Andre Dawson is making baseball history again.
He’s one of the elite 354 players, managers, umpires, and executives to share a home at 25 Main Street in the hamlet of Cooperstown. On July 25, 2010, Dawson, a veteran of 21 MLB seasons, was welcomed along with Whitey Herzog and Doug Harvey as the Hall of Fame’s newest class.
It was his first 11 seasons spent with the National League’s Montreal Expos that took Dawson to superstardom. Multiple All-Star Game selections, several Rawlings Gold Gloves won, three Silver Slugger Awards, and being named the National League Rookie of the Year in 1977 added up to making Dawson remembered as an Expo in the Hall of Fame’s Plaque Gallery.
It was in his next six seasons (1987–1992) spent with the Chicago Cubs where Dawson’s game went to the next level of play; a higher level of success. In 1987, Dawson’s first season at Wrigley Field on the city’s North Side, he won the National League MVP Award. The 49 home runs clubbed and the 137 RBIs collected were attention-getters for Dawson at his new baseball home.
Statistically, Dawson’s time spent with the Cubs was a career best. In his final four seasons with the Boston Red Sox and Miami Marlins, Dawson’s performance in the batter’s box and on the field clearly demonstrated a player whose skills were declining.
In his ninth year on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Hall of Fame ballot, Dawson corralled 77.9 percent, which surpassed the necessary 75 percent for election. At the time of Dawson’s election, Hall of Famers didn’t have the option that they do now in having input on having a blank hat, logo-free. Although players and managers have input on the logo of their liking, ultimately, it was the Hall of Fame that made the final decision.
Four years after Dawson’s welcome to Cooperstown, the Hall of Fame changed course. In 2014, the Hall of Fame began offering the option to inductees of a blank cap on the plaque. When players, such as Dawson, who excelled with multiple clubs, were torn between who they wanted their careers best remembered with, a blank cap was a problem solver.
In a statement released by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum earlier this week, Dawson’s request was granted, and for the first time ever, a plaque will be recast.
“The Hall of Fame Board of Directors voted unanimously to provide Andre Dawson with the option of having no logo on his Hall of Fame plaque, which will be recast to reflect his wishes,” said Jane Forbes Clark, chairman of the board of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. “The decision gives Andre a choice that he would have taken if it had been available when he was elected in 2010, just four years prior to the formal implementation of that alternative.”
Upon hearing the news of the Hall of Fame’s ruling, an elated Dawson expressed his appreciation to MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian on March 12.
“I always felt that I was a Cub in the Hall of Fame. I just had the ‘M’ on the cap,” Dawson said on Wednesday. “That’s what I always related to. That’s where my heart was, even though I was six years a Cub. It means everything. It means I finally had the opportunity to provide my input.”
All the Baseball Hall of Fame plaques are created at Matthews International based in Pittsburgh. Since 1983, Matthews International has exclusively manufactured the bronze plaques. Since 2016, Cincinnati-based sculptor Tom Tsuchiya has been charged with capturing each baseball legend’s likeness in fine detail.
The more than two years of conversations between Dawson and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s board of directors to have the plaque recast have come to a close. Among those Hall of Famers who have chosen to have a logo-free hat on their plaque are Greg Maddux, Mike Mussina, Jim “Catfish” Hunter, and Roy Halladay.
With Dawson no longer being exclusively recognized as a Montreal Expo, the former National League franchise that operated between 1969 and 2004, there are only two inductees (Tim Raines and Gary Carter) with the red, white, and blue “M” on their Hall of Fame plaques.
When contacted on Monday by The Epoch Times for an update on when Dawson’s new plaque would be completed and hung in the Hall of Fame’s first-floor gallery, a spokesman said: “There is no timeline yet but we should know soon.”
