Andre Belongs, Just Compare His 162 Game Average!

It’s no big secret that Andre played most of his career in pain due to his knees. Because of that he was usually limited to less than 150 games a season. In fact, in his 21 seasons, he only played 150 games or more 6 times.

If you look at his 162 game average statistics compared to several Hall of Famers, he is right on par with them. For the purpose of this post, I chose 6 similar batters: Billy Williams, Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield, Eddie Murray, Tony Perez and Willie McCovey.*

Dawson: 27 HRs, 98 RBIs, .279 Avg., 19 SBs, 171 Hits, 85 Runs, 6 seasons of 150+ G
Williams: 28 HRs, 96 RBIs, .298 Avg., 6 SBs, 177 Hits, 92 Runs, 13 seasons of 150+ G
Jackson: 32 HRs, 98 RBIs, .262 Avg., 13 SBs, 148 Hits, 89 Runs, 6 seasons of 150+ G
Winfield: 25 HRs, 100 RBIs, .283 Avg., 12 SBs, 169 Hits, 91 Runs, 10 seasons of 150+ G
Murray: 27 HRs, 103 RBIs, .287 Avg., 6 SBs, 174 Hits, 87 Runs, 16 seasons of 150 + G
Perez: 22 HRs, 96 RBIs, .279 Avg., 3 SBs, 159 Hits, 74 Runs, 9 seasons of 150+ G
McCovey: 33 HRs, 97 RBIs, .270 Avg., 2 SBs, 138 Hits, 77 Runs, 4 seasons of 150+ G

I think it should be noted that Jackson, Winfield and Murray spent more than double the amount of games in the DH position than Andre: Jackson – 630, Winfield – 419, Murray – 573 and Dawson – 171.

Andre loved playing in Chicago and for the Wrigley faithful. You can’t fault him for that, but if he had moved to the AL earlier in his career than 1993, can you imagine the numbers he might have put up offensively? I don’t think we would be having this conversation on whether or not he should be in; he would be in first or second ballot!

Regardless, he belongs in the Hall with the rest of those guys mentioned above!

*www.baseball-reference.com

Shedding Some Light on the Wrigley Myth....

Recently I've came across a few articles on different baseball sites stating that Andre's batting numbers were enhanced by playing in Wrigley Field and that's why he shouldn't be in the hall of fame.

Two thoughts:

1) I guess these authors are exhausted writing about players who used performance enhancing drugs that they've moved onto finding reasons to keep honest players out of the hall of fame.

and

2) That these authors clearly did not look at Andre's statistics. It is obvious that he not only put up majority of his numbers, but also some of his best outside of Wrigley Field.

I can prove this very simply with three quick facts....

Fact#1: He played the first 11 seasons of his career in Montreal versus 6 as a Cub.

Fact#2: His career high in runs (107 in 1982) and hits (189 in 1983)came as an Expo.

Fact#3: 253 of his career 314 stolen bases came as an Expo.

Other than his 1987 season as a Cub I would argue his best all-around seasons were as an Expo. Even though it pains me to say that as a die-hard Cubs fan, but the numbers don't lie.

EXPOS
1982 - 23 HR, 83 RBI, .301 AVG, 39 SB, 183 Hits, 107 Runs
1983 - 32 HR, 113 RBI, .299 AVG, 25 SB, 189 Hits, 104 Runs

Don't get me wrong though, the day Andre goes into the Hall, I hope it is in a Cubs jersey!