Andre Dawson Shares His Pain of Losing Family Members

Andre Dawson (born July 10, 1954), nicknamed "The Hawk" and "Awesome Dawson", is a Hall of Famer who played for four different teams as a center and right fielder during his 21 year career. He spent most of his career with the Montreal Expos (1976–1986) and Chicago Cubs (1987–1992).

An 8-time NL All-Star, he was named the league's Rookie of the Year in 1977 after batting .282 with 19 home runs and 65 RBI, and won the Most Valuable Player Award in 1987 after leading the league with 49 homers and 137 RBI; he had been runner-up for the award in both 1981 and 1983. He batted .300 five times, drove in 100 runs four times and had 13 seasons of 20 home runs. A strong base-runner early in his career, he also stole 30 bases three times. He is one of eight MLB players with at least 300 home runs and 300 stolen bases during his career.

Dawson was a center fielder until knee problems – worsened by the artificial surface at Olympic Stadium – forced his shift to right field, followed by his move to a team which played on grass. He led the NL in outfield putouts three consecutive years (1981–1983), and won eight Gold Glove Awards for fielding excellence. Dawson was known for his incredible work ethic and study of the game. He was often seen in the dugout with a clipboard in-hand documenting pitches and pitcher tendencies. This was long before such practices were common-place and such information was readily available. Upon his retirement, his NL totals of 409 home runs and 962 extra base hits both ranked tenth in league history; he also ranked seventh in NL history in games as an outfielder (2,303), and sixth in both outfield putouts (5,116) and total chances (5,366). He set Expos franchise records for career games, at bats, runs scored, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, runs batted in, extra base hits, total bases and steals, all of which have since been broken variously by Tim Raines, Tim Wallach and Vladimir Guerrero. Dawson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 25, 2010

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Here's another radio baseball card. Chicagocomes out Fielder Andrey Dawson has a larger
than life. He mates the fansand opponents on the field. Off the
field, there's a man who isdeeply committed to his family. And you'll
hear more right after this. Totalk with Andrey Dawson, you soon learned

(00:25):
that there's more to his life thanbaseball. That type of thing off the
field. I've had to overcome wasthe passing. I think of my grandmother
and again my uncle or my grandmotherwas a disciplinarian in my family, and
my uncle, well, one ofthree uncles, was the motivating, the
inspiration, the people that inspired me, and I was so close to them

(00:50):
and something like this never had happenedto me. I thought I could make
the adjustment, but it's tough time, tough moment for me. I thought
maybe if I could close the calland that would help ease the pain a
little bit. But I still findthat I dwelled on and I think about
it quite a bit quite often,and deep down in my side, I
know I'll always missed him, butI just you know, I'm proud that

(01:12):
they were relatives of mine. Afterplaying eleven years in Montreal, free agent
Andrey Dawson gave the Cubs a blankcontract for his all star services. Cub
fans were so happy that his nicknamewas changed from the Hawk the Awesome Dawson
with radio baseball cards. I'm done, Drysdale,