Although it took Andre Dawson nine years of eligibility to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame his ticket to Cooperstown was essentially punched when he hung up his spikes at the end of the 1996 season. Dawson closed out his illustrious 21-year career with 2,774 hits, 1,591 RBI and 438 home runs ranking him 43rd on the all-time list one behind Paul Konerko and four ahead of Juan Gonzalez. Dawson’s 438 dingers are also in front of Hall of Famers like Billy Williams, Duke Snider and Al Kaline.

     “The Hawk” spent the last two years of his career as a member of the Florida Marlins and launched this Leonard S Coleman Official National League ball for the 438th and final home run of his career off Houston Astros pitcher Xavier Hernandez with two on in the bottom of the eighth inning of the Marlins 6-0 victory over the Astros at Pro Player Park in Miami on September 22, 1996. Off white ball contains a black scuff mark where Dawson’s bat connected with the ball a side panel just beneath the Rawlings label and is inscribed by Dawson on a side panel in blue ball point pen reading: “438th Homerun hit on 9/22/96 at Pro Player Stadium Pinch hit 3-run Homerun off Xavier Hernandez Marlins-6 Astros-1 [score was actually 6-0].” This historic final home run ball of Andre Dawson’s Hall of Fame career comes with a notarized letter of authenticity from Dawson.

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