A Belated Tribute to Ron Santo

The Cubs held another belated Ron Santo Day Friday after his enshrinement in the Hall of Fame last Sunday.  I wasn't at the stadium, but from the replays, it looked like standard issue tributes that featured Ron's family and some of his former teammates.  Which is OK I guess.

I always liked Santo as a player, although he was not the superstar that his teammates and now fellow Hall-of-Famers Banks, Williams, and Jenkins were.  His stats compare favorably and even more than favorably with the best third basemen of that era.

Santo was apparently not the funny, nutty uncle persona he affected in the radio booth during his playing days, and this somehow seriously affected his election chances during the period immediately after his retirement.  That and the fact he took a long hiatus from the game, something like fifteen years until he returned as the radio color man.

I was living overseas for many of Santo's best seasons, from 1966 to 1971, so I wasn't able to closely follow the Cubs then, when, arguably, they had their best teams.  Still, I never have been able to figure out why, with a roster full of really great players like the aforementioned Hall-of-Famers as well as other stars like Ken Holtzman and Randy Hundley and Don Kessinger, the Cubs were never able to win a Division title.  That might have had something to do with the difficulty of electing him to the Hall as well.

Santo fought a courageous battle with diabetes and its complications throughout his life and never seems to have lost his courage or his sense of humor.  Most fans now know Ron from his days as the somewhat demented press box companion to Pat Hughes.  This act was no doubt amusing, but, in a sad way, its current exploitation shortchanges Santo's achievements and personality and genuine knowledge and appreciation of the game.

His posthumous election adds yet another note of sadness to his life and career.  Too bad he was unable to enjoy these days.  Rightly or wrongly, I think it meant more to Ron to be recognized for his abilities as a player than as a person or a personality.