The Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame is planning to guage Andre Dawson’s request to vary the cap on his Cooperstown plaque from the Montreal Expos to the Chicago Cubs. Dawson has lengthy believed that Wrigley Area and the brilliant highlight across the Cubs helped energize and lengthen his legendary profession.
That preliminary alternative of the Expos emblem was made with out Dawson’s approval after the Baseball Writers’ Affiliation of America voted for his induction as a part of the Corridor of Fame’s 2010 class. Dawson not too long ago despatched a letter to Jane Forbes Clark, the chief of the Corridor of Fame’s board of administrators, asking for a evaluation of his plaque’s design, according to the Chicago Tribune. Dawson known as it a chance to “proper a mistaken.”
The Corridor of Fame intends to speak with Dawson as soon as the group truly receives his proposal, a Cooperstown official mentioned Tuesday, and will get the possibility to totally see what it entails.
“My desire all alongside was as a Cub,” Dawson informed Tribune columnist Paul Sullivan. “I had my causes, and I believe that ought to’ve been one thing we sat down and mentioned.
“It’s onerous for stuff to hassle me, to a level. However this has toyed with me over time for the easy cause that I used to be approached with the (announcement) that was going to be launched to the press that I used to be going to put on an Expos emblem. I didn’t agree with it on the time. However for me, stepping into the Corridor was crucial factor.
“Over time, I’ve thought of it extra and got here to the (conclusion) I ought to have had some say-so.”
Dawson, who was drafted by the Expos out of Florida A&M College in 1975, spent the primary 11 seasons of his 21-year major-league profession with Montreal. The unreal turf at Olympic Stadium battered his physique — 12 reported knee surgical procedures bolstered his fame as a tricky participant — and the Expos have been inoperative for the reason that franchise relocated after the 2004 season and rebranded because the Washington Nationals.
Dawson famously supplied the Cubs a “clean contract” throughout spring coaching in 1987, telling the staff to fill in his wage. This era of labor relations was marked by collusion amongst Main League Baseball’s homeowners. For $500,000 assured plus efficiency bonuses, Dawson produced 49 house runs and 137 RBIs for a last-place staff throughout that prove-it season, changing into the 1987 Nationwide League MVP.
That momentum carried into the following stage of Dawson’s profession as an enormously fashionable determine in Wrigleyville. He carried out at a excessive stage for the Cubs into his late 30s, spent two seasons with the Boston Purple Sox and saved taking part in for the Florida Marlins past his forty second birthday.
Disagreements are a part of what makes the Corridor of Fame a extra attention-grabbing establishment. The debates over who must be in and who must be overlooked — a subject sophisticated by the steroid period — are a part of the offseason dialog across the baseball trade. Greg Maddux felt extra snug with no emblem on the hat on his Cooperstown plaque as a result of the Cubs and Atlanta Braves had been each so necessary to his legacy as the most effective pitchers ever.
Dawson isn’t conflicted anymore, and he gained’t be fearful about any remaining Expos followers on the market. His feedback to the Chicago Tribune appeared to shock the Corridor of Fame, which is making ready for bulletins subsequent week round its modern period committee — Lou Piniella, Jim Leyland, Cito Gaston and Davey Johnson are among the many candidates for induction — and the Ford C. Frick Award that yearly honors an excellent baseball broadcaster.
“I notice there’ll in all probability be some backlash, however at this level I’m 70 years outdated,” Dawson informed Sullivan. “Do you suppose I actually care?”
(Photograph: Liv Lyons / MLB Images by way of Getty Pictures)
