Andre Dawson Steals His 300th Base September 22, 1990

On this day in Baseball History September 22, 1990: Andre Dawson of the Chicago Cubs steals his 300th base off of Ron Darling and Mackey Sasser of the New York Mets. The 300th stolen base is significant since it allowed Dawson to join Willie Mays as the only players to have hit 300 home runs, 300 stolen bases and 2000 hits.

Dawson hit his 300th home run against Ron Darling of the New York Mets on April 23, 1989 and gets his 2,000th hit against pitcher Jim Clancy of the Houston Astros at the Astrodome August 18, 1989.

Dawson would retire at the end of the 1996 season. He would be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010 with 78% of the vote (420/539 ballots).

Since Dawson joined Mays on the 300 Hit, 300 Stolen Base, and 2000 hit club, a number of other players have joined them. Who are they? I'll keep that one in the bag for a future post.

Until Then Keep Playing Ball,
Baseball Sisco
#baseballsisco
#baseballsiscokidstyle

For Further Reading:
- Click here to access Andre Dawson's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com
- Click here to access the article '89 brought milestones, playoffs for Dawson by Carrie Muskat from MLB.com dated June 21, 2010
- Click here to access the article 1990: Andre Dawson of the CUBS stole his 300th base in an... from the Chicago Tribune dated September 22, 2004
- Click here to access the post Andre Dawson by Dan D'Addona for the SABR Baseball Biography Project
- Click here to access the blogpage Hawk 4 The Hall

Pete Rose Played With 11 Hall of Famers

In an interview yesterday with Dan Patrick, Pete Rose spoke on a number of subjects. Once subject that piqued my interest was based in a comment that he made. Here is the quote:

“I know nobody that played with me took steroids,” he said. “I played with 11 Hall of Famers and played against 52 Hall of Famers, and I don’t know any of them linked to steroids.”

Now that got my wheels a-turning. Who are these 11 Hall of Famers that Rose played with. Consider this, Rose played from 1963-1986 (ironically the same number of years that he has been suspended).  In thinking about which teams he played with I came up with 7 definite answers. Here are the ones I got off the bat (in that order):

Johnny Bench
Joe Morgan
Tony Perez
Mike Schmidt
Steve Carlton
Tom Seaver
Frank Robinson

When I asked Pete for his input, aside from my first five answers, he gave me this one:

Barry Larkin

Now that makes 8. So I decided to think about who he played with on Montreal while with the Expos that became Hall of Famers. Andre Dawson came immediately to mind but I was unsure if Dawson signed with the Chicago Cubs before or after 1984. After checking the trusty Baseball Reference.com Dawson did in face play with Rose in Montreal as well as Gary Carter. That put us at 10.

Here is where it gets tricky. We were absolutely stumped. I went and checked every year that Rose played and looked to see who his teammates were and found a player who had a cup of coffee with the Philadelphia Phillies in the form of 6-at bats during the 1981 season. Any guesses? It was an 18-year old Ryne Sandberg. Bringing the list to 11.

Now I'm going to sound like an infomerical: Wait!!!! There's more. I'm going to add a 12th Hall of Famer. Now Pete didn't play with him but played for him: Sparky Anderson was the manager of the Big Red Machine.

So there you have the list. Maybe if I'm feeling up to it I'll try to deduce who were the 52 Hall of Famers that Pete Rose played against....Maybe ;)

Until Then, enjoy the clip of the interview Pete Rose did with Dan Patrick on July 25, 2013:

Sisco Kid

The Forgotten Franchise

With Andre Dawson’s election to the Hall of Fame this past in January there has been a bit of a renaissance of Baseball’s forgotten franchise: Les Expos de Montréal (1969-2004). Who can forget Randy Johnson with his full frame in the powder blue Expos uniform before he was traded to the Mariners. And how about Pete Rose getting his 4,000 hit in front of close to 48,000 fans in Olympic Stadium. Both Gary Carter and Andre Dawson laid the foundation to their Hall of Fame careers on the artificial turf in Montreal. Tim Raines stole bases in bunches while with the Expos. El Presidente equaled El Perfecto with the Expos. Pedro Martinez blazed his way into the record books in Montreal while the "Impaler" Vlad Guerrero, Moises Alou and Larry Walker were decimating opposing pitching staffs hitting any balls they saw come their way in Le Stade Olympique with the Expos. In the most painful of images, who can forget the images of the Felipe Alou team that was running roughshod over the National League in the lost season of 1994. I can go on and on.



