Santo speaking at the 2008 Cubs Convention
I’m not an overly sentimental guy. I’ll admit it… when a famous baseball player gets sick or even passes on, it doesn’t hit me like it does some people. But it was a little different with Ron Santo.
When Ron Santo died in 2010 from complications from diabetes (a condition he lived with his whole adult life), I felt it a little more. I was also more than bit angry when he was denied entry to the Hall of Fame in the last years of his life. I hate to use the “it’s a Cub thing, you wouldn’t understand” argument but being a Northsider fan since I could talk (in the days when players would stay with a team for more than five, six or in his case fourteen years), I remember watching Santo in his latter years. His playing days are a good argument for the Hall but for me, his role as ambassador for the game give him the extra credentials for the hallowed halls of Cooperstown.
Ron Santo was old school. I think that is an understatement. He was a homer, too. That was what was endearing about him. Make no mistake, I don’t harbor any illusions about Santo being a brilliant voice broadcaster. He wasn’t. But he was the real thing. In this day of slick analysts and smooth (and sometimes not so smooth) talkers with a mike in front of them, when Ronnie said something you pretty much knew it was coming from Ronnie. Most importantly, Ron Santo was a baseball fan.
Despite the detractors out there, Ron Santo deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. I’m glad he finally made it this weekend even though it was a couple years too late for him to enjoy it.
Yes, Ronnie is smiling now.
Very nice piece. It is a sad thing when our favorite athlete passes on. When it comes to football, I bleed Eagles green, and my favorite Eagles teams of all-time are the Buddy Ryan teams from the late 80’s. My parents have always been very religious people and back in June of 1992, Billy Graham did a series of crusade shows at The Vet. My parents drug my brother, sister and I to I think 3 shows. The first night was because Reggie White was preaching and what old time Eagles fan would pass up an opportunity to hear “the Minister of Defense” preach. He opened up his sermon that night with the following sentence ” today, I lost a great friend, Philadelphia lost a great player, Jerome Brown died today…….” . He then buried his face into his hands and fought back tears as the majority of the crowd, me included, wa hearing the news for the first time as the news of his passing was just released. Jerome died in a single car accident along with his 12 year old nephew. The Eagles dedicated the upcoming season to Jerome, but it just wasn’t the same without Jerome in the middle. I was 15 years old that night and had never lost anyone before, let alone an athlete, so I took it pretty hard. We look at athletes to be superheroes and they become a part of our lives so that when something happens, it hurts a little more.