ESPN

On the day before his Hall of Fame induction, I sat down with Andre Dawson. Here's what the Hawk had to say.

Bruce Levine: Hawk, pretty amazing. One day away and here we are.

Andre Dawson: Yeah. It’s been quite the build up. I have a lot of family here that is excited about the ceremony itself. And, like you said, it’s vastly approaching.

BL: Do you sense a different feeling on what you’ve heard since they called and told you you were in?

AD: I’m amazed. Surprised I guess that I haven’t gotten a bit nervous about it. That’s probably going to change, I should say. Maybe change tomorrow once the full impact starts to take effect. Once I step on that stage. It’s been quite the ride. I’ve been a lot of places and it’s been overwhelming. I was told at the outset: saddle up and enjoy the ride. And it’s pretty much been all of that.

BL: The people here treat you like a king. They’ve done that since they started with the Hall of Famers here. Can you tell me what the exp is like? How they treat you. How they organize you. How they try to keep you away from interviews like this.

AD: They are very specific here, to the point [they] try and make it as comfortable as possible. [They are] as hospitable as you can imagine. It is very first-class run.

BL: When you reflect back on your career as this process has been going on, do some of those games stand out or is it more teammates and experiences with them? What goes through your mind?

AD: Relationships over the years, more so then particular games. Comradery and the fact that you meet new friends all the time. It’s a fraternity unlike any -- maybe with the exception of here in the Hall of Fame. That’s what you miss most. You don’t really miss the game – especially when you played it as long as I did. It’s just the individuals that come into your life and you develop those relationships over the years.

BL: You and I have talked about getting in, it’s a difficult process. Are you proud of the fact that your numbers are the real numbers and they really mean something now that all this drug stuff is cleared up in Major League Baseball?

AD: I never really had any concern out about the numbers. I think longevity is the key if you play long enough and are consist, all that stuff, in the end, evens out. The criteria seems to matter and differ depending on what year it is. It’s a process where you gotta wait it out and be patient. And the one thing you won’t ever here is a negative comment about individuals that are in the Hall of Fame. Each member has a different story in itself. For me, that’s what’s most important. The writers really hold the hall sacred, and not just anyone is going to get in.

BL: How have you dealt with people in Chicago who are your real fans? Montreal fans certainly were. The idea that you played all your years in Montreal, you’re going in as an Expo, but you’re heart is in Chicago.

AD: Well, I think, one, I don’t want to say last time, I get to acknowledge that tomorrow up on that stage. I think the fans know the impact they had on me. What they meant to me. They’ll always be No. 1 in my heart, and at least now, I get the opportunity to share that nationally.

BL: You’ve always been a great player, but when you’re around these Hall of Famers now is there a certain new feeling you get knowing that you’re one of them?

AD: It’s a bunch of good guys. You know, they make it real relaxing comfortable for you. I sit back and I like to listen to some of the stories. It’s funny, last night, Frank Robinson told me ‘you’re not a Hall of Famer yet. Sunday, during the dinner we’ll initiate you. Then you’re on probation for a year.’ So it’s a good bunch of guys. And I’m very excited about the prospect of joining them in this elite group.

BL: Your speech, you nervous about it?

AD: I can’t say that I’m nervous. I’m prepared, I think and maybe that’s put a lot of ease on that process. You never know, Bruce, when you get on that stage how your emotions are going to react. I’m going to struggle I think at the end, but hopefully I will have enough adrenaline to get through it.

BL: Your buddy Ryne Sandberg is here. He’s doing a lot of special things are you happy he’s here for you? You were here for him five years ago.

AD: Well, when I first saw him, the first thing that came to my mind, I addressed him as skipper. Yeah, I’m happy that Ryne was able to come out. He invited me to his induction ceremony and gave me a huge endorsement. Always one of my favorites over the years as a teammate.

BL: Final message to your fans in Chicago who won’t be here?

AD: Sorry that you couldn’t get down. It’s a very, very exciting and important time in my life. You made a huge impact on my career and I really appreciate it.

The combination of lost bags, rain and masses of people makes for more than just an easy trip down Cooperstown’s memory lane.

