Ron Santo elected to HOF

[Brent65]

Congrats to him and his family, the election comes after a long wait. He is up in heaven clicking his heels! Shocked he wasn't in earlier.

[PATRICKCASSIDY]

Ronto! The Prince of Pizza (any true Bleacher Bum will remember Pro Pizzas)!

Maybe not as purely athletic as Brooks, but fearless on the hot corner and a little better w/ the bat at peak than Brooks.


Its sad that it took his death to help convince some of the voters, but now I have to get back to Cooperstown.


Now, can we do something about Gil Hodges? I know there are a lot of guys from the Boys of Summer in the Hall already, but, man, he was a great player. And a damn good manager - as any '69 Cubs fan who is honest enough can readily admit now.

[Goreds54]

Even as a Reds fan, I always loved Ron Santo, as a player and especially his commentary during the Cubs games. Such a shame he was not elected during his lifetime. :(

[supertyphoon]

I'm not in favor of letting the "very good" into Cooperstown, but Santo has to be judged against others at his position and the era that he played in. He was the best 3rd baseball in the NL during the pitching-dominated era of the 60s and early 70s. If Brooks Robinson is a Hall of Famer, then I think Santo is too.

[Outta Leftfield]

I'm glad Santo finally made it. Who should be the Veterans Committee's next target?

[Mean Dean]

Honestly, I think that particular "Golden Era" Veterans' Committee has now done its job and should be disbanded. Once you're choosing between Jim Kaat and Tony Oliva, you have run out of candidates (no offense to Minnesotans intended.)

The main omissions now (other than Marvin Miller and Bill James...) are mostly players from the "expansion" era. Lou Whitaker to me should clearly be in. Ted Simmons is also a strong candidate. The HOF does not do a good job dealing with positions that aren't 1B or corner OF. If a player has an argument that he is top 10-15 all-time at his position, then he should at the very least be getting significant support. The voters often ignore that.

None of these are nearly as bad snubs as Blyleven and Santo were, though. Those guys were above average even compared to the other Hall of Famers. It's rare, and an indictment of the quality of the voting, that such players had to wait as long as they did.