While I was happy to see Jim Rice and Rickey Henderson inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame a few weeks back, I could not help but think that the hall is missing something; namely Ronald Edward Santo.
Sadly, Ron Santo is a virtual unknown today outside of Chicago where he played his entire 15-year career, 14 with the Cubs and the last with the cross town White Sox. Henderson is certainly deserving of enshrinement on the first ballot and Rice, after a significant wait, deserved it as well. However, if the golden doors are now open to Rice, by all measures they should be open for Santo as well.
Consider their stats. Rice had 382 home runs, 1,451 RBI's and a career batting average of 298 during his 15-year career. He won 1 MVP, appeared in 8 all-star games and had zero gold gloves. He did not play for a world series winner and was on 1 team (1975) that won the American league pennant. He also played in an era that favored hitters. In the mid 70's, the pitching mounds were lowered and the strike zones shrunk in order to generate offense, largely missing since 1963 when the mounds were raised and the strike zones expanded. This happened because baseball's commissioner at the time, Ford Frick, thought there were too many cheap home runs in baseball. Remember, this is the same Ford Frick that placed an asterisk next to the name of Roger Maris who hit more home runs in a single season than any non-steroid doping human being ever.
That brings us to Ron Santo. He played almost his entire career during the dead ball era. The entire prime of his career was spent facing the likes of Koufax, Gibson, Bunning, Seaver, Drysdale and other greats on mounds that resembled small mountains and with strike zones that were generous to say the least. Still his statistics compare favorably to Jim Rice. Santo had
342 home runs, 1,331 RBI's and a career batting average of 277, which would equate to roughly 295 when adjusted to Rice's era. In addition, Santo was the winner of 5 gold gloves, appeared in
9 all star games and 4 times was in the top 10 in the MVP vote. Also, consider that Ron Santo accomplished all of this while hiding a severe illness -diabetes, which has since ravaged his body.
Today, Santo is a broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs and remains a very popular figure in Chicagoland. Clearly, he is disappointed by the fact that he has not achieved enshrinement into the Hall of Fame. Certainly, Jim Rice deserved the honor. However, by enshrining Rice, the Hall of Fame can no longer ignore Ron Santo. Simply put, it is past time for Ron Santo to be inducted. In order to receive this honor Santo must be on 75% of the veterans committee's ballots. I now question the sanity of any veteran committee member who does not vote for Ron Santo.
I'm surprised as well that santo hasnt been chosen as yet. He has a number of baseball characteristics that shouldve helped him; he was on the al-star team and won the golden gloves a number of times.
ReplyDeleteBesides, his battle against diabetes is well known to most fans, and his courage in spite of losing his legs should make him an easy choice.