Now you Seattle Pilots fans might say “Hey, what about the Pilots” and you guys and gals could have a point but let me tell you why the Expos are the forgotten ones. The Mariners have worn Seattle Pilots uniforms as their throwback uniforms though the Pilots have nothing to do with the Mariners. For those of you who don’t know, the Pilots played the 1969 season in Seattle before going broke and were moved to Milwaukee by a group lead by current Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig for the 1970 season. The Pilots became the Brewers who replaced the Braves who moved to Atlanta in 1966. So, they aren’t truly forgotten since the Mariners give them recognition and the Brewers also recognize their roots as the Pilots. This is not the case for the Montreal Expos.

The Expos left Montreal after the 2004 season, relocating in Washington D.C. as the Nationals. Major League Baseball recognizes the lineage of the Nationals but here is the rub, the Nationals don’t. As far as the Nationals go, their team came to exist the moment they played their first game as the Nationals. I guess since it is their franchise they can do what they please but to be fair to baseball fans and historians, the Expos should be recognized. So here are my two cents on the Expos.

Sure the Expos never made a World Series and made the post-season a handful of times but nothing should be taken away from that franchise. The Expos were the first franchise that the MLB established outside of the borders of the United States and was only the 3rd National League expansion franchise after the New York Mets and the Houston Colt 45‘s/Astros in 1962..Though their language and customers were different, the city of Montreal gave Baseball a truly unique flavor. It was in this vein that I want to give you a peek of what Baseball in Montreal was like at the end from the mouth of my baseball brother Pete Sophy.

Pete is a lifelong Philadelphia Phillies fan who attended a couple of baseball games in Montreal during the 2004 season. Now unlike the tragic season of 1994 where the Expos were on top of the Baseball world playing in front of a total of 1,249,576 fans, leading the major leagues in victories (74-40) until the strike ended their hopes of a World Championship, the Montreal Expos Pete saw were in a much different shape. Read on to see what I mean.

Wanting to visit as many major league ballparks as possible, I decided to drive to Montreal during the summer of ‘04 to see my beloved Phillies play the Expos . Knowing 2004 was the “swansong” season for the Expos and Olympic Stadium, I traveled solo because my window for travel was very narrow. Upon arriving in Montreal, I drove directly to the stadium and walked up to the box office. The place was like a baseball morgue. I purchased 2 tickets for consecutive nights. The seats were located directly behind the Phillies dugout and the price for both tickets were a whopping $39 dollars (U.S.). The whole transaction lasted about 2 minutes, probably because I was the only human anywhere near the buying side of the box office.

The game was a surreal but enjoyable experience. I sat with Philly fans that seemed to “out shout” and “out knowledge” the Frenchies. There may have been 3000 paying customers sitting in primo seats that you know they didn’t pay for, except for this one loner Expos fan in the deep right field stands. This guy displayed the cavernous loneliness an Expos follower might have endured during these dying days. He would yell and scream Anti-Philly chants, he would stomp his feet, clap his hands, chortle, guffaw, and the entire crowd heard everything, I was amazed, entertained and also a little sad.

The food was not standard baseball fare. The florescent pink mystery frank had a weird sort of coleslaw piled over the meat and buns that when you ate this French mess your teeth would resemble Jaws after devouring Quint. My memory betrays me as far as details go on the other “cuisine” but I remember thinking the signs for French Fries were redundant because we were in Montreal.

