Baseball Hall of Fame

The Expos live on. The Hawk is in.

The powerful centerfielder who played half of his career in Montreal found his way into Cooperstown after nearly a 10-year wait today.

Dawson received enough voted to vault past the 75% plateau needed to make the cut.

It was a proper selection.

Dawson was not only one of the best players of his generation, but he provided a mix of spectacular skills, including power, speed and defensive instinct.

Here's a rundown of Dawson's accolades:

It’s not often that we Cleveland fans have something to be proud of.

We’re the Mistake on the Lake; the city so dirty that our river caught fire, and so stupid that we didn’t learn our lesson the first time it happened.

A baby born the day the Indians last won the World Series would now be 61 years old. It’s been 56 seasons since we've had an MVP trophy to put on the mantle.

What must a player do to enter the Hall of Fame? Let’s look at a player’s resume without the name attached.

He must have won awards; they tell us he was among the best in his era.

Rookie of the Year in 1977. National League Most Valuable Player in 1987—on a last place team. Eight-time All Star, eight-time Gold Glove winner, four-time Silver Slugger.

With the official balloting results set to be announced January 6, I decided to make my predictions at how this year's MLB Hall of Fame voting will shake out. This is not necessarily how I would vote, but instead a prediction of what I think will happen. Let's look at the ballot.

The First Timers:
Roberto Alomar, Edgar Martinez, Barry Larkin, Andres Galarraga, Fred McGriff, Mike Jackson, Ellis Burks, Pat Hentgen, Robin Ventura, Kevin Appier, Eric Karros, Ray Lankford, Shane Reynolds, David Segui, and Todd Zeile.

I love January, it's a start to a new year or in this case a new decade and it's the start of a new class for the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

The most sacred place in all of baseball is Cooperstown, every one wants to be there but only the best of the best are allowed in.

This years ballot will consist of fifteen new names along with the eleven that got over 5% of the vote last year.

I, like every baseball fan, wish I had the ability to vote, but I don't, so I can't vote for my ten guys, but I can make a slideshow of them.

I will rank from the least deserving (10) to the most (1).<

It is getting close to that time of year again. Time to roll out Bert Blyleven, blow the dust off Andre Dawson and look at the cast of newcomers to the National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.

The first year nominees are Roberto Alomar , Kevin Appier, Andy Ashby, Dave Burba, Ellis Burks, Andres Galarraga, Pat Hentgen, Mike Jackson, Eric Karros, Ray Lankford, Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez, Fred McGriff, Mark McLemore, Shane Reynolds, David Segui, Robin Ventura, Fernando Vina, and Todd Zeile.

Is there anything more American than baseball?

We all have our memories of the first game we attended as a child. How massive the ballpark looked, how green the grass was, and the connection that we felt with the thousands of fans cheering for the home team. It is something that we carry with us for the rest of our lives.

I would like to introduce you to Tom Hickey.

I know that many Cubs fans can't separate their heart from their head when it comes to MLB's Hall of Fame. From Ron Santo to Andre Dawson, Cubs fans everywhere let their fan loyalty cloud their judgement.

And that's okay. In fact, it is to be expected. But, as usual, I stand alone as a die-hard Cubs fan (since birth) who is not only willing but able to separate fact from fantasy.

More on Santo later. The main premise of this article is The Hawk, aka Andre Dawson.

From what I’ve seen, the case that Edgar Martinez’s fans have cumulatively assembled to argue for him as Hall of Famer almost exclusively mentions only his statistical accomplishments as a hitter, gauged by both the traditional metrics and the advanced, sabermetric kind.

But of course it is people, not assemblages of statistics, who stand as candidates for the Hall of Fame, and that seems to be part of Edgar’s problem.