Dawson hopes it's finally his year to get call
Andre Dawson is not making the mistake so many have made before him.
So there will be no family or friends, no cameras or reporters, keeping him company Wednesday afternoon when he just might receive a call informing him he has been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
"I think this is probably my best window, but I don't want to get anyone's hopes up," Dawson said Monday from his home in South Florida. "I'm not going to have a bunch of family at the house because I don't want them to be disappointed.
"I can handle it, but you don't want people there who are gonna be hurt."
While the business of forecasting these elections has become increasingly difficult in the last decade, it certainly would appear as though Dawson will either sneak in this time, or come so close that the following year's a lock.
The good news is the highest-ranking holdover - which in this case is Dawson - usually gets in the next year, and the odds are even better when there's no monster, first-year candidate.
In the last 40 years, only four players received as much as Dawson's 67 percent of the vote (2009) and weren't elected shortly thereafter, and those four all made it in through the Veterans Committee.
And every single player in the last 25 years who has been the highest vote-getter without being elected eventually got in, usually the next year, and only three through the Veterans Committee.
"I'm hoping this year is the year,'' said the 55-year-old Dawson, who's on the ballot for the ninth time. "I don't really understand why it's taken so long, but a lot of great players have had to wait seven or eight years and they don't feel any less a Hall of Famer once it finally happens.
"Am I optimistic? Yeah. Confident? No," Dawson laughed. "I can't say confident, but I am hopeful."
Of the new players on the ballot, you would think Roberto Alomar will make it on his first try, and holdover Bert Blyleven (62.7 percent last year) is inching closer, but he's got only two more chances after Wednesday's announcement.
Dawson will have six more opportunities should he fall short this week.
"Alomar is definitely a Hall of Famer," Dawson said. "You just never know if he's gonna get in on the first ballot."
With no 90-percent, first-ballot types, it helps Dawson's cause, as voters usually look to the last ballot for clues, and Dawson's name stands out.
But even if it happens, don't look for cartwheels from a man who has had more than a dozen knee surgeries and one replacement.
"That's not the reason why I played the game," Dawson said. "I'm most proud of my longevity considering my knee problems, and that longevity allowed me to put up some numbers that put me into categories where people start to mention your name with some of the great players in the game's history.
"Once that started to happen, you start to think about it a little bit and people start to talk to you about it, but I never focused on it."
Dawson obviously doesn't need this in his mind to vindicate what was a great career, certainly of Hall of Fame caliber, but even someone as proud as "the Hawk" understands the meaning of Cooperstown and its history.
"Being recognized as one of the greatest to do a job, if that happened, I can't really say what it will feel like," Dawson said. "Something like that only happens once in a lifetime, and until that moment, I can't even imagine.
"It will mean a lot, even though it's lost some of the luster over the years because of so much anticipation and so much letdown.
"It would be bittersweet, too, because of three key people who aren't here anymore.
"I hope I can hold up when I talk about them, because they're the reason this is important to me. They wanted this for me so much."
Dawson's mother passed away a few years ago, as did his grandmother and an uncle who made it as far as Double-A in the minors.
"My mom always said it would happen, that, 'they can't keep it from you.' But she's gone three years now and that really hurts," Dawson said. "My uncle was the one who really inspired me to play baseball and always believed that I could make it.
"Without them, I don't know how it's going to feel."
Nevertheless, Dawson is poised to make the ultimate journey to the Hall of Fame, and it really seems to be a question of this year or next.
So once again, the anticipation is excruciating as he awaits Wednesday's announcement.
"I'm OK, I guess," Dawson said. "I'm kind of getting nervous, but it's more a feeling of wanting to know one way or another.
"You just can't try to guess because you never know about this thing. That's the only thing I know for sure is you just don't know for sure."
brozner@dailyherald.com
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