In The Spotlight

Andre Dawson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his ninth try. He was the only player honored, as Bert Blyleven fell five votes short and Roberto Alomar finished eight shy.
Dawson received 420 of 539 votes in results announced by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, 15 more than the 75 percent necessary to gain election. The eight-time All-Star outfielder was 44 votes short last year. He was known for his excellence in right field, winning eight Golden Gloves.He will be only the second Expo in the Hall, along with catcher Gary Carter.

Despite his own preference to represent the Cubs, Andre "The Hawk" Dawson will be wearing a Montreal Expos cap in the Hall of Fame.This will certainly come as a disappointment to Cubs fans, who argue that the Hawk played his best baseball as a North Sider. He had undeniably his best year in 1987, his first season with the Cubs, hitting 49 homers and driving in 137 runs. He also won the National League MVP award  that season, despite the Cubs finishing last in the NL East, the first player from a last-place team to win that honor. While he spent longer with the Expos than Cubs (11 seasons versus six), he hit 174 home runs with the Baby Bears, only 50 fewer than he did in five more seasons with Montreal.

Did you know that Ted Williams and Andre Dawson are the only two Major League ballplayers to have hit a home run off a father/son pitching duo? Williams, know as "Teddy Ballgame" joined the club first when he went deep off Thornton Lee on September 17, 1939 then his son Don Lee on September 2, 1960. "The Hawk" became the second member when he went deep off Pedro Borbon on June 10, 1977 then off his son Pedro Borbon on August 16, 1995.

My Favorite Baseball Cards

Since I have Andre Dawson in the spotlight, I'll share with you my favorite Andre Dawson card.

1996 Pinnacle - Andre Dawson #86 - The 1996 Pinnacle baseball card set consisted of 400 baseball cards. Numbering for the 300 Series subset was based on player's career batting average. At that time, both Paul Molitor and Jeff Bagwell had identical career batting averages of .305, thus Pinnacle numbered both of their 300 Series subset cards as 305. Due to this quirky numbering, the set only runs through card 399, but actually contains 400 cards. Now at the end of his career he still has that fire in his eyes. Andre will never be mentioned in the same conversation along with baseball's greats. However, if you asked the guys he played with and against they would tell you that they would be proud to have him as a teammate. 

Recently a new product was introduced by LTL Prints. One of their product lines feature various Topps Baseball classic wax pack designs. Currently there 33 Topps baseball wax pack designs ranging from 1953 to 1985. The graphics can be removed and re-hung 100 times without damaging or leaving a mark on a wall. Prices for the graphics, which can be purchased on the LTL PRINTS website, range from as little as $14.95 to as much as $149.95 depending on the size of the graphic.

Who was more dominate in their specialty, Maury Wills stealing bases in 1962 or Babe Ruth hitting home runs in 1920? Here are the numbers:

• 1920: Babe Ruth hit 54 HRs in his first year with the Yankees, breaking his own record of 29 he set with the Red Sox the previous season. His 54 clouts surpassed the total of every other team in the American League and of seven of the eight teams in the National League. (The Philadelphia Phillies hit 64 playing in tiny Baker Bowl.)
• 1962: Maury Wills stole 104 bases to break Ty Cobb's single-season record of 96 set in 1915. Wills' total surpassed the SB total of every team in the major leagues. The closest to him were the Washington Senators, who pilfered 99 sacks. Maury's Dodger teammates stole 94, while the Cardinalsracked up 86.

Tell me which one you would chose and why.

FIRST TO…….

First Grand Slam: Roger Connor

On September 9, 1881, Connor hit the first grand slam home run in major-league history. He was playing with the Troy Trojans—a small franchise that was shut down one year later to form the New York Gothams (which then became the Giants). Connor was known as the 19th century’s home run king, and held the lifetime home run record of 138 before he was surpassed by Babe Ruth in 1921. Ruth would build on his total, holding the record of 714 career home runs for another 53 years. In 1885, Connor was one of the founders of the first sports trade union, the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players, which established the short-lived Players League to compete with the National League. Connor earned the nickname the “Oak”, for being unbendable, when, in 1890, he turned down a lucrative offer to rejoin the National League. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976.

DID YOU KNOW…….

Three times, members of the same team finished 1-2-3 in the MVP voting for their league.

1. 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers: 1B Dolf Camilli, CF Pete Reiser, P Whitlow Wyatt
2. 1959 Chicago White Sox: 2B Nellie Fox, SS Luis Aparicio, P Early Wynn – all three in the Hall of Fame
3. 1966 Baltimore Orioles: RF Frank Robinson, 3B Brooks Robinson, 1B Boog Powell – the first two in the Hall of Fame

All three teams, as you would expect, won the pennant. However, only he Orioles captured the World Series, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers four straight.