Andre Dawson

Not long after Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella announced his plans to retire at the end of the season, former Cub, and current Hall of Famer, Ryne Sandberg decided to throw his name in the list of potential candidates to replace Piniella next season.

But does Sandberg really know what he’s getting himself into?

The pressure of the Cubs winning a World Series has built up like a nasty rumor at the workplace, and Sandberg hopes he can be the man to clean it all up.

In a lot of ways, it has always been about the numbers in baseball. Fans, writers, and historians have long focused on the precious statistics in baseball, and there have been specific "standards" by which players are considered Hall of Fame material.

Well, all that's a thing of the past, for now the numbers have been deflated by steroid-cheating needle pushers like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and especially Barry Bonds, who has obliterated the most precious of all records with his insidious ways.

Andre Dawson's induction into the Hall of Fame on Sunday will mark just the second time Cooperstown will honor the legacy of the Montreal Expos.

For a time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the best organization in baseball resided north of the border; where Dawson, fellow Hall of Famer Gary Carter, Steve Rogers, Tim Raines and Warren Cromartie were the vanguard of a team that sprouted prospects and fielded competitive teams that spent many a September in the heart of the National League East pennant chase.

While the team fell a game short of the World Series in 1981, Montreal's greatest te

When Andre Dawson was announced as the sole member of the 2010 Baseball Hall of Fame class, it caused quite a stir, to say the least. After perhaps the most controversial balloting in recent memory, fans, and writers took to their keyboards to voice their frustrations.

How did Dawson, who played his last game in 1996, become more worthy of enshrinement in 2010 than he had been in 2009? Was one incident with an umpire enough to snub the legendary Roberto Alomar?

With such a rich and lengthy history, the Cubs have seen roughly 2,000 players don the Cubbie blue over the years.

Because of that, I thought it would be fun to name who I feel are the top five players for all 26 letters of the alphabet, going by last name.

To qualify, the player needs only to have played at least one game for the Cubs.

It’s a tale of two teams, but three cities. And as Charles Dickens wrote, it’s a tale of the years they intertwined from the start, one enjoying a “season (or seasons) of light,” the other dreading a “season of darkness.”

The Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs always pop up on each other’s schedules at least twice, sometimes more, every year. But rarely do they begin a regular season against each other.

Andre Nolan Dawson was the only player on the 2010 Hall of Fame Ballot that was announced to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which was announced yesterday. Dawson has been waiting over a decade to receive the prestigious call to the hall and for over 20 years Dawson had done nothing but earn what he’s become, a legend.

There was a time not so long ago when the baseball world only thought it revolved around numbers. Players made an average of slightly less than $500,000 a year. The superstars made somewhere around $2.5 million. These figures were considered untenably exorbitant.

On Wednesday, the writers made a mockery of the baseball Hall of Fame yet again when they left a handful of worthy players out of the hallowed institution. The most notable player left out was Roberto Alomar, who many talking heads have argued is the finest all-around second baseman of all time.

What makes this an even greater shame is that five writers turned in ballots that were completely blank.

"When he's hot there's no stopping him—he'll even hit a ball over his head." - Nolan Ryan in Nolan Ryan's Pitchers Bible.  (1991)

The man known as "The Hawk" has finally made it to Cooperstown.  Andre Dawson will soon have a plaque and a place in baseballs hall of fame.  My only question is, what took so long?  He should have been in years ago, and I think it's only fitting he will enter the hall alone.  No one will be able to steal his thunder or overshadow him in anyway.  It will be the Hawk's day.  A day that is well deserved and long overdue.