it every day.”

Said Bob Rodgers, his manager: “I knew he would give us a mental lift, but I couldn’t expect the physical lift. I couldn’t expect a guy to return in the first week of May and hit the first pitch off the fence for a triple left-handed, then win the game with a grand slam right handed.

“It’s hard enough to hit one way when you’ve had spring training. It’s amazing to hit both ways without it. Maybe I’ll have the entire team report on April 1 next year and tell them to get ready at their local high school.”

Raines’ preparations had included aerobics, Nautilus work and running. He worked twice a day with the baseball team at Palmetto High in Sarasota, Fla., between April 1 and 29, batting against Coach Mike Van Zerk and a pitching machine.

“I’ve played for six years now and know what I need,” Raines said of spring training. “The only things I missed were defensive drills and hitting against major league pitching. I’m still not 100% or where I want to be but I’m comfortable at the plate, I feel I have a chance. The thing that has surprised me is the power. I mean, three home runs in a week. I’ll take it.”

Raines is a fireplug at 5 feet 8 inches and 180 pounds. He won the 1987 baseball superstars competition against a field that included Bo Jackson and Eric Davis. Distance hitting is not one of his strengths, however. He has hit only 48 homers and never more than 11 in a season. At the same time, he was sixth in the league in doubles and third in triples last year and will now bat third full time, with Casey Candaele leading off.

The move seems designed to compensate for the loss of free agent Andre Dawson, who signed with the Chicago Cubs, but Rodgers, looking for more run production, said he would have dropped Dawson to fifth and used Raines as his No. 3 hitter even if Dawson had returned.

Raines batted .323 with 28 runs batted in and 35 steals in 70 games as the leadoff hitter last year and .344 with 34 RBIs and 35 steals in 75 games as the No. 3 hitter.

“It doesn’t change the way I feel about going to the plate,” Raines said of the No. 3 slot. “I don’t try to hit the ball any farther. I’m a line-drive hitter who hits the ball where it’s pitched. Maybe if I went up there thinking home run, I could hit 15 to 20, but I’d probably bat .210. I’ve been successful for six years hitting 10 to 12, so why change?”

The move does put restrictions, however, on his stolen-base possibilities. Raines thinks he could steal 150 to 175 a year if thefts were all he was gunning for, but he can live with fewer.

“I’ll run a little less with the fourth-place hitter up,” he said. “But the threat (of a steal) means that the fourth-place hitter will see more fastballs, which is a better situation than if I’m running around the bases.

“I’m not so much worried around winning a stolen-base title anymore anyway, especially when you’re competing against a guy like Vince Coleman, who isn’t the hitter I am and has to run.

“When I first came up, people mentioned me only in relation to stolen bases. Now they talk of Vince Coleman that way and say of me that I’m an all-around player. I’d rather have it that way.”

This particular all-around player sets no goals but believes he will continue to improve, that having coped with the pressure of a batting race he now has an edge.

The Expos are starting to believe that they, too, have an edge.

Dawson is gone, but Raines is back. Catcher Mike Fitzgerald, sidelined since last August with a broken knuckle that required surgery, is playing again and shortstop Hubie Brooks, out since the start of the season with a broken left wrist, is expected to return soon. The starting pitching, devastated by injuries over the last two seasons, is still questionable, but has shown some recent improvement.

Re-signing Raines, however, was a key.

“We’d have struggled to stay respectable,” Rodgers acknowledged. “As far as getting to .500 or over, that was remote.

“Now, if we can straighten out our starting pitching, we feel we have as good a chance as anyone. We’re getting stronger. It’s time for the other teams to have the injuries we’ve had.”

Raines wears a gold medallion around his neck with the word Rock inscribed in diamonds. It’s a reference to his body, which is solid as a rock. His performance and personality are equally sturdy, which make the club owners’ posture of last winter that much more confounding. There was one benefit to it.

“I got more press last winter than in all the six years that I’ve been here,” Raines said. “Maybe that’s what I needed (in attaining some recognition). Maybe I’ll get it now, though I’ve grown not to worry about it, especially at this point in my career. I’ve got a lot of years left.

“If I perform like I should, it will come. Maybe not like it would have in L.A., but I’m used to that.”