10:45 a.m.: Talked to my pal Kenny McRenolds, who is my go-between with Sunday’s star Andre Dawson this weekend. (It does me no good to have Dawson’s cell phone, the Hall of Fame controls every minute of his time.) Just trying to find five minutes for a one-on-one with the guy that I’ve talked to thousands of times, before he is inducted on Sunday.

11:00: Set up my radio equipment for Talking Baseball on Saturday morning. In the past I was able to broadcast from the Hall of Fame itself. Now they set you up in tents outside. (Yes, grass floors.)

11:12: Equipment tested out well. Did a hit with Waddle and Silvy. Talked more Chicago baseball than I have in Cooperstown.

11:30: ESPN’s Jon Miller stops by to chat. Miller is going into the broadcast wing of the museum this weekend. Miller, a baseball historian in his own right, is giddy about the induction ceremony. He’ll be joined by his co-host Joe Morgan on the podium on Sunday. Miller and Morgan started ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball in 1989 and have made it appointment television for the last 21 years. (Miller and Morgan are now joined by Orel Hershiser.) Miller told me he’ll be anxious to get his speech over and done with Sunday afternoon.

1:45 p.m.: United Airlines calls and tells me that my luggage will be dropped off before 4 p.m. Lost en route, Chicago to Syracuse. Here’s a tip for you. When flying on United Express, carry on. Do not check your bags. I repeat, do not check your bags. And I do love United Airlines, I fly them all the time.

2:15: Hall of Fame pitcher Fergie Jenkins stops me inside a baseball memorabilia store and rips me for being a mark. Jenkins said he couldn’t believe I’d be looking at baseball memorabilia in Cooperstown after covering over 3,000 baseball games. I shot back at Jenkins, ragging him for charging for his autograph in front of a CVS store with six or seven other Hall of Famers. (Jenkins gives a large portion of those earnings to charity.)

3:00: Pick up my credentials at the one-and-only high school in Cooperstown. That’s right, it’s called Cooper High School, what else? Pleasantly surprised to find an invitation to a special party the Cubs are throwing for Dawson on Saturday evening within my packet.

3:25: Bumped into Ryne and Margaret Sandberg buying Hall of Fame baby clothes for their fourth grandchild. Both are cautiously optimistic about Sandberg’s future interview for the Cubs manager job. The Sandbergs have three children in Chicagoland, and will look to relocate back to Chicago soon, whether or not he gets the Cubs job. I told Margaret that the Ricketts family will be the ones throwing the Dawson’s party on Saturday night, and she lights up, anticipating meeting owner Tom Ricketts.

5:15: Another torrential downpour as my bags finally arrive. Looking forward to dinner with some media buddies at the Yum Yum Shack. Yes it is food, for those of you who are wondering.

That’s about it for all this dribble. Lots of Hall of Fame talk, as well as Cubs and White Sox, on Talking Baseball tomorrow morning from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. Guests include Cardinals broadcaster John Rooney, Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly and Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson.

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Andre Dawson will take his place in baseball history Sunday, becoming the 203rd former major league player to be elected to sports’ most famous and important Hall of Fame.

In all, 292 ex-players, managers, umpires and executives have been immortalized in Cooperstown, N.Y. since the first class of five was elected in 1936 (Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner and Babe Ruth).

When Dawson joins this unique group, his entry will be symbolic in that he had to wait 10 years to get into the Hall because of the constraints of the "steroids era." Drug-induced home run hitters dominated the game for a 15-year period, skewing the numbers of real home run hitters like Dawson. Dawson hit 438 homers with 1,591 RBIs in a career that spanned from 1976-96.

Cubs owner Tom Ricketts will represent the organization at the event and throw a party for the “Hawk” Saturday night following the downtown parade of Hall of Famers and a private Hall of Fame social at the museum.

Although the people who run the Hall of Fame did the right thing by having Dawson’s plaque embossed with him wearing a Montreal Expos cap, Dawson’s heart and soul will always remain at Clark and Addison, where he spent his happiest years in baseball.

The former superstar asked the Hall of Fame if he could have the Cubs’ cap and logo on his plaque. President Jeff Idelson, however, explained to Dawson that, historically, his best years and most of his career was spent in Montreal, where he played in relative anonymity for the first nine seasons of his career.

