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Guess what these no-hit infielders, fourth outfielders, utility players, bench warmers and general  flotsam and jetsam of the Major League Baseball universe have in common:

Rajai Davis, Daric Barton, Mike Sweeney, Ryan Langerhans, Chad Tracy, Garrett Atkins, Ronnie Belliard, Mark Loretta, Melky Cabrera, Kelly Johnson, Alex Rios, Gregg Norton, Ryan Church, Eric Hinske, Jerry Hairston, Sr. and Jerry Hairston, Jr.

They have all gotten on base more successfully than new Hall of Famer Andre Dawson, who made outs in 67.7% of his plate appearances. The aforementioned luminaries are (or were) superior to new Hall of Famer Andre Dawson in avoiding making outs, of which a team has only a limited supply each game.

Hitting safely has been demonstrated to be the single most important skill in the game of baseball. On base percentage correlates with run scoring better than any single statistic. (This is a fact, proven over millions of at bats, not an opinion or conjecture. It's not debatable.) And Andre Dawson, a newly-elected Hall of Famer, was the equal of Mets' backup catcher Brian Schneider at this skill.

If there were a car hall of fame (there probably is), this would be the equivalent of automotive writers voting in the Ford Pinto because it was inexpensive and got good gas mileage. Sure, it disassembled violently when struck from behind but it was stylish and it never got caught taking steroids.

Baseball writers long ago lost the ability to shock me with their ignorance. Congratulations to Andre Dawson, a pretty good player who has now been enshrined as one of the all-time greats in the sacred museum in Cooperstown.

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