About the Back: As you can see, Andre never walked more than 44 times in a single season, which was a sticking point in his Hall of Fame case for many baseball writers and analysts.
Triple Play:
1. Dawson's athleticism was severely hampered by more than a dozen knee surgeries, the first of which took place after a high school football injury.
2. Frustrated by the collusive acts of MLB owners prior to the 1987 and unwilling to accept a pay cut to return to Montreal and its artificial turf field, "Hawk" showed up at the Cubs' spring training facility insisting that he would sign with the team on a blank contract, leaving it up to the ballclub to fill in the dollar amount. That's how the Cubs landed the 1987 National League MVP for $500,000 base salary and an additional $200,000 in bonuses.
3. While playing alongside each other in the Expos' outfield, Andre and Tim Raines forged a friendship. Dawson reportedly helped his teammate overcome a cocaine addiction. In gratitude, Tim named his second son Andre Darrell Raines.
11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I wish I'd seen Dawson play in his prime. I only witnessed him as a creaky designated hitter in Boston and a pinch hitter for the Marlins.
Bill James Said: "He needs 370 more hits to reach 3,000, which looks like a thousand." Andre scraped out 144 more hits in 613 at-bats before retiring in 1996.
On This Date in 1993: Righthander Domingo Jean picks up his first - and only, as it would turn out - career win with seven innings of two-run, five-hit ball as the Yankees top the Royals 7-2. Combined with Toronto's 4-1 loss to Randy Johnson and the Mariners, the victory puts New York just one game behind the first-place Blue Jays in the American League East.
His knees may have gone south, but his arm never did.
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