Herzog a reminder of what Dawson couldn't achieve with Cubs

The Cubs won the weekend series with the Cardinals but lost the past century to them.

The real measure of these franchises was reflected Sunday not in Wrigley Field but in Cooperstown, where each had a representative inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame.

Oh, why oh why did Andre Dawson have to be enshrined the same day that Whitey Herzog was?

Dawson, as professional an athlete as there ever was, went in wearing a Montreal Expos cap on his plaque. However, his greatest notoriety came as a Cubs right fielder from 1987-92.

Herzog, as smart a manager as there was in his or any other era, went in essentially for his work with the Cardinals from 1980-90.

Dawson and Herzog are equals now as fellow members of the Hall of Fame, but that wasn't the case for their teams during their respective careers or the last hundred years.

(Come to think of it, just mentioning these two rivals in the same sentence is sort of like clumping together the Gateway Arch and Rod Blagojevich as civic treasures.)

Anyway, the Cubs enjoyed one winning season during Dawson's six in Wrigley Field, had one playoff appearance and finished an average of 15 games out of first place.

The Cardinals had six winning records during Herzog's nine full seasons, were a combined 105 games over .500 and won three pennants and a World Series.

The Cubs featured some Hall of Fame players the past 50 years, from Ernie Banks to Billy Williams to Fergie Jenkins to Ryne Sandberg to Dawson. Yet not a single one played a single World Series game in their uniform.

The Cardinals are known as much for winning managers like Herzog, Red Schoendienst and Tony La Russa as for Hall of Fame players like Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and Ozzie Smith.

Each of those men won a World Series. Brock and Bruce Sutter, a Cooperstown closer, became champions after going from the Cubs to the Cardinals.

Dawson and Herzog fit right into the respective histories of these two franchises.

Dawson overcame bum knees to reach the Hall, yet the best he could do with the Cubs was win one lonely playoff game.

Herzog said in his induction speech that he hated that the Cubs signed Dawson and brought him into the Cardinals' division, but it didn't seem to matter much.

Take the '87 season: Dawson won the league's MVP award on a last-place finisher, but Herzog won the pennant.

Clearly the Cardinals are where great managers go to win a World Series and the Cubs are where great players go to not win one.

If the Cubs hired Herzog in 1980 he likely would have been fired after a couple years before going somewhere else to demonstrate his genius.

If the Cardinals signed Dawson in 1987 his career likely would have been shortened by Busch Stadium's artificial turf but only after he showcased his talent in a World Series.

The Cubs haven't won a championship since all the way back in 1908 and the Cardinals haven't since, well, all the way back in 2006.

Not surprisingly, while Herzog was in St. Louis the Cubs had 11 actual or interim managers, six of which Dawson played for.

So thanks to Whitey Herzog, even Andre Dawson's glorious moment Sunday was another reminder of the Cubs' futility.