The Top 20 Cub HR Of All Time - #13 Andre Dawson 9/27/1987

by Al Yellon on Jan 31, 2008 8:51 AM CST in Baseball Stories

This entry on the list is another that comes under the category of "meaningless, but memorable".

The 1987 Cubs were a pretty bad team -- after being in first place in May and staying close into early June, they quickly fell into fifth place and finished last in a mind-numbing drop-by-drop fall. There weren't any long losing streaks -- from July 1 to the end of the year the longest one was four -- but they couldn't get any winning streaks together, either; the longest winning streak of the entire year was five, done only once, in May. The boring Gene Michael was finally dumped as manager in early September, replaced by the even more boring Frank Lucchesi. The team did enter September over .500, but went 10-21 after September 1.

And so, about the only things worth watching that year were the pitching of Rick Sutcliffe, who won 18 games and should have won the Cy Young Award, and the hitting of Andre Dawson, who was named league MVP.

This MVP award has been controversial because the Cubs finished last and Dawson's peripheral stats -- apart from leading the league in HR, RBI and TB -- weren't that great (he scored only 90 runs despite hitting 49 HR). It wasn't even Dawson's best year -- his 1983 season with Montreal was quite a bit better.

But with the attitude he brought to the team, his solid defense in RF, and the HR he hit, he quickly became a fan favorite. Dawson himself said, of that season:

Everything was too good to be true. I could talk, mix, and have a relationship (with Cubs fans), something I had been unable to do in Montreal.

And on September 27, the last home game, a sunny Sunday, all wondered whether Dawson would give the fans one last memory. In his first four at-bats he had struck out, singled, singled and struck out. And then, he came up in the bottom of the 8th, with two out and the Cubs leading the Cardinals 6-3. Clearly, this would be his final appearance before the home crowd. It's easy to say now, 20+ years later, that we all knew he was going to hit one, but that was the feeling all of us in the ballpark had that day. Andre didn't disappoint. He ran the count to 3-1 against St. Louis reliever Bill Dawley, and then hit a ball far onto Waveland Avenue.

Meaningless? Sure. Memorable? You bet. The Cubs won the game 7-3, but Andre Dawson gave us enough memories to last a lifetime. He hit two HR on the Cubs' final road trip (in looking this up, I discovered that Lucchesi had batted Dawson second in the final two games, at Montreal, likely to try to get him some more AB), giving him 49 for the season, at the time, second-most in Cub history for a single season.

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Dawson's MVP

I remember the controversy when he got the award - and if I recall, someone finally put it to rest by asking just how bad the Cubs would have been that year without him.

by MN exile on Jan 31, 2008 9:22 AM CST reply actions

1987

I was only 8 years old that year, but I remember that season. I do not remember 1984 at all (I wish I did), and there wasn't much to remmeber about 85 and 86, so I always consider 87 the first year of being a Cubs fan. I am sure a lot of that has to do with what Dawson did that year.

Probably the most historic Cubs game that I have been to was that year. I was sitting in the LF bleachers the day that Eric Show hit Dawson in the chin, I remember a brawl, and also that Dawson was out for a week or so (not sure exactly how long). If Show hadn't hit Dawson and forced him to be out for a few games, it would have been very likely that he would have hit 50 that year.

by MissouriKev on Jan 31, 2008 10:14 AM CST reply actions

The game you're talking about...

... was this one on July 7. Dawson missed only two games -- he was back in the lineup on July 10.

Other than that he missed seven other games -- he played in 153. Yes, it's too bad he didn't make it to 50 HR. At that time only one player -- George Foster in 1977 -- had hit 50 or more since Willie Mays in 1965, and no one would do it until Cecil Fielder in 1990.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al Yellon on Jan 31, 2008 10:46 AM CST up reply actions

Slight correction.

Dawson didn't start on July 10 -- he pinch-hit. He started the next day. He had hit four HR in three games leading up to the Show beaning, including hitting one off Show in the first inning that day. Show had a really bad day -- Paul Noce and Dave Martinez also homered off him.

Dawson didn't homer again until July 22.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al Yellon on Jan 31, 2008 10:48 AM CST up reply actions

That's amazing.

