Dawson for the Hall

Voting results for the Hall of Fame will be announced tomorrow and consensus expectations are that Goose Gossage will get the call with Jim Rice and Andre Dawson on the bubble with a chance to get the necessary votes.

Now, I'm too young to remember much about Gossage or Rice, but I am going to take this opportunity to cast my vote for Andre Dawson. Now, I will confess to some amount of bias because he was on the Cubs in the late 1980's when I really started getting into baseball. I liked to mimmick his batting stance when playing tennis-court baseball. The Hawk was intimidating to opposing pitchers and gave his all on the field, including both knees.

Back then I liked him simply because he was a great player on my favorite team. He won the MVP award for a last place team in 1987, hit 49 HRs, drove in 137 runs and took 24 stitches after getting beaned in the face by Eric Show in a July 27th game.

Nowadays, I like Dawson not only because he was a great Cub, but as I have discovered, he was a great player his whole career - one worthy of being in the Hall of Fame. Below are the most convincing statistics and comparisons I have come across.

Let's start with the stats:
438 HRS - everyone ahead of that number on the career list except Dave Kingman is either in the HOF, not yet eligible, or has been implicated in the steroid era.
1,591 RBIs - same comment as HRs, with Harold Baines swapped for Dave Kingman
2,774 Hits - same comment as for RBIs

Now let's combine some stats to put him in some elite company
- Along with Willie Mays and Barry Bonds, he is one of only 3 players with over 400HR and 300SB
- The first man with 12 straight seasons of double-digit HRs and SBs

During his career, from 1976-1996, the leaders in HRs were:
1)Eddie Murray, 2)Mike Schmidt, 3)Andre Dawson, and 4)Dave Winfield (those other three are all in the HOF).

During his career, from 1976-1996, the leaders in RBIs were:
1)Eddie Murray, 2)Dave Winfield, 3)Andre Dawson, 4) George Brett, and 5)Cal Ripken Jr. (those other four are all in the HOF).

Now let's do awards: Andre Dawson won 8 gold glove awards, was an 8-time All Star, 4-time winner of the Silver Slugger, and won the 1987 MVP while finishing 2nd in MVP voting two other times (1981 and 1983).

So, there it is. The numbers speak for themselves, especially the way I have presented them. But there are two more tidbits I'd like to mention about The Hawk. This is a man who even after he had finished 2nd in two MVP votes and at 32 was still in the prime of his career, went to the Cubs spring training camp in Arizona during 1987 and handed them a blank check and told them to fill it in so he could play for them. As baseball owners are known to do, they screwed him and only gave him a $500K contract with limited incentives for making the All-Star team, starting the All-Star game and winning the MVP. Well, he went out and did all three that year, earning him the big contract he deserved.

Finally, the best 2nd baseman of all time and one of the greatest Cubs ever to wear the uniform personally endorsed Dawson for the Hall in his own HOF acceptance speech. I quote:

" Andre Dawson, the Hawk. No player in baseball history worked harder, suffered more or did it better than Andre Dawson. He's the best I've ever seen. Stand up Hawk. The Hawk. I watched him win MVP for a last place team in 1987 and it was the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen in baseball. He did it the right way, the natural way and he did it in the field and on the bases and in every way, and I hope he will stand up here someday."

You said it, Ryno.