{"id":618375,"date":"2026-03-11T11:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/618375\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T11:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:26:15","slug":"hall-of-fame-cap-saga-ends-for-cubs-andre-dawson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/618375\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall of Fame cap saga ends for Cubs’ Andre Dawson"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took longer than he anticipated, but Andre Dawson finally came to an agreement with the Baseball Hall of Fame regarding his plaque in Cooperstown.<\/p>\n

Back in 2023, Dawson informed me he was asking the Hall to change his plaque<\/a>, removing the Montreal Expos cap he wore and replacing it with a Chicago Cubs cap.<\/p>\n

Simply put, he wanted to be remembered as a Cub because \u201cthat\u2019s where my heart is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dawson will indeed get a new plaque, the Hall confirmed. But instead of changing it to a Cubs cap, there will be no logo at all, as has been customary for many new members since 2014 \u2014 including Greg Maddux, Tony La Russa and Jim Leyland \u2014 whose careers weren\u2019t primarily associated with only one organization.<\/p>\n

Jane Forbes Clark, Chairman of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, said in a statement that the board of directors met and approved the change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hall of Fame Board of Directors voted unanimously to provide Andre Dawson with the option of having no logo on his Hall of Fame plaque, which will be recast to reflect his wishes,\u201d Clark said in a statement. \u201cThis decision gives Andre a choice that he would have taken if it had been available when he was elected in 2010, just four years prior to the formal implementation of that alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AndreAndre Dawson’s plaque at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, on Tuesday, July 15, 2014. (Jose M. Osorio\/ Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Dawson said he was fine with the compromise.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter our conversations (in 2023), I think I expressed what my true feelings were, and moving forward I didn\u2019t get a sense that anything was going to get done,\u201d Dawson said Tuesday from Arizona, where he\u2019s conducting business and planning to take in some Cubs games. \u201cThey knew my preference all along was the (Cubs\u2019) \u2018C,\u2019 and if that wasn\u2019t manifested, then just give me a blank cap, such as the protocol is now with (Hall of Famers).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been resolved, and I can move forward now.\u201d<\/p>\n

To understand how important this matter was to Dawson, a little history lesson is necessary.<\/p>\n

While Dawson spent the first 11 of his 21 seasons with the Expos, and only six with the Cubs, he always felt he was more associated with Chicago, where he won a National League MVP award in 1987 and earned five All-Star nods. Montreal\u2019s owner, Charles Bronfman, didn\u2019t treat him fairly, he believed, and Expos fans booed him whenever he returned to Olympic Stadium.<\/p>\n

But the Hall makes the final decision on what cap an inductee wears on his plaque, and Montreal was chosen when Dawson was elected in 2010 in his ninth year on the Baseball Writers\u2019 Association of America ballot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think about them immortalizing a cap, it would be the Chicago Cubs for a lot of personal reasons,\u201d Dawson said at the time<\/a>. \u201cWhen the announcement was made last night, it was a little gut-wrenching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Cub Andre Dawson throws out the first pitch as the Chicago Cubs host the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series in 2016 at Wrigley Field. (Brian Cassella\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Getting in was the most important thing, so Dawson accepted the decision and didn\u2019t make an issue of it. But 13 years went by, and he decided in \u201923 to try and right a wrong, knowing it was probably a long shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t expect them to jump on something like this,\u201d he told me when he made the request in \u201923. \u201cIf they elect to respond, they\u2019ll take their time. And it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if they don\u2019t respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hall heard his request and eventually decided to keep the status quo. Dawson did not attend the Hall of Fame ceremonies in 2024 or \u201925, upset that he was being ignored.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took the approach, \u2018You know what, it just wasn\u2019t that important to me anymore,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI felt all along that since it\u2019s your legacy, and how important that is to you, that you should have your hand in it in some form or manner moving forward. I just didn\u2019t feel, out of respect from the Hall, that they should completely control that (decision).\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow Hall of Famer Joe Torre, the former New York Yankees manager and vice chairman of the Hall board, eventually reached out to Dawson to try and smooth things over.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respect Joe, he\u2019s old school,\u201d Dawson said. \u201cHe gets it. I see a lot of myself in the way he thinks about honesty and fairness. Joe made a comment about my presence at the Hall of Fame, that I was missed, and why it was important that I should be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the stuff he said I could relate to. But under the same token, there\u2019s a lot of pride and principle when it comes to me. I felt that to really right a wrong, it was a simple request from me. Joe wanted to move forward and see if there was anything he could do to talk the matter up at the committee and resolve it, and he was able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HallHall of Fame inductee Andre Dawson with Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson, left, Chairman Jane Forbes Clark and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig during the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown, N.Y., on Sunday, July 25, 2010. (AP Photo\/Mike Groll)<\/p>\n

Dawson said he\u2019s not the least bit concerned about Montreal fans getting upset with the decision to remove the \u201cM\u201d from his plaque, leaving the Expos with two members \u2014 Gary Carter and Tim Raines \u2014 representing their defunct organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all honesty and sincerity, those fans lost me when I went back as a Cub,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause they booed me for the simple reason I wouldn\u2019t sign for a $200,000 cut in pay. If that\u2019s what you think of me after 10 years, what I had put my body through to play in that environment, playing on Astroturf \u2026 You\u2019re going to boo me for not taking a $200,000 pay cut? At that point, you\u2019ve lost me.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was during the collusion era, when owners tried to suppress salaries by not offering free agents their market value. Dawson felt negotiations with Expos owner Charles Bronfman were leaked to the press, and said one report claimed his agent and wife were intoxicated during a meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the farthest thing from the truth, and it opened my eyes that this is where I am with this organization, and I might as well move on,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the red flags, why I didn\u2019t want to be represented as an Expo going into the Hall of Fame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dawson instead showed up at Cubs\u2019 spring training in \u201987 and made the most famous gambit in free agent history \u2014 offering the team a blank contract to sign him<\/a>. Cubs general manager Dallas Green called it a \u201cdog and pony show,\u201d but later made a low-ball offer \u2014 $500,000 plus $200,000 in incentives. It was well below Dawson\u2019s market value.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t know how to react, and said he needed some time to think about it,\u201d Dawson said. \u201cHe took the rest of the day and night, and called me the next day. Then he made me an offer to refuse, because he knew I had already refused a $200,000 cut (from $1.2 million in Montreal).\u201d<\/p>\n

The rest is history. Dawson won the 1987 MVP with a 49-home run, 137-RBI season in Chicago and earned a spot in Cooperstown. Almost four decades after arriving in Chicago, he still considers it the best part of his life. Dawson plans to be back on opening day in a couple of weeks and said he\u2019ll always consider himself a Cub.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a historical part of my career, and where undoubtedly I had the greatest time, irrespective of how many years I played there,\u201d he said. \u201cMy kids were born there. That\u2019s where my heart is. That\u2019s where it has always been. I\u2019m grateful and thankful that while I\u2019m still walking this earth, I\u2019m still associated with the Cubs organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether or not there\u2019s a \u201cC\u201d on his Hall of Fame plaque, that will never change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It took longer than he anticipated, but Andre Dawson finally came to an agreement with the Baseball Hall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24111,5,79918,24,10519,1222,24569,4,30961,13652],"class_list":["post-618375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-andre-dawson","tag-baseball","tag-charles-bronfman","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-cooperstown","tag-hall-of-fame","tag-joe-torre","tag-mlb","tag-montreal-expos","tag-tim-raines"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116210302354685588","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}