I practically had my own food vendor and service was not a problem. I think Youppi doubled as the beer guy for some extra scratch. Youppi was pretty nice, not as funny or clever like the Phanatic, and he (or she) mixed it up with the Philly guys.

The Phillies won both games and it was well played, well pitched Baseball. The second night was pretty much identical to the first. The same Philly fans attended, I ate the same weird food, the guy in the right field stands yelled the same obscenities, Youppi was hovering and the overall experience will be forever missed.

So when Andre Dawson is enshrined to the Hall of Fame this upcoming summer and you see that fancy looking “M” on the cap on his plaque, you know what it symbolized and why they should never be forgotten.

For Further Reading:
- The Sports Encyclopedia page on the Montreal Expos
- Check out Chris Creamer's Montreal Expos' page for cool looks at logo, symbols and uniforms of the Expos.
- Tyler Kepner's NY Times article titled Montreal Expos, Forgotten by Many, Are Reuniting in Cooperstown dated January 7, 2010

2010 Hall of Fame Ballot

January 6th is the day that the voting results for the 2010 Hall of Fame candidates are announced. Before I list who my predictions for election are, let me describe what the conditions are for eligibility. Candidates must have completed 10 full major league seasons and be retired for 5 full seasons. Once eligible, candidates must receive a minimum of 5% of the vote in order to stay on the ballot for the next year. The player need to amass 75% of the vote for induction into the Hall of Fame and upon receiving the minimum 5%, the player is allowed to stay on the ballot for 15 years before moving onto the ballot for the Veterans Committee. Now that we have that out of the way, here are the main candidates for election.

2009 Candidates (With previous years percentage of the vote. Bold is 1st year on Ballot)
Andre Dawson 67%
Bert Blyleven 62.7%
Lee Smith 44.5%
Jack Morris 44%
Tim Raines 22.6%
Mark McGwire 21.9%
Alan Trammel 17.4%
Dave Parker 15%
Don Mattingly 11.9%
Dale Murphy 11.5%
Harold Baines 5.9%
Roberto Alomar
Andres Galarraga
Barry Larkin
Edgar Martinez
Fred McGriff
Robin Ventura
Other Candidates

Here are my predictions for who will get in this year:

1. Andre Dawson:
The Hawk has steadily climbed up the ladder since he first received 43.5% of the vote in his first year of eligibility. At 67%, Dawson is in prime position to get the remaining 8% needed for induction. In 21 season, Dawson had a career batting average of .279 where he amassed 2774 hits (513 2B, 98 3B, 438 HR) and 1591 RBI with 314 SB. In terms of modern metrics, Dawson had a career OBP% of .323 and a SLG% of .482 for an OPS of .806. His best season was his MVP season of 1987 with the Chicago Cubs where he led the league with 49Hr 137 RBI and 353 total bases. Dawson also registered his career best OPS of .896 (.328 OBP and .568 SLG). Dawson was the Rookie of the Year in 1977 with the Montreal Expos, a 7-time All-Star, 8-time Gold Glove award winner and also won 4 Silver Slugger awards.

Tim Kurkjian of ESPN.com has an article on why Andre Dawson should be elected to the Hall of Fame. Click here.


2. Roberto Alomar
In his 1st year of eligibility, Roberto Alomar was the model of consistency at both second base forming one of the best double play combinations (with future Hall of Famer Omar Vizquel) and at the plate. In 17 seasons, Alomar had a career batting average of .300 where he amassed 2724 hits (504 2B, 80 3B, 210 HR) and 1134 RBI. In terms of modern metrics, Alomar had a career OBP% of .371 and a SLG% of .443 for an OPS of .814 and had 474 SB. His best season was 1999 with the Cleveland Indians where he came in 3rd in the MVP race batting .323 with 182 hits (40 2B, 3 3B, 24 HR) and 120 RBI and led the league in runs scored with 138. That season Alomar also had an OPS of .955 (.442 OBP and .553 SLG). Alomar was a 12-time All-Star, a 10-time Gold Glove award winner and also won 4 Silver Slugger awards.

