Santo for Hall

Recently, almost a year since my first trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame, I was playing catch with a friend from church to warm up for a pickup softball game a group of us has regularly during the summer. My friend, Mario, is originally from Italy but had moved to the States as a kid. And he remembered just wanting to play catch all the time once he started learning baseball after moving to the Chicago area from Italy. We were having the discussion, because his cousin, Maglio -- who lives in Italy -- was visiting and playing catch with us, and for the first time in his life.

So I had to tell Mario about my experience at the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies last year. A large section of the open seating area/field at the induction ceremony site was taken up by many people playing catch. There were dads and sons, friends, strangers -- all playing catch. It was an interesting phenomenon. People of several generations brought their gloves to the induction ceremony to play catch. Heck, 4 of us played catch on the smallest patch of grass next to our hotel and a parking ramp in Cleveland the first night of our bus trip to the Hof induction ceremonies.

What does that have to do with whether Ron Santo should get into the Baseball Hall? It is a picture of the enjoyment people still get from the simple parts of the game, which might help explain the passion some of us have for getting one of our favorites into the Hall.

For those of you campaigning for your favorite player -- or your dad's favorite player -- to get in, you really should go to the induction ceremony when he does. (Don't forget your glove.) I plan to be back for Frank Thomas and maybe others. Yes, even after all he said about the Sox this past off-season. Because at the induction ceremonies, people will choose to remember all the good stuff about their favorite players and teams.

By the way, Maglio handled a glove and a bat amazingly well for a first timer. And before we took off that night, Maglio wanted a picture with everyone from the game (the "team" picture). And Mario made sure he went home with a ball to capture some of this still somewhat uniquely American experience (with apologies to the World Cup of Baseball).