Finally: Ron Santo Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
During his life Ron Santo openly pined to be inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame and he couldn't mask his disappointment whenever sportswriters and, later, the Veterans Committee denied him entry year after year.
All of this makes Santo's election to the Hall this morning all the more bittersweet, in addition to being overdue. Santo was the only player elected, receiving 15 of 16 votes in the "Golden Era" balloting, which encompasses the years 1947-72.
Santo's election to the hall comes just over a year after his passing. Some, including this writer, long believed Santo's open campaigning for the Hall was a major reason he was denied enshrinement in Cooperstown when he was alive. Santo even admitted as much to the Daily Herald's Barry Rosner ten years ago.
“I can't explain that feeling,” Santo told me in August 2001. “It's something that fills you up and completes your career. I've always said I wouldn't want it to happen if I was dead, so I hope I live that long.”
But his stats were worthy of the Hall: with .277 with 342 home runs and 1,331 RBIs, nine All-Star appearances and five consecutive Gold Gloves, Santo had numbers comparable to Orioles Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson, to whom he was often compared.
Santo becomes the 47th Hall of Famer to have played for the Cubs and joins Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Fergie Jenkins from the ill-fated 1969 team to make the Hall.
