by Kellen Pournoury

Created on: February 02, 2007   Last Updated: September 14, 2010

The hall of fame, what can I say? I wish I had a vote. It seems to me that there are some extremely good players overlooked by some of the sportswriters. How can Andre Dawson not be in the Hall of Fame yet? Is it because he was as popular with the fans nationwide as Cal Ripken Jr. or Tony Gwynn? Probably so, popularity definitely plays a big part in the voting. After all, look at another Cub in the Hall, Ryne Sandberg. Now don't get me wrong, Ryno was a great player and the people in Chicago loved him. The point of this article however is to compare the stats of Ryno and Hawk and figure out why Hawk is still sitting on the sidelines waiting for his day to get in.

Neither Dawson or Sandberg are members of the 3000 hit club. I can look past that, they make up for it in other categories. Of the 2, Dawson is the closest with 2774 career hits, 388 more than Sandberg. In defense of Sanberg, Dawson did play more seasons and had more at bats. Their career batting averages are extremely close, .285 for Sandberg and .279 for Dawson. Which both are higher than Ripken Jr.'s career average, but that is another story. Andre did strike out 249 more times and Sandberg and he also didn't walk quite as much. Now, how about the stats everyone loves, HRs and RBIs. Dawson came out the big winner in HRs with a total of 438. Ryno was a little far behind in this category with only 282. Dawson edged Sandberg in the RBI category as well, 1591 to 1061. One of my favorite stats is slugging percentage, I don't really know why, I just like it. Dawson topped Sandberg in this category as well, .482 to .452. Are you starting to see my point?

Ok, thus far, Ryno has a slightly higher career BA, struck out a few less times and walked a little more. Dawson had more hits, HRs, RBI, AB and a higher slugging percentage. Lets look at the awards these guys won. Andre Dawson was the Rookie of the Year in 1977. Ryne Sandberg was just a rookie in 1983. Sandberg played in 10 All Star games while Dawson only played in 8. Another instance of that popularity factor. Sandberg won 9 Gold Gloves, only 1 more than Dawson. Now the award total that puzzles me the most is the Silver Slugger Award. Dawson only had 4 and Sandberg had 7. Can someone please explain that to me? So, Sandberg played in more All Star games and won a few more awards than Andre Dawson, the point is, it is very close. I agree that Ryne Sandberg should be in the Hall of Fame but I think Andre Dawson should be there right beside him. How is it that with such similar stats between these 2 great players, Sandberg goes in first ballot and Dawson continues to get snubbed every year? It really doesn't make any sense to me.

Then again, there are several others who should be in as well, Jim Rice, Dale Murphy, "Goose" Gossage, the list goes on and on. I hope each and every one of these guys make it in eventually but I'm sure some writers will believe that players such as Mark McGwire and the like deserve it more. I mean why induct all these great naturally talented players, when you can induct the steroid induced homerun machines?

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