Look at the newest member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Andre Dawson. Isn't he beautiful?
Tall, sleek, agile and strong, this is what baseball players
used to look like. Sure there were always a few hulks around the league, but the real slabs of beef were mostly wearing helmets and shoulder pads. Times were good back then, when an ERA over 4.00 sucked, 35 HR were enough to lead the league, players wore stirrups and the preferred thing to chew was chew. In them days, nothing was better than finding an Andre Dawson card in a pack of Topps. So what if a little sugary residue had stained the paper? The Hawk, who graced the outfield and crushed the ball with that slender, powerful frame, was awesome. Everyone knew it.
So how, I wonder, could we have let guys like that turn into guys like this? Today's bicep is yesterday's thigh.
The Chemical Age made players like Dawson and Eddie Murray and Dave Winfield seem like banjo hitters by comparison. Suddenly, 400 home runs was pedestrian. Bloated stats fooled the baseball writers, who waited way, way too long to elect Andre Dawson to the Hall. Here's hoping they leave Bonds and his Stay-Puft peers out forever.
nwb
By the way, here's hoping Dawson enters the Hall as an Expo.
