For every jubilant call received by a new member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, there's someone waiting by a phone that just won't ring. This year that person is Andre Dawson, who received 361 votes, 43 shy of the number he needed for election. He shouldn't fret too much, however, as there's only been one player, Gil Hodges, who ever got more than 60 percent of the vote and didn't get elected. Matt Snyder did an excellent job of laying out the relevant arguments about Dawson this morning, particularly that it is very difficult to justify a vote for Jim Rice, who got in today, and withhold one from The Hawk. We won't go over them again here, except to say that I'm not enamored of either man's candidacy.
Instead, we'll use this space to argue that voters are supporting the wrong Montreal Expo of the 1980's. Dawson was a fine player, Tim Raines was a better one. Raines reached base 503 more times than Dawson over the course of their careers, which may be expected because his career on-base percentage was 60 points higher than Dawson's. Dawson was a better power hitter, to be sure, but the face that OBP is more important that slugging is a dead issue at this point in time.
A facet of many arguments for Dawson is that he added speed to his power. His 314 stolen bases are a strong number, not as strong as Raines' 808, but pretty strong. Did you know, however, that Raines was only caught stealing 37 more times, in more than 500 more attempts, than Dawson? That's a staggering number.
Rob Neyer makes a strong point about Dawson and Raines today. He posits that Dawson's 1987 MVP award may be the reason why he's left Raines in the dust among voters. But, as Neyer points out, Raines scored 123 runs that season and was one of several players who turned in a better season than Dawson, despite missing a month as a result of owners colluding against free agents.
One day soon Dawson will be getting that happy phone call and we'll all congratulate him. Let's just hope he remembers his more deserving teammate when he gives his speech at the induction ceremony.
