Glenview Fans Stand Out at Andre Dawson Book Signing

As Cubs Hall of Famer Andre Dawson wowed the overflow crowd at Winnetka’s The Book Stall Wednesday night, two Glenview residents added the most interesting sights and sounds to the book signing event.

Francine Wagner, attending with husband Michael, offered the most compelling story of crossing paths with Dawson.

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Wagner was at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago for scheduled skin-cancer surgery on July 7, 1987. But her operation was delayed when Dawson was suddenly admitted. He'd been hit in the face by a pitched ball from San Diego’s Eric Show. Dawson required dozens of stitches, so Wagner’s plastic surgeon shifted over to the emergency before he tended to Wagner.

Then and now, Wagner did not mind at all.

“My memory (of that day) is very dear to me,” said Wagner.

“The reason they bumped her was to get an athlete back on the field,” Dawson mused.

Years later, as Wagner was hospitalized in Seattle for a bone-marrow transplant, Dawson—in town to receive an award—visited her.

Dressed in No. 8

And for all the Cubs and baseball apparel on display—including a grade-school boy wearing a Jennings Chevrolet baseball uniform—the only attendee displaying a Dawson blue No. 8 shirt was middle-aged Fred Fragassi.

 “The only two times I saw him get mad was that (the 1987 hit in the face) and a bad call by an umpire (Joe West in 1991),” Fragassi said. “I met him at the Cubs Convention four years ago. I told him you’re going to get into the Hall of Fame, and two years later, he did.”

“The luster of this evening – it will not diminish,” Dawson shared with the Book Stall crowd. “It’s your evening. I’m not an author. I’m a retired baseball player.”