Please, veterans committee, put Ron Santo in the Hall
By Billy Dennis on February 21st, 2007 
If Ron Santo didn’t exist, the Cubs would have to invent him. What a perfect representative for the team and its fans. Yeah, the Yankees have all those gaudy World Series rings, but their players, fans and management exude nothing but rudeness, abrasiveness and a sense of arrogant entitlement. How can any true, undedog-loving American possibly root for any team from New York City when the Cubs are so lovable.
By the way, there is a blog created to support Santo’s selection to the Hall of Fame. It hasn’t been updated in more than a month, which is odd considering the vote is next week.
I’m an eternal optimist. This is the year for Santo and for the Cubs.
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Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Why do you want the Cubs to win? You clearly think teams that lose for 100 years are superior to one that has won over 20 World Series. It sounds to me like winning would tarnish your beloved ballclub, not help it. They would get “gaudy” World Series rings, and wouldn’t that just be the pits? You’d lose all respect for them.
No, you should be rooting for them to lose. It’s what they do best!
Because when the Cardinals win, all the people who keep their mouths SHUT when the sh*tbirds aren’t doing well suddenly come out of the wordwork.
When are the Cardinals not doing well?
That would be THIS YEAR!
I heard a rumor from a former Peoria reporter that Santo is paying you to write this stuff.
Oh, by the way… Go Sox. Cubs suck.
[The previous sentence was an uncompensated, totally heartfelt sports endorsement.]
Where is BJ with his mandatory “Cub hater” comment? The dude has a serious fetish with the Cubs…especially for a Twinks fan.
CJ sez: “You clearly think teams that lose for 100 years are superior to one that has won over 20 World Series.”
I sez: No, CJ. The TEAM that does not win a Wolrd Series in almost 100 years isn’t superior….just the fans.
Oh I see, so the fans admit that the team is no good, but still root for them, and that makes them superior. Why do I feel like the Cubs and their fans are in an abusive co-dependent relationship?
The Black Sox won the world series in 2005, but still were the 3rd favorite baseball team among Illinoisans.
That must really gall you, Rich.
Tickets go on sale Friday.
Nope.
Here’s a little secret, Billy…
We don’t care whether you like us. In fact, we assume you don’t. We’d rather the tourists stayed away. It just makes the bathroom lines too long.
Cub fans are all caught up in “popularity,” rather than the team that plays in their disintegrating ballpark, which is why we enjoy bashing them so much. We care about our team, not which overcrowded yuppie bar we’ll attend to celebrate the glory of yet another in a 99-year string of losses.
It’s gonna be a great season – meaning wins over losses, not how many darling little suburbanite tourists show up to gawk at the park and avoid the falling concrete. I can’t wait to start blogging about it.
I think Ron Santo should be in the Hall of Fame without a doubt.
But until Tony Oliva and Bert Blyleven get in, I don’t care WHO gets in, as those are the absolute two most deserving players who are not yet in the Hall, and it has nothing to do with the fact they were Twins at some point (or in Oliva’s case) all of their careers.
When those two guys get in, I’ll be on the Santo bandwagon big time.
BTW, as you can see, it’s not the Cubs PLAYERS I can’t stomach (outside of a certain oft-injured pitcher and a former Cub who owns significant stock in several steroid companies). No, it’s something entirely different, and I’ll leave it to you to figure it out.
It is called faith and loyalty, CJ.
Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the concept of love?
Chrip, chirp, chirp
Love? More like pity.
I kid.
Ron doesn’t stand a chance of going into tjhe Hall of Fame until the Curse of the Billy Goat and the curse of the Bartmann Ball are lifted by a Cubs team winning the World Series. The Cubs were scheduled to have their curse lifted in 2003, but thanks to bad managing and a new curse they may have to wait another 100 years. Sorry Ron, but you are doomed just as are your beloved Cubbies are doomed. Your fates rest together. There used to be three cursed teams in baseball, but the Red Sox and the White Sox stepped up to the plate and hit their’s away. The Cubs just floundered.
