CHICAGO — Andre Dawson says he sent a letter to baseball Hall of Fame chair Jane Forbes Clark asking to change the cap on his plaque from the Montreal Expos to the Chicago Cubs, a decision by the hall he disagreed with as soon as it was made over his objection 13 years ago.
“I don’t expect them to jump on something like this,” Dawson told the Chicago Tribune on Monday, the paper said. “If they elect to respond, they’ll take their time. And it wouldn’t surprise me if they don’t respond.”
Players could make the decision through the 2001 induction, and the hall took over the decision ahead of the 2002 vote. The change followed reports in 1999 that Tampa Bay offered to compensate the newly retired Wade Boggs if his plaque bore a Devil Rays logo. Boggs was inducted in 2005 and his plaque has a Boston Red Sox logo.
“We plan to speak to Andre but have not yet received the letter,” Hall spokesman Jon Shestakofsky said Wednesday.
Three weeks after Dawson was elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in 2010, the hall said it decided the plaque will have an Expos cap.
“I respect the Hall of Fame’s decision to put an Expos logo on my cap, and I understand their responsibility to make sure the logo represents the greatest impact in my career,” Dawson said then in a statement issued by the hall. “Cubs fans will always be incredibly important in my heart, and I owe them so much for making my time in Chicago memorable, as did the fans in Montreal, Boston and South Florida, my home. But knowing that I’m on the Hall of Fame team is what’s most important, as it is the highest honor I could imagine.”
However, on the day the hall announced its decision, Dawson told WMVP-AM in Chicago: “I’m disappointed,” adding: “I can proudly say that because Chicago was my preference.”
At the time of the decision, then Hall president Jeff Idelson said: “You want the logo to represent where this guy made his greatest impact. He was impactful in Montreal. He was impactful in Chicago, and to a much lesser extent Boston and Florida, but it’s more of a case sitting down and collectively make a decision.”
The hall said Dawson had 1,575 of his 2,774 hits with the Expos, won six of his eight Gold Glove awards in Montreal and led the Expos to their only postseason series win while in Montreal with a five-game victory over the Phillies in the 1981 NL Division Series. Idelson also said it’s the museum’s responsibility to “properly interpret the game’s history.”
Dawson played his first 11 seasons with Montreal, batting .285 with 225 home runs and 838 RBI. He was selected an All-Star three times and won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 1977. He played six seasons with the Cubs, where he won the 1987 NL MVP award after batting .287 with 49 home runs and 137 RBI. He also played two years each for Boston and Florida before retiring in 1996.