Montreal had better honor the Hawk

Andre Dawson dusted off the Expos beach ball cap one more time and was honored by the crowd in Washington DC tonight. The Hall of Famer got emotional watching the tribute to his career and the crowd was respectful and cheered.

But most of them were there to see Stephen Strasburg.

You see Strasburg plays for Washington... Dawson never did. In fact Dawson never played a big league game that counted IN Washington.

He played the bulk of his career for the Expos... who moved from Montreal to Washington.

The tributes have been many for The Hawk. The Marlins (his current employer) has honored him already and in August he will have his own day at Wrigley Field. (Hopefully they will retire his #8 there.)

But he went into the Hall of Fame as an Expo and became a superstar in Montreal.

Yeah his knees were banged up there and he became a national figure when he moved to Wrigley... but that doesn't excuse the fact that he should take his bows in front of the French Canadian fans whom he played his guts out for.

And there is a way to do it.

Montreal doesn't have a baseball team anymore... and it is sad because that team produced a lot of great players and as I have said before, I miss the Expos.

But they DO have a hockey team. And that hockey team has a crazed following. And it is safe to say if you are a Canadien fan of a certain age, you probably have fond memories of the Expos of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

When the Canadiens start their season, they should do the right thing.

They should bring out the Hawk and have him do that strange honorary first puck drop before one of their first games.

It would be the fitting farewell to his year long victory lap and closure to his Expos career that ended in collusion after the 1986 season.

One more time, Montreal. VIVE LE FAUCON!

Dawson is the second Expo in the Hall... Rock should be the third

Andre Dawson finally got into the Hall of Fame and today was enshrined. It took 9 ballots (and no doubt some anti Steroid sentiment put Dawson and Jim Rice over the top) but he's in... and he's in with an Expos hat on his plaque.

Now I am not sure if he wanted that hat... maybe he wanted a Cubs hat (or a Marlins hat as he is currently an employee of the Marlins) but he joins his former Montreal teammate Gary Carter with that weird ass M logo.

The Expos are sadly no more. They haven't played a game in Montreal since 2004. But there is still a Hall of Famer out there who should have the Expos cap on his plaque.

Tim Raines belongs in the Hall and don't make the poor guy squirm.

He didn't make it in his first two ballots, but that's enough. His numbers won't change and they are good enough to be in.

He got base, created more runs and used his speed better over a stretch of time longer than a decade better than anyone not named Rickey Henderson.

Put his stats up next to any player in the 1980s and he'll hold his own.

Take into consideration that he cleaned up his drug past and became a key veteran contributor to the 1993 AL West Champion White Sox and the 1996 and 1998 World Champion Yankees and you have the intangibles along with the numbers.

I am going to paraphrase John Travolta and say LET HIM IN.