Dawson wants no part of Cubs jersey discussion

You'll have to forgive Andre Dawson for laughing about all the nonsense surrounding his Hall of Fame cap and the Cubs' supposed reluctance to retire his jersey number.

"You're talking to the wrong guy," Dawson chuckled Tuesday morning. "I don't have any real say in any of it."

Obviously, Dawson wants to be represented in a Cubs hat, but the Hall of Fame believes he should be wearing an Expos cap on his Hall plaque or the call would have been made already.

Give the Hall of Fame credit for considering Dawson's request, which is why nothing has been announced after a week of deliberation.

The Hall doesn't need Dawson's permission to pick the Expos, so you have to think they're going out of their way to try to make a case for the Cubs here, since that's what Dawson wants.

The problem is, players in the past are rumored to have sold their cap preference to a particular team, and that's why the Hall took that choice away from the inductees about a decade ago.

Either way, Dawson's done worrying about it.

"I can't, at this point, let it upset me. I have a preference, but it's up to the Hall of Fame," Dawson said from his home in South Florida. "They're taking their time, but I think they already have in mind what they're gonna do."

As for the report that the Cubs would retire his number only if Dawson's Hall plaque has a Cubs cap, he's not pleased with the position that puts him in.

"That doesn't make me look very good," said Dawson, who is scheduled to meet Tom Ricketts Friday night during the Cubs Convention. "It makes me look like I'm politicking for something when I didn't ask for anything from the Cubs.

"The hat is for Cubs fans. I wanted that for them, not for the Cubs or for a jersey. I don't want them to do me any favors because I want a Cubs hat. That's for the fans. That's all that is."

Knowing the Hall of Fame and how sacred they consider these decisions, the Cubs didn't help their cause by letting this story get out before a decision was made in Cooperstown.

Any hint of a quid pro quo and the Hall won't wait a moment to slap an Expos cap on Dawson.

"I believe their motivation at the Hall is to get it right," Dawson said. "I hope this Cubs (jersey) thing doesn't affect their decision."

If Dawson doesn't sound particularly shocked by Cubs politics, that's just his personality, which also explains his calm reaction to the Mark McGwire steroid news of Monday.

"It didn't even phase me," Dawson said. "I was doing some cardio when I looked up at the TV, and I was like, 'Oh, well.'

"All that stuff is getting to be a joke now."

What's not funny is the timing of the steroids era, which cost Dawson nine years of waiting for a Hall of Fame call after his numbers were obliterated by performance enhancers.

"I guess you can get lost in the shuffle of the whole era, because you get passed on the ladder and as guys go by you're not viewed the same way," Dawson said. "Your numbers are highly regarded, and then they're not because of what happened.

"I think it played a role in how long it took (to get voted in)."

And Dawson hopes voters will now take a look at some other players of his generation who've been lost amid the freakish stats that have been produced in the last 10 or 15 years.

"I played with and against a lot of great players who are considered bubble guys or borderline guys or not at all, like Tim Raines and Dale Murphy and Dave Parker, just to name a few that come right to mind," Dawson said. "You wonder where they'd be in the vote if not for this era of statistics.

"And there's a lot of pitchers that got hurt by that, too. It had a tremendous impact on the numbers. To what degree, it's hard to determine, but I think guys did it for the numbers and to make more money.

"It's just a shame what they did to the game."

brozner@dailyherald.com