Santo for Hall

Another sports athlete is diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, his business manager Marty Garafalo confirmed Thursday night.

The 25-year-old Cutler found out about two weeks ago that he was diabetic and needed daily insulin injections, Garafalo told The Associated Press.

He said Cutler was managing his disease and “in no way is his football career jeopardized.”Some 21 million Americans have diabetes, meaning their bodies cannot properly turn blood sugar into energy. Either they don’t produce enough insulin or don’t use it correctly. With the Type 1 form, the body’s immune system attacks insulin-producing pancreatic cells, so that patients require insulin injections to survive.

Read the full ESPN article.

There are some petitions circling the Internet right now collecting signatures to let the Cubs management know their fans want the name Wrigley Field to stay.  In addition to signing the petition to let MLB know Ron Santo belongs in the Hall of Fame, please sign the Wrigley Field petition as well on KeepItWrigley.com.

I caught a blog entry this morning from a blogger named Becca.  While I don’t know Becca I know her cause is near and dear to the readers of this blog, so I thought I’d share her story and ask you to help.

That’s how I feel about the JDRF: passionate.

I’m passionate about fundraising for this cause.
I’m passionate about volunteering for this cause.
I’m passionate about telling anyone and everyone about this cause.

Because there needs to be a cure.
Because I need a cure.

I’ve been diabetic for almost seven and a half years–about 2700 days. I’ve checked my blood sugar approximately ten to twelve times a day since late March, 2000 which means that I’ve pricked my finger about 30,000 times since that day in 2000. And if you want to know the truth, it’s probably more often than that. I’ve changed my infusion set for my insulin pump around 900 times. I’ve been hospitalized twice and in the ER more times than I care to count. I see my doctor every three months. I have her on speed-dial. When I call the Target Pharmacy, I simply say “This is Becca” and they prepare to refill my prescriptions. If I don’t answer my phone, my friends and family start to worry about me because in the past, they’ve had to call the paramedics for me. Or watch me have a diabetic seizure. And you know, it feels really good to be loved, but it really sucks to have to say “I’m sorry” when I see their worried faces and to know the stress I’ve caused my husband and my sister and my niece and my friends…no one should have to live with that. And no one should have to witness what they’ve seen these past seven years.

Bobby was diagnosed 160 days ago which means that he’s checked his blood sugar more than 1100 times and had 632 insulin injections. To see those numbers in black and white is staggering. And it kind of makes me sick to my stomach, because it doesn’t have to be like this. With a cure for this disease all of these steps could be eliminated.

I want people to understand that as hard as is it to be diabetic, it’s much harder to love someone & have them be diagnosed with this disease. It’s a punch in the stomach that you aren’t ready for. It knocks the wind out of you. This disease, while not a death sentence, isn’t exactly a walk in the park either. I’ve never said this before, but I’m scared for my nephew–for the road he has ahead of him. What about sports? Puberty? The Teenage Years? Will he find a spouse who is as loving and understanding as I have? What if? What if? What if?

Please, I am begging you for your help.
Whether you have ten dollars or ten thousand dollars to donate, every penny truly does make a difference!
Whether you can walk with us on Walk Day or not.or not. (But we’d really like it if you would join us!)
We can’t do it alone–we need your help.

One thing you can say about me is that I’m passionate about this cause.
About educating others about this disease.
And if you’re in the Omaha area, tune to the Fox station (Channel 42) on Monday at 10 a.m. because I’m passionate about the JDRF and I’m ready to tell all of eastern Nebraska about that passion.

Check out Becca’s blog for the full story on her life.

The discussions are as old as the Hall of Fame itself. Who is worthy and who is not?At the heart of some of the biggest debates is former Chicago Cubs third baseman and current broadcaster Ron Santo.

The argument can be persuasive both ways. Santo is short on the so-called magical numbers, with just 2,254 hits and 342 home runs over a 15-year career. But those numbers do compare with Hall of Famers like Johnny Bench and Gary Carter.

The latest argument in favor of Santo, although not necessarily for the Hall, comes from ESPN.com columnist Jayson Stark is his book ranking the all-time over- and under-rated players in baseball history.

Stark calls Santo the No. 1 all-time under-rated third baseman.