Dawson was the poster child for five-tool players. He could hit, hit with power, run, catch and throw as well as anyone from his era. Unfortunately for Dawson, though, playing those years on the rock-hard Olympic Stadium Astroturf destroyed his knees.

As a reporter, covering Dawson was a different process because he spent half of his pregame day getting treatment and icing his legs, just so he could play the game he loved for three hours a day.

The same process took place after the game, when you had to wait an hour to talk to the always affable, always honest man, who gave as much of himself in an interview as he did on the ball field.

Luckily for baseball and its fan base, the steroids era is in the rear-view mirror. The real heroes of the game, the guys who sacrificed good health for baseball immortality, now stand tall in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

None taller than Andre Dawson, an Expo on his Hall of Fame plaque, a Chicago Cub at heart.

Hindsight is always 20-20 as they say, and that certainly holds true when wheeling and dealing. Trades excite fans, yet many times teams end up sacrificing their future for a shot at a proven commodity in hopes of a title run. Here is a look at how the Cubs fared in trades since 2005, using statistical analysis and the sabermetric WAR.

WAR stands for Wins Above Replacement and is a relatively complicated formula that in the end answers the question, “How much value would the team lose if a replacement player took his spot?” The calculation turns out an approximate win total the player holds.

Best trade
July 8, 2008: Cubs trade Josh Donaldson, Sean Gallagher, Matt Murton and Eric Patterson to the Oakland Athletics for Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin. (Cubs' net WAR gain: 5.9)

This trade would have been better had the Cubs held on to Harden, who battled injuries with the Cubs as he has throughout his entire career. But when he pitched, he was electric. Harden compiled a 14-10 record and 3.31 ERA with the Cubs. He also averaged 11 strikeouts per nine innings pitched and a 4.0 WAR.

Gaudin pitched just one season for the Cubs, going 4-2 with a 6.26 ERA. Since 2008, Gaudin has pitched for four different teams. It’s safe to say there were no hard feelings to see Gaudin leave town.

The Cubs lost very little in what they traded away, however. Donaldson was finally called up this season. The former first-round draft pick has 10 games under his belt, but has hit only .154. Gallagher (-1.3 WAR) has not pitched well for Oakland, San Diego or Pittsburgh while Murton is no longer in the majors.

Honorable mention: Dec. 18, 2009: Cubs trade Milton Bradley to the Seattle Mariners for Carlos Silva. (Cubs' net WAR gain: 2.5)

In his one season with the Cubs, Bradley managed to hit just .257 with 12 home runs and 40 RBIs. Silva was coming off two horrid seasons with the Mariners in which he went 5-18 with a 6.81 ERA.

In 2010, both players’ careers took very different turns. Bradley is batting just .206 with a .289 OBP. Silva has performed very well for the Cubs, compiling a 9-3 record with a 3.45 ERA. He’s also struck out 72 batters while walking only 19.

Steve Mitchell/US PresswireRicky Nolasco was the real loss for the Cubs in the Juan Pierre trade.

Worst trade
Dec. 7, 2005: Cubs trade Sergio Mitre, Ricky Nolasco, and Renyel Pinto to the Florida Marlins for Juan Pierre. (Cubs' net WAR loss: -1.3)

Mitre has battled injuries and inconsistency throughout his career. But he may have finally found his niche in the Yankees’ bullpen this season with a 2.88 ERA in 25 innings. The real loss in this trade wasn’t Mitre though. That honor goes to Nolasco (3.6 WAR), who has shown flashes of brilliance in his young career, compiling a 49-36 record with a 4.45 ERA. He’s averaging just under eight strikeouts per nine innings and has struck out a total of 585 batters to only 158 walks. Over the past three seasons, Nolasco has averaged a 4.4:1 K:BB ratio.

Pinto (2.1 WAR) has been a solid reliever for the Marlins, throwing 231 innings while striking out 222 batters. He’s also maintained a career 3.62 ERA.

Pierre, the Cubs' centerpiece of the deal, played just one season with the team in which he tallied a 3.3 WAR. And although it was a good season (Pierre hit .292 with 58 steals), it can’t compare to what the Cubs could have had in Mitre, Nolasco and Pinto.

