1978 SPECIAL- THE MONTREAL EXPOS STAR OUTFIELD

Fun card to create for the blog here, a 1978 special featuring the Montreal Expos brilliant young outfield trio of Andre Dawson, Warren Cromartie and Ellis Valentine:

What a group of talented young players here!
With Cromartie the oldest at 23 years of age with the other two at 22, these guys were primed for some great seasons, and 1977 showed just that.
Andre Dawson marched straight to a National League Rookie of the Year with 19 homers, 21 stolen bases and a .282 batting average, Warren Cromartie also hit .282 with 175 hits, 41 doubles, 10 stolen bases and only 40 strikeouts in 662 plate appearances, and Ellis Valentine hit 25 homers, with 76 runs batted in, 13 stolen bases and a .293 average.
While Dawson went on to a Hall of Fame career, all three had nice careers, with Cromartie going to Japan after the 1983 season before making a comeback in 1991 at the age of 37 with the Kansas City Royals, hitting .313 over 69 games.
I’m sure any team would love to have these three anchoring their outfield!

NICKNAMES OF THE 1970'S: "THE HAWK" ANDRE DAWSON

Though he began his Major League career later in the decade, I have to add Andre Dawson, aka “The Hawk” to be long-running “Nicknames of the 1970’s” thread:

Dawson came up and took home the National League Rookie of the Year in 1977 and just kept on putting in All-Star seasons for over the next 20 years, punching his ticket for the Hall of Fame.
Eight-time All-Star, eight-time Gold Glove, 1987 N.L. MVP, the man was one of the best in the game, and yet incredibly was STILL overlooked through much of his career, playing up North with the Montreal Expos.
The five-time 20/20 guy stole as many as 39 bases in a season (1982), while hitting as many as 49 homers (1987), twice finishing second in the MVP race (1981 and 1983).
By the time he retired after the 1996 season he finished with 438 homers with 314 stolen bases, 2774 hits and 1591 runs batted in, finally making it into Cooperstown in 2010.
What a player...

ROOKIES OF THE YEAR- 1978 SUB-SET

Talk about a powerhouse rookie class! Today I post up a 1978 “Rookies of the Year” card for the 1977 winners of the award, both future Hall of Fame members Andre Dawson of the Montreal Expos and Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles:

Has to be one of the best rookie years, up there with 1967 (Seaver & Carew) and 2001 (Pujols and Ichiro)!
In the National League Dawson was yet another good-looking prospect with Montreal at the time, joining guys like Ellis Valentine, Gary Carter and Warren Cromartie, yet ending up as the only one to win the Rookie of the Year Award.
Dawson edged out New York Mets prospect Steve Henderson by hitting 19 home runs with 65 runs batted in and 21 stolen bases, along with a .282 batting average.
In the American League you had future RBI-machine Eddie Murray, who just set the table for what was to become an incredible 21-year career by hitting 27 homers, with 88 RBIs and a .283 batting average. Basically, you could pencil that average in over the rest of his career as he’d go on to knock in 1917 RBIs and hit 504 homers, while collecting 3255 hits with a .287 average the rest of the way.
The man was a model of consistency, knocking in over 90 RBIs twelve times, including six 100+ seasons, along with 20+ homers 16 times!
Two absolute studs of the game who happened to come up at the same time, and both ending up as members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

DEDICATED "ROOKIE CARDS" #1: 1977 ANDRE DAWSON

I was never a fan of multi-player rookie cards.
They always had pictures that were too small and had basic or no info on the backs. Thus the cards were pretty much useless for fans who liked to study stats or keep track of all the guys on their favorite teams (even if they ended up not sticking around long).
The worst part of those cards were when one of the players ended up becoming a superstar, making for quite the "rookie" shortcoming as far as collecting was concerned.
Today I post the first design of what will be a short thread on this blog: cards of future Hall of Famers who had their rookie cards in the 1970's on one of these multi-player issues.
I say "short thread" because there were only about six players that fit this criteria as far as I can tell: Gary Carter, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk, Paul Molitor, Mike Schmidt and today's subject, Andre Dawson.
Dawson's actual rookie card from the 1977 set sucks, plain and simple. Sharing a card with three other players who didn't really set the Majors on fire makes for a forgettable piece of cardboard.
So let's jazz things up a bit by giving Dawson a dedicated "rookie card".
First off, let's remind ourselves what his actual issued rookie card (#473) looks like:

It doesn't get any more boring than this!

OK. Now allow me to post up my design for a dedicated 1977 Andre Dawson card:

Dawson on his way to "Rookie of the Year".

Would have been nice to have a rookie card like this for "The Hawk" instead of what was issued by Topps.
Oh well, at least it's fun designing these decades later.
Dawson ran and slammed his way to a Hall of Fame induction in 2010 after a fabulous 21 year career with the Expos, Cubs, Red Sox and Marlins.
By the time he hung up the cleats he posted the following: 2774 hits, 438 homers, 1591 runs batted in and 314 stolen bases.
Throw in a Rookie of the Year award in 1977, an M.V.P. award in 1987, eight Gold Gloves and four Silver Slugger awards, and you see why he was such a force on the baseball diamond.
And let us not forget: if he didn't tear his knees up on that Montreal artificial turf, who knows WHAT he could have added to his final numbers.
Anyway, keep an eye out for the "dedicated rookie cards" of the remaining five players listed above in the future.