Andre Dawson Charity Autograph page

Note: A letter has been sent on April 25, 2008 to this athlete to provide their contact and charity information. Once we receive their response, their information will be entered below. This has been done to ensure that the information is correct and to protect the athlete's privacy in case they do not want their information to be posted on the Internet.

Contact Information (where autograph requests should be mailed to):

Contact Person and/or Name of Organization _____________________________________________

Address: __________________________________________________________________________

Charity Information:

Name of charity or charities the donations go to __________________________________________

Signing Habits:

1) If you sign items for free, what are the maximum number of items you will sign for free? ___________

4) What can fans do to make it easier for you to sign their items? __________________________________________________________________

Donation Charges:

Item	Price	Item	Price
Cards		Flats up to 8x10
Flats up to 16x20		Baseballs/small footballs
Magazines		Flats larger than 16x20
Mini Helmets		Football/Basketball
Large Helmet		Bats
Jerseys		Inscriptions
Other _________		Other _________

Who should the check/money order be made out to: __________________________________________

Andre Dawson's Message to the Fans

Biography

Andre Nolan Dawson (born July 10, 1954, Miami, Florida) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder. In 1975, he was drafted by the Montreal Expos and made his major-league debut on September 11, 1976. In 1977, Dawson hit .282, with 19 homers and 65 RBI, and was named NL Rookie of the Year.

Dawson, whose nickname was "The Hawk," played 1443 games with the Expos, 4th highest in franchise history. As an Expo, Dawson set single-season club records for home runs (32, now 7th), RBI (113, now 4th), Extra Base Hits (78, now 7th), and Sacrifice Flies (18, still 1st). He still holds the Expos' career record for Sacrifice Flies (71), and is the only player to hit 200 home runs and steal 200 bases with Montreal.

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Outfielder
Born: July 10, 1954 (1954-07-10) (age 53)
Miami, Florida
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 11, 1976
for the Montreal Expos
Final game
September 29, 1996
for the Florida Marlins
Career statistics
Batting Average .279
Home runs 438
Hits 2,774
Teams
Montreal Expos (1976-1986)
Chicago Cubs (1987-1992)
Boston Red Sox (1993-1994)
Florida Marlins (1995-1996)

Career highlights and awards
8x All-Star selection (1981, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991)
8x Gold Glove Award winner (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988)
4x Silver Slugger Award winner (1980, 1981, 1983, 1987)
1987 NL MVP
1977 NL Rookie of the Year
1994 Hutch Award

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Chicago Years
He played for the Expos until after the 1986 season, when he took a pay cut to sign with the Chicago Cubs. Dawson's knee injuries were aggravated by playing on artificial turf in Montreal, and he hoped playing home games on grass at Wrigley Field would prolong his career. Dawson had campaigned for the Cubs to sign him during the offseason, but general manager Dallas Green resisted, insisting that the Cubs would start Brian Dayett in right field (Dawson had moved from center field to right field in his final two seasons as an Expo, due to the condition of his knees), and that one player could not make a 71-91 team a 91-71 team. When the Cubs opened camp in Mesa, Arizona that spring, Dawson and his agent Dick Moss arrived in an attempt to secure a contract with the Cubs. Dawson and Moss' stunt was derided as a "dog and pony show" by Green, who still wouldn't make an offer to Dawson. Two weeks into spring training, Dawson turned the tables on Green and the Cubs, presenting Green with a blank contract. Green filled in the contract with lean figures: a $500,000 base salary with $250,000 in incentives if Dawson made the All-Star team, started the All-Star Game, or won the National League MVP award.

He did all three, enjoying one of his finest seasons in 1987 in terms of raw statistics.[1] He became the Cubs' starting right-fielder, and hit 49 home runs and was named NL MVP. With Chicago, Dawson had finally won the MVP award, after the two runner-up years, 1981 and 1983, in Montreal. Sadly, Dawson wasn't able to turn around the Cubs' fortunes: although the Cubs contended for the first half of the season and were even in first place in early May, they finished the 1987 season at 76-85, last in the National League East.

Dawson played five more seasons with the Cubs, and was one of the franchise's most popular players during that time. Unfortunately, his worst individual season came in 1989, when the Cubs won the National League East title. Then, during the National League Championship Series, Dawson slumped terribly, hitting .105 as the San Francisco Giants beat the Cubs 4 games to 1.

Overall, Dawson's .507 career slugging percentage with the Cubs is 4th highest in Cubs history.

Boston and Florida Years / Career accomplishments
Dawson also played for the Boston Red Sox, and the Florida Marlins before retiring with 2774 hits, 438 home runs, 314 Stolen Bases, and 1591 RBI. He is 29th on the all-time Home Run list, and 28th on the all-time RBI list. He is one of only six players in major league history to record over 300 home runs and 300 stolen bases in his career (300-300 club). The other players to accomplish this are Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, Bobby Bonds, Reggie Sanders and Steve Finley. Dawson is also one of only 3 members of the 400 HR-300 SB club, joining Barry Bonds and Willie Mays.

Andre Dawson retired after 21 years in the major leagues following the 1996 season.

Dawson won his first World Series ring as a member of the 2003 Florida Marlins as a coach.

Hall of Fame Candidacy
In the 2008 BBWAA Hall of Fame Election, Dawson received 65.9% of the vote, falling short of the required 75%. [2] In the 2007 vote, Dawson's name appeared on 56.7% of the ballots[3]. In 2006, Dawson received 61% of the votes,[4] and in 2005, 52.3%.[5]

The major impediments to Dawson's election to the Hall of Fame are his career .323 OBP, merely average for MLB players, and the fact that his raw statistics are less impressive after accounting for his playing time in Wrigley Field, a favorable hitter's environment (James 1988, 2001).

Former teammate Ryne Sandberg campaigned for Dawson's induction during his speech at his own Hall of Fame induction ceremony. "No player in baseball history worked harder, suffered more or did it better than Andre Dawson," Sandberg said of the rifle-armed outfielder known as "The Hawk." Sandberg continued, "He's the best I've ever seen. I watched him win an MVP for a last-place team in 1987 [with the Cubs], and it was the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen in baseball." Sandberg concluded, "He did it the right way, the natural way, and he did it in the field and on the bases and in every way, and I hope he will stand up here someday."

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References
Bill, James (1988). The Bill James Baseball Abstract. Ballantine Books / Random House.
Bill, James (2001). The new Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. The Free Press / Simon & Shuster.
^ Note that Bill James considers Dawson's best years to be from 1979-1983, with his higher Chicago numbers being due to Wrigley Field's advantageous environment for hitters (James 2001).
^ National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum: Hall of Fame Vote Totals
^ National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (2007). Hall of Fame Vote Totals: 2007 Election (HTML). National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
^ National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (2007). Hall of Fame Vote Totals: 2006 Election (HTML). National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
^ National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (2007). Hall of Fame Vote Totals: 2005 Election (HTML). National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.

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Source: Wikipedia.org at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Dawson

Andre Dawson

Contact Information (where autograph requests should be mailed to):

Charity Information:

Signing Habits:

Donation Charges:

Andre Dawson's Message to the Fans

Biography

Send mail to thedigitalauthor@aol.com with questions or comments about this web site. Last modified: 05/09/08

Send mail to thedigitalauthor@aol.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 05/09/08