Dawson overcame constant pain to reach Hall of Fame

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Andre Dawson was all smiles after being rewarded with election to the Hall of Fame following his painful and often-overlooked career. AP

NEW YORK -- Standing in a Waldorf-Astoria ballroom, Andre Dawson gripped the podium in front of him and spoke how overwhelming it was to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

"I thought it was dead," he said, referring to his left knee that has undergone two knee replacements, "but now it's shaking."

The career of Dawson, the five-tool outfielder who played 21 seasons for the Expos, Cubs, Red Sox and Marlins, is a testament to longevity, fierce power, well-rounded play, integrity, an unselfish commitment to winning and the mental fortitude to play through physical pain.

The Hall case for Dawson had been building in his nine years on the ballot until he received 77.9 percent of the votes this year (420 out of 539). His baseball résumé includes not just the 1977 National Rookie of the Year award, the 1987 NL MVP trophy, eight Gold Gloves, eight All-Star appearances, 438 home runs, 1,591 RBIs, 314 stolen bases and a .323 career on-base percentage (the lowest among Hall of Fame outfielders), but also 12 knee surgeries, his perpetual scourge, through which he became a superstar but left fans wondering what he could have been if fully healthy.

His first knee operation dated to a 1972, when he tore up his knee while playing defensive back for Miami's Southwest High. In hindsight he realizes how beneficial physical therapy would have been, because he never fully regained his range of motion. Compounding matters was playing his first 11 big-league seasons on the hard artificial turf of Montreal's Olympic Stadium.

"A lot of people only see the glamour side of the game, when we're out on the field," said Dawson, currently a Marlins special assistant. "There's a lot of preparation that has to take place. For myself, I had a very painful career. I had to take medication almost daily to get through those three hours."

Dawson recounted the daily taping before games and icing afterwards before ever leaving the clubhouse. Sometimes the knees would flare up again and he'd have to ask his understanding wife, Vanessa, to run late-night errands for more ice bags.

In 1985 then-Expos teammate Tim Wallach said of Dawson's perpetual struggle with his knees, "It hurts me as much as it hurts him. Sometimes I wish I could give him my knees. He never moans. He never complains. He has no excuses. Everyone here respects him."

As Dawson explained, "The damage was done very early on in my career. I couldn't really control that, but I could control how I reacted to that."

During his brief minor-league career, which lasted less than two seasons before he became a fixture in Montreal's major-league lineup, Dawson homered 12 times in his first 14 games at Triple A Denver. He recalled on Thursday that at the time he drew comparisons to Willie Mays -- "No, not even close," he remembered saying then. By 1983, however, during Dawson's fifth season of at least 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases, it was Mays himself who called him "the most complete player in the game today."

He still stole at least 21 bases seven times in 11 seasons with the Expos and had 18 in his final year in Montreal, in 1986, before becoming a free agent -- and a victim of baseball's collusion era, in which owners tried to keep salaries low. Dawson had made $1.2 million the previous season but received no comparable offers. Wanting to play for a better team -- and on natural grass -- he flew to the Cubs' training facility in Arizona and offered them a blank contract. "Pay me what you think I'm worth," Dawson told the Cubs.

Chicago only offered $500,000 -- more than a 50-percent cut -- but he accepted and contributed his best season, winning MVP honors for a season in which he batted .287 with 49 home runs and 137 RBIs and won a Gold Glove.

"They got a pretty good deal," Dawson said with a laugh.

Dawson was never again shorted for money after that and continued to churn out great seasons, making the All-Star team each year from '87 to '91. He later went to Boston and Florida for two years each but was already 38 years old by then and on the downswing of his career.

He had declared that he loved playing baseball so much that a major-league club would have to tear the uniform off his body, before the continuing anguish of his knee troubles led him to reconsider, eventually realizing, "It's best that I walk away from the game while I can still walk myself."

The threat of additional knee operations looms in his future, but for now he'll walk into Cooperstown a deserving Hall of Famer.