|
 So ‘The Hawk' Andre Dawson will be going into the Hall of Fame as a Montreal Expo. Congratulations to both Andre and the Washington Nationals?
Look, I'm 87 years old. I was at Lou Gehrig's farewell speech as a young boy. I know a Hall of Famer when I see one and Dawson is not a Hall of Famer. I don't care how you slice and dice it and it doesn't matter what metrics you use, Andre Dawson IS NOT a Hall of Famer! Is he better than other guys who have gotten in? Sure he is, but that doesn't justify putting him in.
The rational that if you made previous mistakes, that it's ok to continue making further mistakes, is the most illogical logic that can possibly be argued.
Dawson was a very nice offensive player and played for quite a long time. Ultimately, both his offense and defense suffered because of his knees. His knees created many problems for him the most obvious one to the fan watching was that the once fleet footed Dawson could no longer run like he once did.
I've long contended that Dawson only had one Hall of Fame year 1987, and possibly two if you want to include 1983 (although that's a stretch.) Even under the assumption that he did in fact have two Hall of Fame Quality years, the notion that two HOF years plus a compiling career and decent defense gets you into the HOF is mindboggling.
Defensive Argument
I've heard quite a few arguments that he was an exceptional defender and that needs to be considered. I agree defense should count; however Roberto Clemente he was not. In fact, while with the Expos, although he threw extremely well, he had only the second best arm in his own outfield as Ellis Valentine on his own team and Dave Parker were the Carl Furillo's of the league at the time.
 How can you possibly THIS BODY OF WORK and tell me that he was a once in a generation impact player. When they created the Hall of Fame, wasn't that what it was for? How do you place a picture and bust next to these guys and tell me that they meant the same thing to baseball?
The MLB Hall of Fame has become so watered down that they are going to have to make two separate wings, one for the once in a generation impact player's and once for the other All-Stars. There has to be some way, some classification between the players like Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Willie Mays etc. that made the HISTORY OF THE GAME and other players that were simply All-Stars.
Consider this, Andre Dawson played for 21 seasons. If you take his cumulative stats and divide them by the number of years he played (not the average of a 162 game season, he never did that), ‘The Hawk' averaged:
- 21 Home Runs
- 76 RBI
- 15 Stolen Bases
- 65 Runs Scored
- .279 Batting Average
- (Additionally he was awarded 8 gold gloves of the 63 awarded to NL outfielder during his time playing.)
Those are Hall of Fame Stats? For you kids playing Fantasy Baseball, he's probably be a 3rd or 4th round pick!
The argument was made on this site that he shouldn't be in the HOF when the announcement was made see below). I have been stewing about this ever since. I don't speak up much but I couldn't hold it in any longer. At 87 years old, that's not a good thing to do. Today's revelation that watered down HOF will be accepting him as an Expo only compounded the problem as his one awesome year as a player came as a Chicago Cub.
The Hall of Fame has been somewhat of a theme topic lately on this site. Here are some other recent articles on the topic you may have missed. - John Manfrede
John is 87 years old and our Official Baseball Historian.
If you haven't voted in our poll on the site yet please do so. We are trying to get a feel for how our readers are looking at the game of MLB so we can write about things they want to hear. The poll question is, "Do you think that MLB should have a salary cap or something similar?" - Please vote.
Have a Fantasy Football or Rotisserie baseball question? Want to know who to pick up, who to activate and who the hot prospects are? Ask Dr. Roto. Let Dr. Roto guide your team to a league championship.
 
 |
Really, his last three years and his first year only add up to a season (and you can't punish him for playing as long as he wanted, nor for getting limited time before his first full rookie year).
Dawson is one of only three (pretty rare air) in the 400-300 club, has 8 Gold Gloves, 4 Silver Sluggers, a Rookie of the Year and a MVP award. While I respect the argument he doesn't belong, I think it's hyperbole to act like we're inducting Joe Carter here.