“Cub fans are all caught up in “popularity,†rather than the team that plays in their disintegrating ballpark, which is why we enjoy bashing them so much. We care about our team, not which overcrowded yuppie bar we’ll attend to celebrate the glory of yet another in a 99-year string of losses.”
We have a bingo! Rich, that’s EXACTLY how I feel. As a Twins fan, (who also enjoys the White Sox as long as Ozzie is there), we always support our team, but prefer it be a winner, and if Cub fans really wanted to win, they’d respond by NOT going to the games and NOT buying jersies and hats until a winning product is put on the field. Why win when you’re gonna make money every year to be a loser?
Wah, wah, wah
God, I hate agreeing with BJ.
Cub fans are by far the stupidest people alive. It’s not loyalty. It’s stupidity. Why on earth would anyone put a high priced winner on the field when they can fill a roster with little leaguers and still sell out the stadium everyday? They make more money when they lose because you people keep showing up.
I’m with Rich. I would much prefer going to a game at US Cellular. It’s comfortable. There are no sight obstructions. I can park my car for under $100 and it’s not in a dimly lit alley. I don’t have to deal with drunk frat boys and tourists have no interest in actually watching the game..and I can watch a winner.
What has Santo done to deserve being in the Hall besides losing his legs? The baseball Hall of Fame isn’t easy to get into. There are a lot of guys more deserving than him who haven’t made it.
I believe the Cubs are the last NL team not sucking at the taxpayers teet (Boston and KC in the AL I believe). When they want to upgrade Wrigley they even have to pay off Daley and the neighborhood. Much unlike the Welfare Sox and their $300 million taxpayers paid for 7-11 starting time, cell phone named field. What, they’ve actually had to pay rent two years in a row now?
Go Ron Santo! This is the year for the Cubbies!
Santo isn’t hall of fame material. Nice guy, poor color guy but not hall of fame.
“During his career Ron Santo was a nine-time All-Star. He finished in the top ten in MVP voting four times. He had the fifth highest RBI total of all major league players during the 1960s (topped only by Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Harmon Killebrew and Frank Robinson). During that period no player in the National League drew more walks. He won five consecutive Gold Gloves at third base, and led NL third basemen in putouts, assists, chances and double plays in many seasons. He was among the league leaders in on base percentage and slugging percentage throughout the 1960s; he finished in the top 10 in both categories in his league in every season from 1964 through 1967. He hit more home runs in his career than any third baseman currently in the Hall of Fame other than Mike Schmidt and Eddie Mathews. He combined power and defense to a degree that was unprecedented for third basemen. He coupled that with an ability to draw walks that added value in a manner that has often gone unappreciated. In his 2001 Historical Baseball Abstract Bill James ranked Santo as the 6th best third baseman of all time; he ranked Robinson 7th.”
http://mvn.com/mlb-cubs/2007/01/16/why-ron-santo-belongs-in-the-hall-of-fame-part-1/
http://mvn.com/mlb-cubs/2007/01/17/why-ron-santo-belongs-in-the-hall-of-fame-part-2/
http://mvn.com/mlb-cubs/2007/01/18/why-ron-santo-belongs-in-the-hall-of-fame-part-3/
Santo in the Hall should have been a slam-dunk years ago, and not through the Oldtimers route. If he hadn’t clicked his heels after every victory in ‘69, and if he had a World Series ring, he would have alrready been voted in. It’s time for the voters to honor the accomplishments that Santo had… and, as pointed out, they were many, and Hall-worthy.
I’m a Cub fan and I haven’t been to a game in 6 years. I refuse to give them any more of my money.
And Santo is not getting in. Many on the veterans committee think he was an ass, plain and simple. And I’m sick of his act trying to get himself in the HOF. I’ve never understood the outpouring of love for the 69 Cubs who did nothing but choke.
But that’s just me. I guess I’m not the typical “beer, broads and ivy” Cub fan.