Paul Sullivan: Andre Dawson fighting the odds to get his Hall of Fame plaque’s cap changed. ‘My preference all along was as a Cub.’

CHICAGO — Andre Dawson never has let the odds bother him.

The former Chicago Cubs slugger overcame 12 knee surgeries during his 21-year, Hall of Fame career, and he famously offered the Cubs a blank contract as a free agent in spring training of 1987, telling the team to fill in the blanks with however much they felt comfortable paying him.

When Cubs President Dallas Green persuade his Tribune Co. bosses to give Dawson a guaranteed $500,000, with a potential $150,000 bonus, they got one of baseball’s best players at a bargain-basement price.

“Andre and (agent Dick Moss) were willing to sacrifice salary and principle in 1987 to play in Wrigley Field for the Cubs,” Green said that day in a statement. “He was willing to bet that his production on the field would better his salary for 1988 and the future — something rather unusual in itself in these wild days of free agency.

“Our baseball people were able to convince Tribune Co. that we as an organization could overcome the obstacles we had presented to signing him and perhaps improve the team in 1987. The rest is up to Andre and the Cubs players, who were so anxious to see this accomplished. Andre has proven once again that he is a class person.”

Dawson proceeded to win the National League Most Valuable Player award for a last-place Cubs team in ’87 and revived his career by going from the AstroTurf of Montreal’s Olympic Stadium to the grass of Wrigley Field. He played in five All-Star games during his six seasons on the North Side, hitting 174 of his 438 career home runs.

But when Dawson was voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010, he was forced to accept the Hall’s decision to display him wearing an Expos cap on his plaque. The decision was made without consulting him, which stuck in his craw.

“When I think about them immortalizing a cap, it would be the Chicago Cubs for a lot of personal reasons,” Dawson said at the time. “When the announcement was made last night, it was a little gut-wrenching.”

The Hall of Fame had taken the decision away from inductees in 2001, reportedly after a rumor that Wade Boggs had a clause in his Tampa Bay contract to choose a Devil Rays cap over the Boston Red Sox when he got in. Boggs, who was inducted with a Red Sox cap on his plaque in 2005, denied the rumor, saying: “I did not make a decision or accept money from any other team in exchange for saying what team I would represent in the Hall.”

Nevertheless, the change had been made. The Hall of Fame had the final say over the caps.

While Dawson was disappointed, getting elected into the Hall was one of the biggest moments of his life, so he didn’t make a stink.

But more than 13 years after his induction, Dawson has had a change of heart. He’s taking one more gamble, asking the Hall to reconsider and change the cap on his Cooperstown plaque from the Expos to the Cubs. He recently sent a letter to Jane Forbes Clark, chairman of the Hall of Fame board of directors, and the Hall committee requesting a meeting about possibly changing his plaque.

As of Monday night, Dawson hadn’t heard back, and he wasn’t sure whether the Hall would respond.

“I don’t expect them to jump on something like this,” he told me Monday in a phone conversation. “If they elect to respond, they’ll take their time. And it wouldn’t surprise me if they don’t respond.”

Dawson said he understands the “logic” behind the Hall choosing the player’s cap. He came up with the Expos and played 11 seasons in Montreal — five more than he played in Chicago. But he believes he’s more associated with the Cubs than a defunct team from a city that lost baseball after the 2004 season, when MLB bought the Expos and moved the franchise to Washington, D.C.

Dawson was the runner-up for the NL MVP award in Montreal in 1981 and ’83 but said, “Obviously you’re not going to get the recognition playing across the border as you would in the States.” He has nothing against the city of Montreal or Expos fans.

“I just felt my preference all along was as a Cub, despite playing (11) years in Montreal,” he said. “I had my reasons, and I think that should’ve been something we sat down and discussed.

“It’s hard for stuff to bother me, to a degree. But this has toyed with me over the years for the simple reason that I was approached with the (announcement) that was going to be released to the press that I was going to wear an Expos emblem. I didn’t agree with it at the time. But for me, getting into the Hall was the most important thing.

“Over time, I’ve thought about it more and came to the (conclusion) I should have had some say-so … I personally feel my mission, for the rest of my life going forward if that’s what it takes, is to right a wrong.”

Why is this so important to him now?

Dawson felt his signing in Chicago changed everything about how he was perceived as a player.

“It was an eye-opening experience for me,” he said. “The adoration of the fan base, the welcoming from the city itself and the joy of being able to experience that feeling in the second half of my career. … I was one of the more popular players in Montreal, but I wouldn’t consider myself an organizational icon or the most popular.

“That didn’t affect me because I was there to do a job, and I tried to do it to the best of my ability. When push came to shove and I became a free agent, I think it was handled poorly and in a sense I was really forced out. The change of scenery in Chicago rejuvenated me because of how warmly I was received.”

Cap controversies are nothing new with the Hall of Fame. Manager Tony La Russa, pitcher Greg Maddux and first baseman Fred McGriff are among those whose Hall of Fame careers spanned several teams and whose plaques have caps without a logo.

La Russa said after his election that “in no way do I want to disrespect Chicago, Oakland or St. Louis” in the cap selection. Maddux said before his induction in 2014 that he loved both the Cubs and Atlanta Braves and couldn’t choose between the two organizations.

“Obviously I feel like I had more success as a Brave,” Maddux said. “We did get a World Series there. But I came up as a Cub. For me, I couldn’t pick. I really couldn’t. Both places mean too much to me personally and my family.”

Dawson, who was Maddux’s teammate on the Cubs, would’ve liked to have had a choice. He knows that the chances are slim of getting the Hall to budge on this — altering plaques has been extremely rare over the years — and that some, including Expos fans, might criticize him for wanting to switch.

“I realize there will probably be some backlash, but at this point I’m 70 years old,” he said with a laugh. “Do you think I really care?”

Baseball changes its rules so often these days, our heads are spinning, so I’m not sure why the Hall of Fame couldn’t honor Dawson’s request and let him have a Cubs cap on his plaque.

Do the right thing.