The times they have a-changed. (with apologies to Bob Dylan)

"Don't complain to me about the stormy weather, boys. Just bring the ship into port." --Steve Stone, September 2004

by ctcoff99 on Jan 31, 2008 12:01 PM CST up reply actions

Cy Young

If I remember right, Sutcliffe left about 5 games late with the lead and the bullpen gave it up. Had he won 2 or 3 more, he probably would have won it -- and probably should have, anyway.

by Shanghai Badger on Jan 31, 2008 10:53 AM CST reply actions

interesting

I was only 7 in 1987, and I had no idea until I read this profile that the Cubs were above .500 as late as September of that season. And if Sutcliffe won 18 games in addition to Dawson's great year, why was this Cubs team, ultimately, so bad?

Where was Sandberg in all of this? Wasn't Palmeiro on this team? Grace?

by elgato on Jan 31, 2008 10:54 AM CST reply actions

Palmeiro...

... was a part-time player in '87; he played in 84 games and hit 14 HR in 223 AB. When he hit only 8 HR the next year playing fulltime, I guess the Cubs figured they could deal him.

Grace didn't debut until 1988.

Apart from Sutcliffe, that team's rotation was awful. And Lee Smith blew 12 saves, one of the primary reasons he was traded that offseason. I remember most of us wanted Smith to go -- what we didn't want was Calvin Schiraldi in return.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al Yellon on Jan 31, 2008 11:01 AM CST up reply actions

Standing O on 9/27

I remember watching this game at home--my then baby boy was only 3 days into this world. Now he's a hardened criminal with an arrest record as long as.....(kidding) But if I recall, all good Cub fans everywhere were hoping Hawk could hit a couple that day and make it to 50. In those days--a special and very rare plateau.

What stands out to me was the amazement at the way he rose to the occasion at that moment, the standing O he received and his cap tip to the crowd was perhaps as special as any I've ever seen at Wrigley. It was fantastic--and I believe the crowd wanted to thank him for the whole year and the fact that he came to management with hat in hand in the spring and said he'd play for whatever they thought was fair. WOW--(to paraphrase George Halas) we'll probably never see that again.

BBWAA's name should be changed to "Power in the hands of Fools"

by cubfever7 on Jan 31, 2008 12:55 PM CST up reply actions

Wasn't that the year

that Sandberg was hurt for a good portion of the summer?

Kasey

See the Cubs 2008 schedule at http://ignarski.tripod.com/sched2008.html

by kaseyi on Jan 31, 2008 11:16 AM CST up reply actions

Yes.

He was out from mid-June until mid-July; in all he missed 30 games that year.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al Yellon on Jan 31, 2008 11:24 AM CST up reply actions

Because it takes more than 18 wins and

49 homers to win a Division.

by TR on Jan 31, 2008 11:59 AM CST up reply actions

The ironic thing....

is that a good number of games were started that year by two young pitchers from the farm system named Greg Maddux and Jaime Moyer, who are both still pitching 21 years later, have around 550 wins between them, and one is a first-ballot HOFer. At that time, neither one had quite perfected his craft, although I remember Moyer taking a no-hitter into the 9th inning that year.

"Don't complain to me about the stormy weather, boys. Just bring the ship into port." --Steve Stone, September 2004

by ctcoff99 on Jan 31, 2008 12:06 PM CST up reply actions

Also....

most of the cast of '84 was still around, but had gotten old and injured. Matthews, Moreland, Dernier, Durham, Davis...I think all of those guys were still there, but were gradually fazed out over the next year or so.

"Don't complain to me about the stormy weather, boys. Just bring the ship into port." --Steve Stone, September 2004

by ctcoff99 on Jan 31, 2008 12:10 PM CST up reply actions

Matthews...

... had become a pinch-hitter -- he only had 42 AB in 44 games before he was traded to Seattle in July.

Dernier never again had a year as good as '84. By '87 he was a backup.

Jody Davis had a decent year, but was starting to decline at age 30.

Moreland had a good year, and was traded to SD at season's end.

Durham also had a good year, but rumors of drug use started to surface (not steroids, but cocaine). He was traded less than two months into 1988 for Pat Perry, a mediocre middle reliever.

The '84 team, so full of promise, never fulfilled it.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al Yellon on Jan 31, 2008 12:52 PM CST up reply actions

thanks, Al

and several others for the history lesson. Makes sense.

by elgato on Jan 31, 2008 3:53 PM CST up reply actions

re: Because it takes ...

