Andre's "HOF Cap" announced

[ryno4ever]

Just got a "tweet" from Dave Kaplan... the HOF decided that The Hawk will go into the HOF as a Montreal Expo. :(

Andre Dawson will be going into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a member of the Montreal Expos, the Tribune has learned.

Dawson, who played the first 11 seasons of his major league career with the Expos, signed a blank contract to play with the Cubs in 1987 and promptly won the National League Most Valuable Player Award after hitting 49 home runs.

After attending the annual B.A.T. banquet in New York Tuesday night, Dawson sent the following text to The Tribune:

"Hall will issue a press release (Wednesday) announcing that I will go in as an Expo."

Dawson was the only player selected for the Hall of Fame in 2010 by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Dawson famously signed a blank free-agent contract with the Cubs during spring training of 1987. Cubs general manager Dallas Green filled in the contract with a modest $500,000 figure for the 1977 NL Rookie of the Year.

Dawson later told me: "If I had to do it all over again, I probably would do it the same way. It was just a matter, for me, of going somewhere that I knew I would enjoy the game and be a little more respected from a management standpoint. I couldn't have picked a better place. I always loved daytime baseball and I always enjoyed playing in Wrigley Field."

Dawson had made it clear earlier this month to the Tribune that he preferred going into the Hall of Fame on July 25 in Cooperstown, N.Y., as a Cub.

"I will probably have a preference, but again I will respect their decision," he said then. "I feel that (the decision) is probably going to be based on the history of the game. (The Hall of Fame officials) made it obvious when they sent the letters out to us before the announcement...and I respect that."

Dawson will join catcher Gary Carter as the only members wearing Expos hats on their plaques

[Bockstock]

Eh, I think the hall got it right.

[LeeEila's/rant]

How's that ? Anyone who remembers the Montreal franchise would think they don't deserve to be remembered . A weekend game attendance in Montreal would make a weekday Marlin's game looked packed. They never supported baseball and should be forgotten as a bad dream.

The more i think of the HOF the more I believe it is ran by a bunch of dumb-asses that have no clue on how to market and improve the image of their product. They let veterans play games with their votes , they still let only the corpse of print media be the only vote , and have a hard time keeping itself connected to MLB and modern media.

[Doba]

stupid....it should be up to the player I say.

[Bockstock]

How's that ? Anyone who remembers the Montreal franchise would think they don't deserve to be remembered . A weekend game attendance in Montreal would make a weekday Marlin's game looked packed. They never supported baseball and should be forgotten as a bad dream.

For someone as anti-Selig and baseball establishment as you are, I can't believe you think it's all on Montreal.

http://progressiveboink.com/archive/expos.htm

Dawson's numbers with the Cubs are NOT hall of fame worthy, and his numbers are much, much better as an Expo. In fact, if we compare them to a player with similar offensive expectations (1b), they are far worse than Derrek Lee's, and I'm sure nobody on here is clamoring for Derrek Lee to go into the HOF.

The reason Dawson's numbers were better as an Expo were because of the position he played there (cf) versus the one he played here (rf).

I want to see history written correctly. No, I really don't care too much for the HOF, I think you know what I think about the media and sports writers, but if they do it, do it unbiasedly and do it by the numbers. Sometimes fan and player opinions are as idiotic as the medias.

[LeeEila's/rant]

Fans write the checks to the HOF and they are always last . It is a stupid business plan and if it was not millionaires involved in it , I am certain it would have already collapsed. The players have already made it a popularity contest , so what would it hurt to put fans in the loop.

My plan is simple . All credited media baseball celebrities ( for what that is ) , sit in a senate and votes on nominees for the hall. Then you have another group of fans randomly selected from attendees , who volunteered are allowed to vote for one of these candidates. You would give people reasons to attend and link the hall directly to the fans and give them a feeling being more involved.
( of course it will just be an illusion because much like your typical third world elections , if you control the candidates you control the outcome. )

As for Dawson's numbers in Chicago verses Montreal , more people saw what he did in Wrigley. It is much like " if a tree falls in a forest , ,, , does it make a sound ? "

[Bockstock]

As for Dawson's numbers in Chicago verses Montreal , more people saw what he did in Wrigley. It is much like " if a tree falls in a forest , ,, , does it make a sound ? "

Judge a player solely by his abilities and his numbers compared against other players of his time and his position.

If you're trying to bring market bias(size) into it, I'm not buying it. That wouldn't make it any different than the All-star game, which is a pile of @#$@#.

I would say the success of the teams he played for should be a larger weighting factor than the size of the fanbase, and the Expo teams he played on had far more success than the Cubs teams he played on.

Half the fans he played for in Chicago don't even recognize how mediocre his overall numbers were here as a RF.

And @#$@# the fans opinoins, most of the time they are even more fickle the media.

[Mike]

I think it would be to much pressure on the player to pick the hat they wear in the HOF, they can plead ignorance now and not take any flack from the fans and maybe that's the best.