May be a nominee for the Hall of Fame today.
In todays age of tainted players and statistics, we need to take a long hard look at the Hawk.
He played before the chemical home run. He played with more heart than I remember seeing any other player in the years of my youth, before baseball became a punch line, and before shots in the ass replaced shots to deep right.
I think of him as one of the most feared hitters of the late 80's, and a durable consistant hitter in the earlier years of his career.
He hit 49 home runs when 49 home runs was a phenominal acheivement, not something every team had.
He played because he loved to play. Not because he wanted the big paycheck. His attitude on the game would have given Scott Boras a heart attack.
In today's day and age we expect 500 home runs some some reason before considering for the HOF. Andre has 438, too few for the numbskull sportswriters that have not adjusted expectation for inflation over the last 15 years of so.
How about how pitchers felt pitching to him in 87, 88, 89? How about how he was the MVP of a last place team? How about how he played, the attitude he played with? How about his career .482 slugging percentage? How about that .279 average? He had a career OBP of .323 (By the way, Alfonso Soriano has a career OBP of .327, and he's a 17 million dollar leadoff man.)
Let's get behind Andre Dawson. Let's hope that the sportswriters can still appreciate what homegrown statistics look like. Let's give the man the award that he deserves.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

438 is good, but not great
.279 is fairly average for a guy with good but not superior power
.323 OBP is below average

He was a great player but not a hall of famer

If he played his career as a Yankee, or Oriole, or even more as a Cub, he would be a lock. But remember he was putting up simply phemonenal numbers in the MLB exile that was Montreal. He also had one of the best arms we have ever seen in the outfield, and his defense out there was second to none for quite a few years.

I think he's an HOF'er.

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I saw an article yesterday about Tim Raines and they had the same argument on him - his best days were in Montreal where no one cared.

I like Rock, but Dawson > Raines

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Montreal worked fine for Gary Carter.

I still love the argument that dawsons numbers were inflated because he played at Wrigley. That is such crap. If everyone who played at Wrigley had inflated numbers they would have won a world series by now.

Looks like he was 14 short.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

That I agree with. I was aiming at Frank and Hawkeyes comment. Should have quoted, still figuring out this whole technology thing.

He still has one more year right?

I think he has a lot longer than one year. Not sure how many, but it's gotta be more than that.

Then he's got the veterans committee, and Joe Morgan can have a shot at him.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014