Barry M. Bloom of MLB.com has this article on Roberto Alomar and his hopes for a 1st ballot election. Click here.

Alomar helped to lay down the foundation (along side future Hall of Famer Jeff Kent) for the slugging 2nd basemen such as Dan Uggla and Robinson Cano. The only way I see him not getting in on his first try would be his time with the New York Mets. On track to break 3,000 hits, Alomar's career tanked (compared to his past seasons with Toronto, Baltimore and Cleveland) and just faded away playing his last season with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox. Many a current Hall of Famer had diminished numbers at the end of their careers. They were elected in, as should Roberto Alomar.

3. Barry Larkin
Also in his 1st year of eligibility, Barry Larkin was one of the two premier Shortstops in the National League (along with Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith). In 18 season, Larkin had a career batting average of .295 where he amassed 2340 hits (441 2B, 76 3B, 198 HR) and 960 RBI. In terms of modern metrics, Larkin had a career OBP% of .371 and a SLG% of .4444 for an OPS of .815. His best season was his MVP award season of 1995 with the Cincinnati Reds (who he played his whole career for) batting .319 with 158 hits (29 2B, 6 3B, 15 HR) and 66 RBI with 51 SB. That season Larkin also had an OPS of .886 (.394 OBP and .492 SLG). Larkin was a 12-time All-Star, a 3-time Gold Glove award winner and also won 8 Silver Slugger awards.

Mark Sheldon of MLB.com has an article stating how Barry Larkin helped to redefine the Shortstop position. Click Here.

I believe that if Larkin had played in an era where he wasn't behind Ozzie Smith year in and year out, there would be no doubt as to whether or not he's a Hall of Famer. Ozzie had the glove, but Larkin had the bat to go along side his leather.

Honorable Mention
4. Edgar Martinez
In his first year of eligibility, Martinez is the player that may finally put an end to the Designated Hitter bias that exists throughout baseball. Considered by many as the Best DH in the history of the game (the award for the best DH is named in his honor), I believe Martinez to be a Hall of Famer since he was asked to do a particular job as a ballplayer and did it as well, if not better than everyone else. The fact that he did not play defense on an everyday basis seems to be his Achilles heel but no one can dispute that as a DH, he was stellar. In 18 seasons, Martinez had a career a career batting average of .312 where he amassed 2247 hits (514 2B, 15 3B, 309 HR) and 1261 RBI. In terms of modern metrics, Martinez had a career OBP% of .418 and a SLG% of .515 for an OPS of .933. Martinez also walked more (1283) than he struck out (1202) further cementing his status of a dependable hitter, His best season was the memorable 1995 season with the Seattle Mariners where he came in 3rd in the MVP race batting a league leading .356 with 182 hits (52 2B, 0 3B, 29 HR) and 113 RBI and led the league in runs scored with 121. That season Martinez also had an OPS of 1.107 (league leading .479 OBP and .628 SLG). Martinez was a 7-time All-Star and won 5 Silver Slugger awards.

David Schoenfield of ESPN.com has written this article making his points for why Edgar Martinez should be in the Hall of Fame. Click here.

I think baseball's traditionalists and snobs within the Baseball Writers Association lack the foresight to see past the fact that Martinez was a DH. He was more than that. Martinez was a player that was asked to do a job, and he did it not only to the best of his capacity but also better than anyone else. In my book if you can do all that is asked of you and put up impressive numbers to back it up, then you have proved your worth as Edgar Martinez has. We'll see what the election results show.

I think the rest of the candidates for election will get the necessary 5% of the ballot to remain eligible for next years election with Bert Blyleven moving to the top of the list. PS, after today's announcement of the retirement of 303 game winner Randy Johnson, there will be no doubt who gets in 1st ballot in 2015.

Later FH.