Dawson earns long-awaited Hall call

From MLB_

On the sixth day of the new decade, "The Hawk" took flight.

After waiting eight long years to make it to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Andre Dawson is this year's sole electee, it was announced on Wednesday. Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven, who came oh so close, will have to wait another year.

Dawson, an outfielder with power, who played most of his career on injured and fragile knees, made it on his ninth try, earning 77.9 percent of the votes cast by eligible members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, with his name included on 420 of the 539 ballots. Last year, he missed the cut with 67 percent of the vote.

"If you're a Hall of Famer you're eventually going to get in," said Dawson, whose first 16 of 21 seasons were played with the old Montreal Expos and the Cubs. "It was well worth the wait. I can't really describe the elation when my family and I got the call."

Dawson will be inducted on July 25 in Cooperstown, N.Y., along with manager Whitey Herzog and umpire Doug Harvey, who were elected in December by the Veterans Committee.

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