Andre Dawson has finally been elected to the baseball Hall of Fame.

“The Hawk”, who finished out his career with the marlins in 1995 and 1996 and is currently a member of the Marlins front office is a former NL MVP and ROY. He was an eight-time all star, retired with 438 home runs and 1,591 RBI.

A Miami native, Dawson becomes the first Marlins player inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Update: Dawson received 77.9% of the vote.

Lost in an article about Ed O’Bannon selling cars is that one of his co-workers is none other than former Marlin Eric Ludwick.

Early on, O’Bannon was befriended by a soft-spoken Findlay salesman named Eric Ludwick, who could understand his pain like few others. Ludwick, who had been at Findlay for two years when O’Bannon showed up, was a former UNLV pitcher who spent parts of four seasons in the major leagues. Like O’Bannon, he entered pro ball as a phenom — he was a second-round draft pick in 1993 and was once traded for Mark McGwire — and like O’Bannon, he had been forced to go overseas, in his case to Japan, to make a living after flaming out in the United States.

Don’t remember Ludwick? He was one of many players to cycle through the organization in the post 1997 World Series fire sale (he was acquired in exchange for Kurt Abbott). His brother Ryan Ludwick has turned out to be a good ball player.

You can read more about him in our 1998 posts here.

Looks like the Marlins were not willing to give in to Pudge Rodriguez’s demands for play time and he is on the verge of signing with the Houston Astros for $1.5MM.

Time Magazine profiles former Marlins’ pitcher Rick Helling, who was one of the first and loudest voices against baseball’s steroid era. Helling was a member of the Marlins during the 1997 and 2003 championship seasons.

Former Marlins’ closer Joe Borowski has retired.

Not with the Marlins. Pavano just signed with the Cleveland Indians.

Matt Treanor is now a Tiger, but aren’t they all?

Jeff Conine was hired by the Florida Marlins to serve as a Special Assistant to the Team President. Like Andre Dawson and Tony Perez, who also hold this role, Niner will work on-field, in community relations and in the broadcast booth. No word on whether he will get to wear a uniform before games and which number will be on that uniform (18 or 19).

Jason Wood has retired and will join the Dodgers’ minor league team as a hitting instructor.

Funny quote from Dontrelle Willis in the above video from ESPN calling himself a throw-in in the trade. ESPN has finally decided to shower Miguel Cabrera with love now that he’s not with the Marlins. For all the accolades about him accomplishing new things in Detroit, I will remind them that in this team sport, he has already achieved the top goal — a championship — with the Fish.