New Years Resolution

January 6th! Hall of Fame Day

I don't pay much attention to major league baseball today. It is not the steroids, it is just that my teams suck. I like the Nationals (Expos) and the Orioles.

But if we jumped in the "Way Back Machine" I knew my baseball. As a pre-teen, you could name the team and a position and I could tell you the player. Me and my older brother Carey would play Strat-O-Matic baseball so I learned every player. (For all of you under 30, Strat-O-Matic was a baseball card and dice game. Kind of X-Box with more imagination!)

As a teen, I kept a scrap book of the Expos and Orioles. Once a year I pull out the pictures and it is filled with Andre Dawson for the Expos. He was my favorite player through High School and College.

One year I think it was 1989, the Y sent me to Sweden for a month to work. After 3 and a half weeks of no baseball or box scores, I looked into a Pub and saw an old Cubs game on TV and Dawson hits a homerun. I know the Swedes thought I was crazy for misting up over a baseball game, but it was so beautiful! (Sorry for the pause I need to compose myself from this memory)

Andre Dawson was classy. He worked hard. He played through injuries. He was a team leader and respected by everyone. He wanted to play for the Cubs so bad that he gave them a blank contract and told them to fill in the numbers. He surprised them by signing the ridiculously low offer and went out and became the MVP that year. Can you imagine a player doing that today?

Cal Ripken joining the Hall a few years back was a big deal for me. But if Dawson makes it, it may just mean a road trip. I will dust off my old Expos hats and shirts and drive to Cooperstown.

Let me know of you want to hitch a ride!