Friday, January 15, 2021

Enter, the Hawk

One of my favorite characters in Cobra Kai is the character, Hawk
 Originally introduced in the show as one of the nerdy loser kids of the school, Eli was often bullied because of his cleft lip.
He joined Cobra Kai as a way to learn to fight back against the bullies and Johnny Lawrence, the sensei of Cobra Kai, teases Eli about it by saying "so it looked worse before the surgery" and suggested to Eli that unless he wants to be called Lip for the rest of life to find a way to distract others from looking at his birth defect.

Eli, entered the dojo later sporting a blue mohawk, and got the respect of his sensei, dubbing him Hawk.

Hawk became the second best student of Cobra Kai after Miguel.
Over the course of the two seasons that followed we have seen a lot of personal development of the character as he has struggled with ethics, friendships, and relationships.
Hawk is my second favorite character of the series after Johnny Lawrence.  His screen time and struggles make me a Fan of the show.

There was also a baseball player who was known as Hawk.

According to baseball reference, Andrew McCutchen's age 31 season was most similar to Hall of Famer, Andre Dawson the Hawk.
Andre Dawson's age 31 season fell in 1986, his final year in Montreal.
The 1986 season saw the Hawk hit 20HR in 130 games a few years removed from a serious knee injury. He stole 18 bags and had an .815 OPS with 65 Runs scored and 78RBI.  
Cutch's age 31 season was in 2018, his first year away from Pittsburgh where he split time on both coasts in San Francisco and New York.  

Cutch hit 20HR with 65RBI and 83 Runs scored with 14 stolen bases and a .792 OPS.

2020 Donruss saw a throwback to the 1986 design with a few players getting the autograph treatment.  
The fronts featured a chrome like design in an obvious throwback to the 1986 design.
The back features a 1986 Donruss inspired back to compliment the front.

Fun side note, Karate Kid 2 came out in 1986 and Andrew McCutchen was born in 1986.

What memories do you have of 1986?

3 comments:

  1. A. Skipped middle school ceremony to go to Tahoe.

    B. Got banned from Long's.

    C. Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy.

    D. Attended A's and Giants Mother's Cookies giveaway games.

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  2. I've got a couple Darryl Strawberry's from 2020 Donruss. They are ok. This Cutch is nice. From 1986, I of course remember collecting and trading baseball cards. And definitely Ferris Beuller's Day Off and Back to School and Ruthless People, for films. As Fuji said, the Challenger disaster. But the biggest memory was the Mets winning the World Series.

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