“I looked at myself with a lot of natural ability,” Santo said Saturday at O’Brien Field where he appeared for a benefit for the Rehabilitation Foundation of IPMR. “It was easy for me to catch ground balls, it was easy for me to throw the ball, to hit the ball. The only attribute that I didn’t have was speed … I was given a gift and I made the best of it.”

Source: PJStar.com

Chicago Cubs radio broadcaster Ron Santo will throw out the first pitch Saturday night at O’Brien Field before the Peoria Chiefs game against the Clinton LumberKings. Game time is 6:30 p.m.

Saturday is the fifth annual Institute of Physical Medicine at Rehabiliation, a facility that specializes in rehabbing patients who have suffered from serious injuries.

After throwing the first pitch, Santo will sign autographs on the concourse for one hour. All donations and proceeds from the autograph signing will benefit IPMR.

Source:  Pantagraph.com

Ron Santo inched a little closer to Cooperstown on Tuesday, but came up five votes short of baseball immortality.

Voting by the Veterans Committee for the National Baseball Hall of Fame resulted in another shutout as none of the candidates on the players or composite ballots received the 75 percent plurality required for election.

The former Cubs third baseman received the most votes on the players ballot with 57 (69.5 percent), followed by former pitcher Jim Kaat with 52 (63.4), former Dodgers first baseman Gil Hodges with 50 (61.0) and former Twins outfielder Tony Oliva with 47 (57.3), the only players to be named on half of the 82 of 84 ballots cast with 62 votes needed for 75 percent.

From:  MLB.com

Barry Rozner of the Daily Herald (here in Chicago) wrote a great piece on the next Hall of Fame vote. You should check it out.

We’ll spare you the Mark McGwire argument.

If you’re a regular visitor to this space, then you already know the feeling here about juiced players, juiced balls, juiced ballparks and the fraud that was the Great Home Run Race of 1998 that saved Bud Selig’s job and the world from communism.

And when the Hall of Fame voting is announced Tuesday morning, it seems likely that through the ballot process a statement will be made about 1998 and McGwire will not get the 75 percent needed for election.

My ballot had an “X’’ next to the names of Cal Ripken, Tony Gwynn, Jim Rice, Andre Dawson, Lee Smith, Bert Blyleven and Goose Gossage.

Read Barry Rozner’s full article

A SantoForHall.com community member contacted me recently to let me know of a new book that is about to hit the market called Waiting for Cooperstown. It is a book that chronicles over 70 years of baseball history focusing on players who’s credentials are good enough to put them into the MLB Hall of Fame but for one reason or another they have been marginalized.

Right at the top of Mr. Reich’s list for players who’ve passed the statistical cut but have never been voted in is Ron Santo.

I would encourage you to check the book out. Right now you can pre-order the book.

Even Illinois Senator Dick Durbin agrees that Ron Santo belongs in the MLB Hall of Fame. He recently tooks steps to see this happen. While I don’t always agree with Mr. Durbin’s politics, I think this is something Mr. Durbin and I could work together on.

Kudos to you Senator Durbin for helping MLB to do the right thing!

In a letter to the Hall’s Veterans Committee, Durbin says Santo was great — and probably would have been better if he hadn’t played for the Cubs.

“We can’t know how much better Ron Santo’s statistics might have been had he not played his entire career with a life-threatening illness, in an era that suppressed the long ball, for a team that, God bless them, never once saw post-season action,” wrote Durbin.

Read the Chicago Sun Times article

Len [Kasper] and Bob [Brenly] run a baseball blog for WGN. One of the posts on their site tells an individual how to voice their opinion to the Veterans Committee.

Here’s where you can help: Fans wishing to voice their opinion in support of their favorite candidates may do so in two ways: by sending a single letter to Hall of Fame Veterans Committee, 25 Main Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326, or by logging on to baseballhalloffame.org and sending an e-mail. The Hall of Fame does not forward petitions to the voting members, but makes all correspondence known to any interested voting members, as well as to the Screening Committee members and Historical Overview Committee members.

SantoForHall.com has been collecting petitions and sending them to the Veterans Committee and will continue to do so until the vote is over. Please sign the petition to add your voice here as well.