Countdown To Christmas - 10 Days

I am sad to say today's post will be a letdown to many. Between work, swim team board meeting, and then more work on sythesizing and manipulating a lot of data last night, I really didn't have time to devote to today's post. Tonight looks a bit better in terms of work load, so the 9 Days post should be a good one.
Number 10 is a tough one, having to choose between old time Hall of Famers, modern day All Star selections, and one person who had a mediocre career as a player but enjoyed great success as a manager. I'll hit the highlights for all of them. But leading off is Andre Dawson of the Montreal Expos. Dawson played 21 seasons in the majors, the first 11 seasons north of the border. During his career, he was the 1977 Rookie of the Year, an 8 time All Star, won 8 Gold Gloves, and was named NL MVP in 1987. Dawson finished his career with 2,774 hits, 438 home runs, 314 stolen bases, and 1,591 RBI. He is one of only six players in major league history to record over 300 home runs and 300 stolen bases in his career. Despite these statistics, he has yet to be voted into the Hall of Fame, primarily due to his relatively low batting average (.279) and on base percentage (.323). He is pictured here in a collage from my personal collection of cards.

Lefty Gove pitched for the Philadelphia A's and the Boston Red Sox during the 20's and 30's. En route to winning exactly 300 games, he compiled a winning percentage of .680, 8th best ever in Major League history. Grove was a six time All Star (keep in mind the first All Star game didn't occur until 1933), played on the World Champion Philadelphi Athletics in 1929 and 1930, and was the AL MVP in 1931. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1947. While this is not an original Left Grove card, it is from my collection.

Other famous number 10's include Hall of Famers Sparky Anderson, Al Lopez, Phil Rizzuto, and Lloyd Waner, as well as Rusty Staub and Ron Santo.

My final tribute to number 10 is Dick Howser. Howser was a medicore player during his career, a .248 hitter who played 8 seasons and spent time on 3 teams. He was, however, named to the 1961 All Star team. His greatest success, though, came as a manager, leading his alma mater Florida State for one season, then with the Yankees and later, for seven seasons with the Kansas City Royals. In his nearly seven full seasons as a manager, he never once finished lower than second in his divison, and in 1985 he lead the Royals to their first and only World Series championship. Midway through the 1986 season, Howser was diagnosed with a brain tumor and underwent surgery. He attempted a comeback the following season, but he could not keep up. He passed away in June of 1987 at the age of 51. His number has been retired by the Royals, and Florida State plays its home games on Dick Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium.