Andre Dawson, who will be entering the Hall of Fame this year, is a die-hard Cub.  Dawson played for the Chicago Cubs from 1987-1992, winning an MVP trophy even though the team was in the cellar that year.  He’s actually the only player to do that playing for a team in last place, by the way.  Hiss lugging p-ercentage with the Cubs, .507, is the fourth highest in team history (which, when you think about it, is a lot more exciting than if he were fourth in, say, Rangers or Rays history.)

So, Dawson should be headed in as a Cub, right? He’s made it clear that’s his choice, and the stats and achievements he had with the Cubbies are more than adequate.  Instead, however,  he’ll head into Cooperstown as an Expo.  The Montreal team (which is now the Washington Nationals), is the team Dawson came up with.

The HOF used to let people pick their hats, but Wade Boggs changed all that when rumors flew that the Rays offered to pay him to wear their hat.  At the time this was perfectly allowed, and rather than ban it, the Hall of Fame simply decided they would now decide who gets to wear what hat.

We understand the issue that has to do with payment.  Money + baseball player = generally bad, when the money coming in is anything besides straight up salary.  One isn’t quite to Black Sox territory here,  but the slope is a slippery one.

Of course, this could lead to some icky little issues, baseball politics-wise.  For example, let’s say Clemens makes the Hall of Fame.  We’re guessing he’d avoid the whole stupid Yanks-Sox-Jays (Jays? Really?) issue, and choose to go in as an Astro, since that’s his hometown team.  But clearly the guys at the Hall aren’tt aking sentiment into account, if Dawson’s case is anything to go by.

This isn’t the only issue with the Hall of Fame–there’s that whole big performance-enhanced elephant in the room, for starters.  But if history is to be served well by the museum at Cooperstown, players’ preferences should be just as much a part of it as they were when they demanded trades and signed contracts.

The players, after all, are the point, right?