The National Baseball Hall of Fame is considering Andre Dawson’s request to change the logo on his plaque from the Montreal Expos to the Chicago Cubs, reports The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney.
Dawson, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010, recently sent a letter to Jane Forbes Clark, the head of the Hall of Fame’s board of directors, making his case for the change. It’s worth noting that since 2001, inductees have not had the ability to choose their hat logos, following concerns that teams were influencing these decisions during contract negotiations. While there were rumors about players like Wade Boggs being swayed by such negotiations, Boggs himself denied these claims.
However, Andre Dawson had no input on the logo that appeared on his Hall of Fame plaque.
Dawson expressed his frustration with this decision, saying, “It’s hard for stuff to bother me, to a degree. But this has toyed with me over the years for the simple reason that I was approached with the announcement that was going to be released to the press that I was going to wear an Expos emblem. I didn’t agree with it at the time. But for me, getting into the Hall was the most important thing. Over time, I’ve thought about it more and came to the conclusion I should have had some say-so … I personally feel my mission, for the rest of my life going forward if that’s what it takes, is to right a wrong.”
During his 21-year career, Dawson spent the majority of it with the Expos. However, he believes that his career took a significant turn for the better when he joined the Chicago Cubs in 1987. Over the next six seasons, he had impressive stats, including a .285 batting average, .327 on-base percentage, .507 slugging percentage, and 125 OPS+. He hit 174 home runs and contributed 18.8 Wins Above Replacement during that period. Dawson also won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1987 and made five of his eight All-Star Game appearances as a Cub.
Dawson received 77.9% of the vote in 2010 when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, and it was his ninth year on the ballot.