The 1984 Andre Dawson Blank Check

Milton Bradley had their crystal ball in peak form

1984 Topps Milton Bradley Andre Dawson (#8) - Card of the Day

The 1984 season was no game — no day at the park — for Montreal Expos superstar Andre Dawson.

Coming off a career-high 159 games played over which he hit .299 with 32 home runs and 113 RBI, Dawson entered his age-29 season as a three-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove winner, the 1977 National League Rookie of the Year award, and a reputation as one of the best all-around players in the game.

But thanks in large part to the concrete Astroturf outfield surface at Olympic Stadium, Dawson also entered the season with a pair of the oldest, balkiest knees in the game.

To help cut down on the pounding those joints took, Dawson moved to right field for 1984.

It wasn’t enough.

Though he snagged his fifth straight Gold Glove and his first in right that summer, he also played in just 138 games. His batting line tumbled from MVP-caliber levels to .248/17 HR/86 RBI. He also failed to steal at least 20 bases in a full season for the first time in his career, and that includes the strike-torn 1981, when he swiped 26.

That choppy performance at the plate snapped Dawson’s All-Star streak and left him with no MVP votes for the first time since 1978…but it didn’t keep him from being a hobby star.

Indeed, if there was a set of baseball cards issued in 1984, you could about bet your Picasso Expos logo that the Hawk would be on the checklist. Topps, Fleer, Donruss, Donruss Champions, Fleer Stickers, Topps Stickers, Drake’s, Ralston, Stuart…Dawson was everywhere.

And he just might have been there when you sat down to play some board games with your diamond friends late on a Friday or Saturday night, too.

“Championship Baseball” was a Milton Bradley creation, featuring a fairly typical game board, but one that looked like a baseball diamond when you unfolded it. You’d roll some dice, move your cardboard “men” around the board, and let the baseball gods determine your fate.

There were even a couple of grandstand cutouts you could stand up to give the whole soiree more ballpark flare. As far as I can tell, you had to provide your own peanuts and Cracker Jack.

Milton Bradley provided the 30-card set of major league players that accompanied the game, though. The checklist included (of course) Dawson, at #8 as you see above. The back of each card showed the player’s 1983 stats, along with a key for what play each dice combination yielded:

Anyone holding this Dawson card sure would have thought they were gazing upon baseball royalty…and they were. His ascent to Cooperstown was just taking a painful detour into his early 30s.

One curious aspect of these cards is that they don’t include team logos even though Topps produced them for MB. Since Topps had an MLB license, why no franchise bling?

In Dawson’s case, we could — with the benefit of knowing a bit about the unsavory baseball history to follow — surmise that maybe Topps was warning us about the Hawk’s upcoming baseball limbo at the hands of owner collusion.

In the end, of course, Dawson’s voyage into baseball’s free agent void in the 1986-87 offseason led him to Wrigley Field and into the history books. And, eventually, to Cooperstown.

Today, all roads lead to anything and everything Dawson, as Andre Nolan Dawson turns 71 years old.

The Andre Dawson Baseball Card Only a Blank Check Could Buy

The first Dawson Cubs card, at least nominally, came courtesy of Donruss’ first foray into the traded-card realm. After tackling late-season releases with Highlights sets in 1985 and 1986 and debuting The Rookies in 1986, Big D looked back at the beginning of the 1987 season with their Opening Day release.

And, while the set was undoubtedly another vehicle to squeeze a few more dollars out of Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Benito Santiago, and other big-name rookies, it had the happy side effect of delivering veterans in new togs.

The Hawk was chief among them.

Read more about this card right here.

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