The Case for Ron Santo and the Hall of Fame
You have to take a global look at Santo's career to truly appreciate him. If you break it down piece by piece, you miss the forest for the trees. And he should qualify whether you use old school measurements or new ones. Let me show you what I mean...
His 342 Career Home Runs rank 8th among 3rd baseman. His 9 All-Star appearances also rank just 8th. Pretty good, but not outstanding. However, when you consider the 11 third basemen that are in the Hall of Fame already, things start to look a bit better. Those numbers rank near the top of that group. Now let's put them together and ask how many HOF 3rd baseman have hit that many home runs AND appeared in that many all-star games?
The answer is two. Mike Schmidt and Eddie Matthews.
Then lets factor in defense -- let's add Santo's 5 Gold Glove awards to the equation: Now, only Santo and Schmidt remain. Okay, Gold Gloves don't necessarily mean much, if anything, as it tends to be extremely subjective. The same could be said with the aforementioned All-Star appearances.
Fair enough. I agree.
Let's look at the all-encompassing metric WAR. Where does Santo rank amongst all players in WAR? The answer is 105th. To put that into perspective, that's better than Hall of Famers Ozzie Smith, Willie McCovey, Roberto Alomar, Harmon Killebrew, Dave Winfield and Willie Stargell -- to name just a few. It's also higher than Hall of Fame teammate Ernie Banks and more recent Cub legends Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson.
That in itself is impressive. But where does Santo rank amongst 3rd basemen? Using 800 games played at 3b as a barometer (that's only 5 full seasons), Santo ranks 6th among 3rd basemen. All are currently in the HOF....so how is it that there are eleven 3rd basemen in the Hall of Fame and Santo isn't one of them? This is even a bigger oversight when you consider that this position is under-represented in the Hall of Fame.
You can pick Santo apart and say he didn't do this or that, but when you put it all together, by subjective or objective criteria, there is little rationale for not electing him to the Hall. What's more remarkable is that Santo put up his numbers in the pitcher's era of the 1960s. He also played over 2,000 games despite suffering from diabetes, and he played the game with as much enthusiasm and passion as he would show throughout his life. He represented baseball well. Ron Santo may yet get enshrined in the Hall of Fame tomorrow, but it's sad to think that he will never see it happen.
Shame on baseball. Santo deserved better.You have to take a global look at Santo's career to truly appreciate him. If you break it down piece by piece, you miss the forest for the trees. And he should qualify whether you use old school measurements or new ones. Let me show you what I mean...
His 342 Career Home Runs rank 8th among 3rd baseman. His 9 All-Star appearances also rank just 8th. Pretty good, but not outstanding. However, when you consider the 11 third basemen that are in the Hall of Fame already, things start to look a bit better. Those numbers rank near the top of that group. Now let's put them together and ask how many HOF 3rd baseman have hit that many home runs AND appeared in that many all-star games?
The answer is two. Mike Schmidt and Eddie Matthews.
Then lets factor in defense -- let's add Santo's 5 Gold Glove awards to the equation: Now, only Santo and Schmidt remain. Okay, Gold Gloves don't necessarily mean much, if anything, as it tends to be extremely subjective. The same could be said with the aforementioned All-Star appearances.
Fair enough. I agree.
Let's look at the all-encompassing metric WAR. Where does Santo rank amongst all players in WAR? The answer is 105th. To put that into perspective, that's better than Hall of Famers Ozzie Smith, Willie McCovey, Roberto Alomar, Harmon Killebrew, Dave Winfield and Willie Stargell -- to name just a few. It's also higher than Hall of Fame teammate Ernie Banks and more recent Cub legends Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson.
That in itself is impressive. But where does Santo rank amongst 3rd basemen? Using 800 games played at 3b as a barometer (that's only 5 full seasons), Santo ranks 6th among 3rd basemen. All are currently in the HOF....so how is it that there are eleven 3rd basemen in the Hall of Fame and Santo isn't one of them? This is even a bigger oversight when you consider that this position is under-represented in the Hall of Fame.
You can pick Santo apart and say he didn't do this or that, but when you put it all together, by subjective or objective criteria, there is little rationale for not electing him to the Hall. What's more remarkable is that Santo put up his numbers in the pitcher's era of the 1960s. He also played over 2,000 games despite suffering from diabetes, and he played the game with as much enthusiasm and passion as he would show throughout his life. He represented baseball well. Ron Santo may yet get enshrined in the Hall of Fame tomorrow, but it's sad to think that he will never see it happen.
Shame on baseball. Santo deserved better.
With Billy Williams and Ernie Banks!
