Montreal Gazette

The Hawk and the Rock, together in the Hall

Raines cites Dawson’s friendship for helping him get into Cooperstow­n

- STU COWAN

If you want to know what kind of impact Andre Dawson had on former Expos teammate Tim Raines, you could look at the birth certificat­e for Raines’s 34-year-old son.

His name is Andre Raines — and his nickname is Little Hawk.

Andre was born on July 10, 1983, during his father’s third full season with the Expos and his first after going through off-season rehab for a cocaine addiction.

“As it turned out, we share the same birthday,” Dawson, whose nickname was Hawk, said about Little Hawk during a phone interview Wednesday. “He was born on my birthday and (Raines) named him Andre. So that in itself was real touching.”

Raines will join Dawson as a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame when he is inducted Sunday in Cooperstow­n, N.Y. Gary Carter is the only other player to enter the Hall wearing an Expos cap.

Dawson wrote the foreword for Raines’s new book Rock Solid: My Life in Baseball’s Fast Lane and recalled the first time he saw Raines in action after the Expos called him up as a pinch-runner at the end of the 1979 season. Raines was only 19 and Dawson — five years older — recalled that with his short, stocky build, Raines looked more like a football player than a baseball player.

“Some friendship­s develop quickly,” Dawson wrote. “Two people meet, hit it off right away and remain close from that point on. Well that isn’t how it played out for Rock and me. In fact, there was a real awkwardnes­s to our first interactio­ns with each other.”

Dawson recalled Raines claiming he had once asked Dawson for an autograph during a spring training game in Orlando, Fla., and that Dawson had flatly refused.

“I told him I had no recollecti­on of the encounter and, to be honest, I couldn’t imagine that I would act rudely toward an autograph seeker,” Dawson wrote.

Dawson was in his third full season with the Expos in 1979 and was the strong, silent type. Raines was much more talkative and outgoing.

“We were both serious-minded when we were at the playing field. ... I was probably a little bit more,” Dawson said in a phone interview.

After returning to the Expos for the 1983 season following a 30-day stint in a California rehab centre, Raines approached Dawson looking for help.

“He was a friend first and he was a teammate second,” Dawson recalled. “The friendship part of it is what took on a whole different level. I just looked at it like, ‘I’m here for you.’ He approached me and said, ‘I want to be like you.’ I didn’t really know how to take that ... what he meant by that.” A special friendship started. “This young man was very gifted, very talented and whatever I could do to play a role in him not seeing that go to waste I was going to do,” Dawson said.

“You’re not thinking about the Hall of Fame that early in your career. It was just realizing and understand­ing that you’re doing something that a select few get the opportunit­y to do. And because you’re gifted and you’re blessed, you want to make the most of it.”

Raines certainly did, which is why he’s going to Cooperstow­n this weekend. During a conference call last week, Raines was asked if he would have become a Hall of Famer without Dawson’s help.

“I really don’t think so,” Raines said. “I think the impact that he had on me was tremendous.”

Raines also talked about how Dawson had trouble some days just getting to the ballpark because of his bad knees, partly a result of playing centre field on the brutal artificial turf at Olympic Stadium.

“To watch him play day in and day out was inspiring,” Raines said.

“He was like my big brother. He was like a father figure. He was like a player that you looked up to and you wanted to be like him. And just having him with me my first five, six years meant a lot. And I owe a lot to him for being a friend, a teammate and a positive influence on the way I played the game.”

The three Expos Hall of Famers — Raines, Dawson and Carter — all have something else in common: they did not finish their careers in Montreal. Dawson is now a special assistant to Miami Marlins president David Samson.

“I think Rock and I both would have been happy to stay in Montreal for our entire careers,” Dawson wrote in Raines’s book. “But that’s not how it worked out. I’ll never forget our time together with the Expos. Who knows? Maybe a major-league team will return to Montreal someday. If that ever happens, Rock and I will be its biggest cheerleade­rs.”

 ?? TIM SNOW/FILES ?? Tim Raines, right, said it was “inspiring” to watch former Expos teammate Andre Dawson play “day in and day out,” which helped the speedy outfielder carve out a Hall of Fame career.
TIM SNOW/FILES Tim Raines, right, said it was “inspiring” to watch former Expos teammate Andre Dawson play “day in and day out,” which helped the speedy outfielder carve out a Hall of Fame career.

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