Santo not alone in taking snub by Hall of Fame hard
Published by Scott Lewis February 26th, 2003 in News."Our boy didn't make it," Jim Dantona said.
I phoned Jim, the world's biggest Ron Santo fan, at his office in Simi Valley, Calif., a short while after leaving the disconsolate ex-Cub's home here Wednesday morning.
Dantona already knew the news. The mighty Santo had struck out.
"I don't care what the veterans committee says," was Dantona's indignant reaction. "I don't care what the sportswriters say. I don't care what anybody says. Ron Santo is a Hall of Famer."
A great many of us agree.
Unfortunately, not enough.
You would think having both legs amputated would be ample bad news in an old ballplayer's life. But not for Santo, who took this less gruesome setback.
Santo doesn’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. His career numbers just simply aren’t Hall of Fame type stats. .274 career Batting Average and a .450 career slugging percentage. Not even close. They sympathy (diabetes) thing should not factor in at all yet Santo fans continue to bring that up (if that was a criterion, put the one armed pitcher Jim Abbott at the top of the list).
The Veterans Committe was dead on. Santo is not a Hall of Famer. Not by a long shot. And he never will be.