Very insightful, thanks.

by elgato on Jan 31, 2008 3:52 PM CST up reply actions

Holy cow

I cannot believe there are apparently only 12 greater home runs in over a century of Cub history then a meaningless home run in a meaningless game.

Al I really respect you and love the blog, and Hawk is certainly one of my all-time favorites, but some of these selections are pretty awful.

by paulucla on Jan 31, 2008 12:20 PM CST reply actions

Read...

... cubfever7's post above for more on why this home run (yes, I admitted it was meaningless) was so memorable, and still is 20 years later.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al Yellon on Jan 31, 2008 12:56 PM CST up reply actions

I was there, too.

Memorable if you were there or, perhaps, happened to watch it on TV. Obviously, a homer as meaningless as this one (and there is no more meaningless homer than one for a last place team at the end of September) means zero to someone who, while even a big Cub fan, didn't see it live or on TV.

I am lucky to have been there for this homer, the Sandberg game, Grace's walk-off against the Mets, Sosa's homers in '98 against the Brewers and probably one or two others on this list that are no doubt coming up - but that is because I am of a certain age. I'm sure in some game back in 1929, Hack Wilson or KiKi Kuyler ended a game that featured an amazing Cub comeback with a walk-off homer. If I was 90 years old and at that game I would cherish that memory. But I would not call it one of the greatest or even most memorable homers in Cub history because there have only been a few important Cub homers remembered by Cub fans, baseball fans and baseball historians that didn't happen to watch on TV or attend a certain game.

They are: The Homer In The Gloamin', Ernie Banks' 500th, and possibly Sosa's 60th and 61st. (would have been bigger had MacGwire not beat him to it) That is it. Somewhere between two and four homers for a team that's been around since the Grant Administration.

Homers that mean a lot to me because I happened to be there include Jose Arcia's walk-off homer off Bob Veal on the Sunday before the all-star break in '68, Jody Davis' grand slam against the Mets in '84 (way bigger than Grace's homer in '89 but maybe Al wasn't there) and Kingman's three homer game in LA that led to a Tommy Lasorda meltdown. None were greatests of all time and they were only memorable to those in attendance or watching on TV.

The older the homer, the less witnesses, the less its supposed importance.

That's why I think the list should be called "The Homers That Bring Tears To The Eyes Of Al, Baby Boomers And Younger Cub Fans Living Vicariously Through Us With The Addition Of The Homer In The Gloamin'".

by TR on Feb 1, 2008 1:56 AM CST up reply actions

To try to name 12....

The Homer in the Gloamin', Sosa in Game 1 of the 2003 NLCS, The Sandberg Game, Ernie's 500th, Willie Smith on Opening Day of '69, Jim Hickman in June of '69, Sandberg becoming the all-time leader among second basemen, Sosa's 61st and 62nd in '98, Dawson's 399th in his last home game as a Cub....it's tough to come up with 12, and these were just off the top of my head without doing any research, because I'm out the door to work. (How did I do, Al?) Honestly, most of these, in the big picture, were fairly meaningless. With our playoff history, (small and unspectacular) there aren't too many which has really big postseason implications. That I can think of, anyway.

"Don't complain to me about the stormy weather, boys. Just bring the ship into port." --Steve Stone, September 2004

by ctcoff99 on Jan 31, 2008 1:27 PM CST up reply actions

The Sandberg game...

...too bad for Willie McGee who I believe was already named the player of the game.......it the outcome was different it would be the Willie McGee game because he went 4-6 with 6rbis...but Ryno outdid him with a 5-6 and 6rbis

"Hey.....Cubs win!!!" ---Harry "I strongly dislike Steve Stone." ---Hammer

by Hammer on Jan 31, 2008 1:43 PM CST up reply actions

Correct about the postseason.

If you saw my post the other day, the Cubs have hit only 12 HR total in World Series games, only three of those in games they actually won.

None of those makes this list.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al Yellon on Jan 31, 2008 1:57 PM CST up reply actions

I believe...

...McGee also hit for the cycle that day too.

by MissouriKev on Jan 31, 2008 3:56 PM CST up reply actions

The first live sporting event I remember seeing...

...was this homer. I was five at the time. I loved playing baseball, vaguely knew who the Cubs were, and I knew I was supposed to root for them. After this homer, I not only had a team to root for, I had a favorite player, as well.

by rangerforlife on Jan 31, 2008 7:09 PM CST reply actions