Andre Dawson Wants Baseball Hall of Fame to Change Plaque from Expos to Cubs Hat

Andre Dawson has requested the Baseball Hall of Fame change his hat from the Montreal Expos to that of the Chicago Cubs.

"I just felt my preference all along was as a Cub, despite playing (11) years in Montreal," he said to the Chicago Tribune's Paul Sullivan. "I had my reasons, and I think that should've been something we sat down and discussed."

According to Sullivan, Dawson wrote a letter to the chairperson of the Hall of Fame's board of directors and the Hall of Fame committee about altering his plaque.

In a 2009 interview, then-Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson explained to ESPN's Paul Lukas the process behind selecting which hat accompanies an inductee.

"From our standpoint, the logo isn't something we want to be controversial, because the last thing you want is to have a divisive factor when someone's being celebrated with baseball's greatest honor," Idelson said.

"And for any player who played for multiple teams, the fans in each of those cities should claim that player to be their own. Because without that player's time with that team, he arguably would not have been a Hall of Famer. But we try to decide where the player made his most indelible mark."

That leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

Dawson spent 11 years with the Expos, nearly double that of his Cubs tenure. While in Montreal, he was the 1977 National League Rookie of the Year, a three-time All-Star, six-time Gold Glove winner, and an MVP runner-up in 1981 and 1983.

Dawson's best years came in an Expos uniform. However, he won his lone MVP while with the Cubs in 1987, and he was an All-Star five times while playing in the Windy City. There are probably a lot of fans outside of Chicago who first identify Dawson with the Cubs.

It doesn't help that the Expos no longer exist.

"If they are contracted, why would I want to have an association with a defunct team?" legendary catcher Gary Carter said in 2001. "So people can walk through the Hall of Fame in the future and ask, 'Who are the Montreal Expos?'"

Carter was immortalized as an Expo anyway.

This isn't the first time Dawson has publicized his dissatisfaction with the Hall of Fame's decision. He said in 2010 it "was a little gut-wrenching for me to hear that" in reference to the Hall picking Montreal over Chicago.

The 69-year-old acknowledged to Sullivan his latest plea could prove futile.

"I don't expect them to jump on something like this," he told me Monday in a phone conversation. "If they elect to respond, they'll take their time. And it wouldn't surprise me if they don't respond."