Hawking the Hall

There's been an extraordinary amount of debate lately as to whether Andre Dawson truly belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame (he's set to be inducted this summer). On the one side, you have people saying that, while, yes, the Hawk indeed was an excellent ballplayer, he isn't quite a Hall of Fame performer (and, yes, they're definitely opposed to our lowering the bar any more than it already has been). On the other side, you have people saying that Mr. Dawson definitely has the credentials to be there and, hence, he should in fact be elected..............................................................................................My opinion, folks, is that, yeah, you gotta let him in. I mean, I definitely understand the whole lowering of the bar thing and all but, seriously here, don't you think that it might be a little bit too late to stuff the genie back in the bottle now? I ask you, how do you let in Billy Williams, Tony Perez, Willie Stargell, Jim Rice and others but not let Mr. Dawson in?........................................................................................And it's not like the guy produced crappy numbers. I mean, seriously, get a load of these stats (all of them garnered well before the steroid era); 1,373 runs scored, 2,774 hits, 503 doubles, 98 triples, 438 homers, 1,591 runs batted in, and 314 stolen bases. Yeah, his lifetime batting average is a little bit low (.279). But, even here, it's higher than a lot of other guys who did make it (Ozzie Smith, for instance). And Dawson was phenomenal fielder as well. The guy racked up 8 Gold Gloves and sported a .983 lifetime fielding average (better than such luminaries as Clemente, Mays, and Aaron). And he did all of this during a career in which he was constantly hobbled by injuries. I mean, seriously, can you imagine how much better these numbers would have been if he didn't have to undergo those, count 'em, 12 knee surgeries?..........................................................................................But let me give you another reason why we need to put him in. During a regular game with the Dodgers, Dawson got beaned by the opposing pitcher (an incident that ultimately cost him 24 stitches). He was hurt so bad that he wasn't able to charge the mound. That didn't represent a problem, though. This, folks, in that every single one of his teammates did it for him. Now THAT is some serious leadership. Like I said at the top of this, put him in already.