look_what_andre_dawson_foundIf I had told you earlier in the week that in a class featuring Barry Larkin, Roberto Alomar, Bert Blyleven, and Edgar Martinez would be on their first-ever Hall of Fame ballots and none of them would have made it in on the first try, you first thought might have been, “Baseball? We’re talking baseball in January?” But seriously, all those dudes got hosed, and the one guy to get in? Andre Dawson.

Playing in an era when hitting 20 home runs meant you were a power hitter, Dawson topped 20 homers 13 times. He drove in 100 or more runs four times. And he hit better than .300 five times. Not bad for a five-tool player who won eight Gold Gloves and is one of three players who has 400 home runs and 300 stolen bases. –Chicago Sun-Times.

Some people say that the aforementioned guys were left off the ballot because they weren’t “first-ballot” guys, even though Blyleven just barely missed getting his own plaque–on his 13th try. Whatever. It’s a museum. You don’t see the stegosaurus crying about how he didn’t get into the Smithsonian. Probably because they’re all dead. And couldn’t hit for average to save their lives, either.