Honorable mention: Jan. 5, 2008: Cubs trade Angel Pagan to the New York Mets for Corey Coles and Ryan Meyers. (Cubs' net WAR loss: -7.4)Meyers and Coles are now out of baseball, while Pagan is a stalwart in the Mets lineup. Since being traded to the Mets, Pagan has hit .304 with a .357 OBP and has stolen 37 bases. He’s also achieved a 7.4 WAR. It took Pagan until this season to establish himself as an everyday player. But at 28 years of age, Pagan has most likely reached his ceiling. Considering the return on investment the Cubs received, or lack thereof, this trade was definitely a mistake. While the Cubs “net WAR loss” was more substantial in this deal, the Nolasco deal will be more harmful long-term.

Day of Infamy
Dec. 7, 2006: Cubs draft Josh Hamilton from the Tampa Bay Rays in the Rule 5 Draft. His rights were then sold to the Cincinnati Reds. (Cubs' net WAR loss: -12.9)

Hamilton wasn’t traded per se, but his rights were once held and then sold in the course of the same day by the Cubs. It’s not as though Hamilton (12.9 WAR) ever played for the Cubs, and you could speculate that in theory they could have Edinson Volquez (5.1 WAR) if they made the same trade the Rangers completed with the Reds.

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Once again Cubs lefty Ted Lilly pitched well enough to win, and, once again, he came away with nothing to show for his efforts.

Seven innings of one-run baseball was good enough for Lilly to exit the game with the score tied in a game the Cubs lost 4-3 in extra innings to the Astros. The Cubs have now scored less than 2.5 runs per a game in Lilly’s 2010 starts.

Being the team player that he is, Lilly refused to complain about the lack of run production in his starts.

Lilly was asked if he thought he had to throw a shutout to be able to win the game.

"It’s not so much that, but I like to compete,” Lilly said. “I enjoy those close games. It’s a good opportunity to be in those situations and to be the guy that comes through.”

Unfortunately for Lilly, he has only three wins on the season -- in spite of his 3.88 ERA. According to major league sources, Detroit, Minnesota and the Yankees all continue to express interest in Lilly. The nonwaiver trade deadline is just nine days away.

Lilly was asked if he focused on the fact that this might be his last start as a Cub.

“No, I’m not into that,” Lilly said. “I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it now. I have my hands full just trying to win games.”

Would Lilly like to pitch for a contender?

“Definitely,” Lilly said. “First and foremost you’d like to like to do it [in Chicago]. It’s going to be tough. There’s a lot of speculation and rumors thrown out there. It’s been my experience that [rumors] don’t necessarily mean something is going to happen.”

Lilly, a free agent after the 2010 season, is owed close to $5 million on his contract for the remainder of this campaign. The Cubs would love to do their version of the NBA sign-and-trade in reverse fashion. They would love to trade Lilly to a contender for prospects and then re-sign him as a free agent in November.

Notes

The Texas Rangers had some interest in Cubs utility man Xavier Nady. However, Nady hasn’t played much. Couple that with the fact that Texas has financial constraints, and a deal is unlikely to happen. According to baseball sources, the Rangers have little money left to spend on possible acquisitions.

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Bobby Valentine isn't surprised Chicago Cubs outfielder Kosuke Fukudome has been an inconsistent major leaguer because that was his reputation in Japan.

Valentine, currently an ESPN analyst who had two stints managing in Japan, said the rap was that Fukudome struggled with the mental part of the game when he played in the Japanese Pacific League.

"I would see him very hot one year and very hot the next," Valentine said Wednesday on "The Waddle & Silvy Show" on ESPN 1000. "What he comes with is this reputation of a guy who can get hot and play very good defense and can totally over-think an 0-for-4 and turn an 0-for-4 into a month-long slump. They knew that there after awhile, and they worked with him to get through the early periods of his slump to understand him so that he would be able to play consistently.

"He can do most everything on the field. It's just when his mind is thinking backwards you could put that brain in a bird and it wouldn't get off the ground."

Fukudome, who signed a four-year, $48 million deal with the Cubs before the 2008 season, is a career .258 hitter.