Dawson Elected To Baseball's HOF, Alomar Falls Short

Sports News - January 6th, 2010 - Written By John

After years of toiling at his home, fearing the worst, Andre Dawson was finally elected to baseball's Hall of Fame on Wednesday, and will be inducted into the 2010 class later this year.

Dawson was one of several holdovers from previous balloting, but was the only player eligible to to be voted in this year. He received a 77.9-percent approval when players need only 75, getting 420 votes out of 539. The news came as the outfielder was put on the ballot for the ninth time, and he beat out first-timers Roberto Alomar, Barry Larkin and Edgar Martinez.

"He's probably my favorite teammate ever for a lot of reasons, but mainly because he played the game right," former Chicago Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg told ESPN. "To see what he had to go through to play the game on those knees: first to the park, last to leave. But once the game started, you would have never known he had bad knees because he played so hard. His numbers speak for themselves, but as far as character, integrity and professionalism, he's at the top of the class in all of those categories."

Holdover Bert Blyleven seems to be gaining steam on his quest for an induction, but fell .8 points shy of making it.

But the stunner of the day was the fact that Roberto Alomar, one of the greatest second baseman to ever play the game, failed to reach baseball's mecca in his first year of eligibility. He only received 73.7-percent of the vote.

Earlier in the week, even Alomar felt calm about his chances to reach the Hall on his first-ballot.

"I'm positive that it's going to happen this year," Alomar told ESPN on Tuesday, the day before the balloting was counted.

He was one of the 15 first-time nominees this year after being selected to 12 All-Star games, and finished with a career .300 average, 2,724 hits, 210 home runs, 474 steals and one very foolish incident in which he spit in the face of umpire John Hirschbeck after a strikeout. The pair have since said they have made amends, and are even friends, but that one moment may have spoiled Alomar's chance of a first-ballot induction. He came 38 votes short.

"That's not me. Everybody knows who I am. It was one stupid moment that happened to me when I played," Alomar said. "The main thing is I accepted my mistake. We are all human, and I went to John and apologized to him. And we're both great friends. Out of something bad, something good happened. We have a great friendship."

Despite fluttering in previous ballots, Dawson was clearly a MLB Baseball Hall of Famer and deserved to get in for years. He was a rare combination of power, speed and defense in the 70s and 80s, being only the third player in baseball history with 400 homers and 300 steals.

He had 2,774 hits, 1,591 RBI and 438 homers with the Cubs and Expos, which are numbers that have gotten 11 other players into the Hall.

He won the Rookie of the Year award in 1976, and later won the league MVP in 1987. That was the year he lead the NL with 49 homers and 137 RBI.

The Hall of Fame induction ceremony in July 15th