Andre is Elected to HOF with 77.9%, Congrats Hawk!!!

Congratulations Andre on your long awaited and deserved call to the Hall!

For 21 seasons you gave baseball and its’ fans your heart and best effort when you stepped onto the field. Now that effort will be immortalized among baseball’s greatest for all-time.

I congratulate and thank the BBWAA voters for making the right decision; albeit one that should have been made sooner, but a decision that Andre, his fans and baseball deserve.

What makes it the right decision?

The right decision for Andre because he was truly one of the best during his time in baseball. He achieved greatness in his career by winning the NL Rookie of the Year in 1977 and NL MVP in 1987, winning 8 Gold Gloves, winning four Silver Slugger Awards, and being one of only three players to amass at least 400 home runs and 300 stolen bases.

The right decision for his fans because now everyone can recognize Andre the way we have for the last 8 years since he has appeared on the ballot, as a Hall of Famer!

The right decision for baseball because one day I’ll be able to show my child Andre’s display at Cooperstown and be able to tell him, “Andre played the game right, reciprocated the respect fans and peers showed him and played through the pain of his knees to become one of the game’s greatest.”

Now, isn’t that good for baseball, to have Andre in the Hall of Fame to serve as one of baseball’s great examples of how hard work and persistence pays off?

Congratulations once again Andre, you’ve earned the honor of being called a Hall of Famer!

If you would like to congratulate Andre on this achievement and his career, leave a comment below and I’ll send it to him.

1991 - A Special Season for The Hawk and Myself

The 1991 season was supposed to be the year the Cubs broke the curse and won the World Series (That's every year to a Cubs fan). With the newly acquired George Bell batting behind Andre, the Cubs were a likely favorite with three former MVPs in the line-up (Dawson, Bell and Ryne Sandberg). However, the Cubs finished with a disappointing 77-83 record, finishing 4th in the NL East. While the Cubs didn't enjoy much success in 1991, Andre did.*

Andre made his eighth and final appearance in the All-Star game, his fifth straight appearance since joining the Cubs in 1987. He finished the first half of 1991 tied for most home runs in the NL with 15 and was sixth in RBI with 52.**

What made 1991 special for me was that I got to attend the final game of that amazing first half. The game was July 7 at St. Louis; we drove from Oklahoma to see it. My family planned our summer vacation entirely around that game, so it was a big deal.

The Cubs won the first two games of the series. In the game on July 6th, Andre went 3 for 5 with a home run and a double to drive in 3 RBIs; Cubs won 12-2. I was hoping he would save some of that offense for the game we would attend the next day.

We brought our home made signs to the game, rooting for the Cubs to sweep the Cards. Of course, we got heckled by the home team fans, but I didn't let that damper my opportunity to see my first Cubs game live and my favorite player in action too.

Andre had one hit that night in four at-bats, but that one hit was a two-run home run. It was a deep left/center field shot off of Ken Hill in the 3rd inning.

The Cubs lost that game 8-7. The game was my first and last time to see Andre play and he didn't disappoint. Sure the Cubs lost, but even at the age of 12 I realized how special it was to have your favorite player come through for you with a home run.

A couple of days later he hit a solo shot over the center field wall in the All-Star game at the Skydome. The blast came in the fourth inning off of Roger Clemens; NL lost 4-2.***

He capped the season off with his fourth Silver Slugger award. It was most deservingly considering he hit two of his six career grand slams that season and his two pinch-hits in 1991 were both home runs.****

Andre finished 1991 with:*
Games - 149
Home Runs - 31 (4th in the NL)
RBIs - 104 (6th and accomplished back to back 100 RBI seasons)
Stolen Bases - 4
Hits - 153
Runs - 69
Avg. - .272
Total Bases - 275 (9th)
AB Per HR - 18.2 (7th)

What's your Andre Dawson memory? Please share with a comment!

