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Dawson recalls facing Mussina

It was the bottom of the first inning at Fenway Park against the Baltimore Orioles and Andre Dawson, in the tailend of his professional career — went to the plate with two outs against the Orioles.

As he stepped in the batter’s box, Dawson looked up and saw Mike Mussina eyeing him on the mound.

Dawson, in his 18th year in the Major Leagues, took the first pitch he saw and made contact only to see it result in a fly out. The eight-time All-Star and future Hall of Famer remembered exactly what he thought the first time he faced Mussina on that June 11 night in 1993.

“I saw Mike. I was kind of toward the end of my two years in Boston facing him in Baltimore. My immediate thought was ‘this guy’s pretty good,'” Dawson said. “One of the premiere pitchers during his era. One thing about the Hall of Fame is if you’re a Hall of Famer, it’s inevitable you’re going to get in. That process has to play out the way it does, but this is another individual that was definitely Hall worthy. He’s come full circle now.”

Dawson, a National Baseball Hall of Famer himself having played majority of his career with the Chicago Cubs as an outfielder, was at the Williamsprot Country Club on Monday morning as part of Little League’s Golf Classic to represent the Cubs in advance of this year’s MLB Little League Classic game. He was joined by former Pittsburgh Pirates World Series champion Kent Tekulve, who is representing Pittsburgh.

Both Dawson and Tekulve reflected on Montoursville native Mussina, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame two weeks ago in Cooperstown.

Dawson faced Mussina three times throughout the end of his career with the Red Sox. Dawson played for the Boston Red Sox in 1993 and 1994 and then spent his final two seasons in 1995 and 1996 with the Florida Marlins.

Dawson ended his 21-year career with 2,774 hits and 1,591 RBIs with a .279 batting average. However in 10 at bats against Mussina, Dawson went just 1 for 10 with his lone hit against the Montoursville native coming on May 17, 1994 in Baltimore when he connected for a single in a 3-2 loss.

Mussina went 3-0 in those three games against Dawson.

“He had a power fastball and he had one heck of a breaking ball and he came right at you,” Dawson remembered of Mussina. “There’s instances where you go up there and kind of pick up what it is that this guy is trying to do, but you knew immediately he was going to come right at you. It’s almost like strength against strength. That’s what I respect the most about him because when he went out there, he was going to keep you in the ballgame and give you a chance to win the ball game.”

Tekulve had a 16-year career, playing for the Pirates from 1974 until 1985 and won a championship in 1979 against the Baltimore Orioles. In 1985, he ended up with the Philadelphia Phillies and played there until 1988. He spent his final year in 1989 in Cincinnati where he retired at the age of 42.

While Tekulve played his entire career before Mussina got to the big leagues — Mussina was at Stanford when Tekulve wrapped his playing career up — Tekulve watched Mussina play from afar on television.

“I think the thing that impressed me the most when I got opportunity to watch him on TV was the consistency of what he did. Some guys are up and down, Mike Mussina was probably one of the most consistent pitchers over the years that I watched where you pretty much knew when he went out there what kind of game you were going to get from him,” Tekulve said.

Mussina had a 3.68 ERA for his career and retired in 2008 with 270 wins. In his sixth year on the ballot, Mussina was elected to the Hall of Fame. He was a five-time All-Star and a seven-time Gold Glove winner.

He won 20 games at the age of 39 in 2008 with the New York Yankees and twice won 19 games in a season, doing so in 1995 and 1996 with the Baltimore Orioles.

From 1992 through 2008, Mussina never had a losing record on the mound, and that consistency is what stood out over the years for Tekulve.

“He was going to be high quality. It was going to be a consistent and there probably weren’t going to be too many big innings in it. He had the ability a lot of pitchers wish they had to avoid the big inning, to find the easiest way out of a problem,” Tekulve said. “I’m very much an admirer of his and was very glad when he got inducted into the Hall of Fame because he didn’t have the big personality, he didn’t promote himself, yet his work on the field was enough to promote him and get to the Hall of Fame.”

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