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Sports Articles by the staff>
The Hawk Soars Into Baseball's Hall of Fame
January 9, 2010
by Budd Foxx
Andre Dawson- The Hawk- has entered Cooperstown. He now has to be considered one of the greatest to play the game, ever. But is he? There is no doubt the Hawk was a great baseball player. He was rookie of the year back in 1977 with the Montreal Expos. Granted there wasn't much competition for the award that year, what with the likes of Floyd Bannister even getting a vote as a pitcher with an 8-9 record and over 4.00 ERA. Steve Henderson and Gene Richards don't exactly ring a bell as being great baseball players either, and they each received ROY votes. But Andre was great. But if Andre was great, what does that make Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, and Cy Young, to name a few. Those players were elite. And to me, that is what the baseball Hall of Fame should be, a shrine to the baseball gods.
George Herman Ruth- the Great Bambino, the Babe, the King of Crash, the Colossus of Clout, the Titan of Terror- was a baseball god. He's a legend. He made more money than the president of the US one year. He had a candy bar named after him. He was belting 60+ home runs's a season on a steroid-less diet of hot dogs, cigars and beer. The number of nicknames alone tells you he is a hall of famer. Joe D. had a 55 game hitting streak, probably one of the few records in all of sports I don't see being broken, ever. But how is the decision made as to who gets to enter the HOF? Should Pete Rose be allowed? Arguably the best hitter ever, surpassing 4000 career hits. Yet he bet on baseball when he was a manager of the Reds. This is keeping him out of the HOF. Should it? As a baseball player, there is no doubt that he deserves to be in the hall. But the HOF is also about contributions made to the game, and he did tarnish the game for a while, so for now, he is out.
I believe one day he will be in the hall, no doubt in my mind some commissioner will let him in down the road. The problem for Pete, though, is that he will unfortunately probably be dead when they let him in. Just like Roger Maris was dead when the then commissioner made the rule allowing him to be undisputed home run king for a single season, despite playing more games than the Babe.
Should Roberto Alomar be allowed? He put up some great numbers, but he spit on an umpire's face. Should A-Rod, who if he retired today would have enough numbers to enter the hall, but who admittedly took steroids; although he took them when it wasn't banned by baseball? How about Slammin' Sammy Sosa, a pill popper, and bat corker. Barry Bonds, Raffy Palmeiro, Marc McGwire?
All Juicers! All eligible on their numbers alone, but they tainted the game. They also brought in a lot of revenue for baseball and helped rejuvenate the sport that was dying after the 1994 strike season. Fans came to the park to watch these guys belt homers every 4 at bats, but those same fans who complain baseball is boring, it's too long to sit through, theres not enough runs scored, these same fans are now the ones arguing to keep these cheaters out.
But back to Dawson. The guy played the game clean. He won a few Silver Slugger awards, some Gold Gloves, made the all star team regularly, was the Rookie of the year, MVP one year beating out the likes of the Wizard Ozzie Smith, Strawberry, Tim the Rock Raines, Mike Schmidt, Dale Murphy, and Tony Gwynn. Besides that one breakout 49 HR season, he only had one other season where he hit 30+ home runs. He wasn't close to hitting 500 homeruns for his lifetime, usually considered a magic number for entering the hall. Was a few hundred hits shy of 3,000, another magic number for entering the hall. Only had a couple seasons with 100+ RBI, and that was 100, 104, and 113. He made the post season 3 times, getting 11 hits, with 0 home runs, and only 2 for extra bases, and 3 RBI. The Hawk was a great player, but by no means was he elite. And as much as I like Andre for playing hard, playing for bad Montr?al and Chicago teams no less, I just dont think its fair for him to be in a club with guys like Ruth, Nolan Ryan, Tony Gwynn, and the players who really only come around once every 50 years or 100 years, or once in a lifetime. The more that these good-great players enter, it weakens the lore. It doesn't, to me, make it seem like a real honor anymore. To me, guys who deserve to be in there are guys who are no doubters. No doubt in anyone's mind they belong in there. Guys who changed the game like Robinson, hit more home runs than other teams combined like Ruth and Cobb, struck out 5000 batters like Ryan, or have an award named after them like Young and Hank.
It took the Hawk 9 times to enter. What do you do, just keep trying each year and getting rejected until finally a new set of voters lets you in? If you cant convince a committee to let you in the HOF after 8 times, you really dont belong in there. Keep the hall small. If you dont let people in for a few years at a time, so be it, thats what makes it special. But having Ruth, Gehrig, Mays, Aaron, Robinson, Ryan, Young, Dawson, Gwynn, just makes absolutely no sense to me at all mentioning his name among the rest. Not entering based on outside factors like gambling or steroids is another moral issue. That is more subjective based. But based on numbers and awards and championships alone, the Hawks, while great, just doesnt belong.
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