* www.baseball-reference.com
** 1991 Upper Deck
*** www.wikipedia.org
**** 1992 Upper Deck

Andre Dawson by the Numbers

Baseball is relatively an easy game to understand. Two opposing teams get three outs per inning to try to make something happen in order to manufacture runs. After nine innings the team with the most runs wins.

Baseball statistics and how those statistics were evaluated in order to determine if a player should be in the Hall of Fame used to be that simple.

It's crazy all of these new sabermetric statistic-formulas that people have came up with that are now being used to evaluate eligible players for the Hall with. I’ve been reading articles where writers, some of whom are HOF voters, that have been using these type of statistics on why they won’t vote for Andre, “Andre’s win shares are too low,” or “his OPS+ isn’t as high as I would like.”

Win shares? OPS+? Whatever happened to just saying, “This player has X home runs, X runs batted in, X hits, X Gold Gloves, etc.”? “Man, those are great numbers, of course player X is a Hall of Famer!”

Numbers, not formulas.

I understand that win shares and OPS+ and other complicated formula statistics like that have their place in modern baseball, but let’s look at statistics and numbers that everyone can understand when determining how to vote for Hall of Fame candidates.

Here are some numbers on Andre that I believe BBWAA voters should consider:

1 – NL MVP (1987) and NL ROY (1977)
2 – NL MVP Runner-Up (1981 and 1983)
3 – Only three players have at least 400 HRs and 300 SBs, Andre being one of them.
4 – Silver Slugger Awards (1980, 1981, 1983 and 1987)
8 – Gold Gloves and All-Star Selections
118 – Sacrifice Flies (10th all-time)
143 – Intentional Base on Balls (50th all-time)
314 – Stolen Bases
438 – Home Runs (36th all-time)
503 – Doubles (48th all-time)
1,039 – Extra Base Hits (24th all-time)
1,591 – Runs Batted In (34th all-time)
2,774 – Hits (45th all-time)
4787 – Total Bases (25th all-time)

I could keep throwing more numbers at you, but let’s keep this simple.

Leave the formulas to the BCS system in determining the National College Football Championship and vote for one of the best all-around players ever to play the game into the Hall in 2010!

Source - www.baseball-refernce.com

A Closer Look at Andre's 1983 Season

In 1983 unemployment in the US rose to 12 million, highest total since 1941 (sound familiar?), the final episode of M*A*S*H aired setting a record of 125 million watchers, and The Hawk was setting records of his own for the Montreal Expos.*

I've mentioned it before in a previous post that in my opinion, Andre's 1983 season was probably his best all-around offensive season. So good that I think we should revisit that season with a closer look.

Here's the numbers The Hawk put up that year in 159 games:
32 - HRs, 113 - RBIs, 189 Hits, 104 Runs, .299 Avg., 25 SBs, 36 2Bs, 10 3Bs, 341 TBs

What stands out about these numbers and that 1983 season?

1. Was the first Expos to have at least 30 HRs, 30 2Bs, 100 RBIs, and 100 Runs in a season. Only two other players in Expos/Nationals franchise history have achieved this, Vladimir Guerrero and Ryan Zimmerman.

2. Led the league that year in hits, total bases, sacrifice flies (18), extra base hits (78) and hit by pitch (9). Finished 10th in batting average, 2nd in slugging %, 3rd in runs, 5th in doubles, 3rd in triples, 3rd in homeruns, 7th in times on bases and 6th in at-bats per homerun (19.781).**

3. Set single-season club records at that time for home runs (32, now seventh), RBI (113, now fourth), extra base hits (78, now seventh), and sacrifice flies (18, still first)***

4. Had to expand his trophy case in the off-season after winning his fourth consecutive Gold Glove and third Silver Slugger awards. Almost added an MVP trophy as well, coming in 2nd in voting.

1983 was just one of several seasons that made Andre a Hall of Fame caliber player. But, no other season I think was a better indication of the 5-tool player he was and how dominate he was in the early 80s.

* www.thepeoplehistory.com
** www.baseball-reference.com
*** www.wikipedia.org