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Ron Santo, one of the best third basemen in baseball history who played his entire career in the city of the Broad Shoulders, mostly for the hapless Cubs, was born on February 25, 1940 in Seattle, Washington. The six-foot-tall third baseman made his debut with the Cubs in 1960 and played with Chicago's North Side team for 14 season before winding up on the South Side with the White Sox in 1974 for his final season.
As a Cub, he was a nine-time All-Star and won five Gold Gloves for his fielding excellence. Playing a critical field position at time now called the "Second Dead Ball Era", Santo managed a .277 average by racking up 2,254 hits, 342 of which were home runs. When he retired, only Eddie Matthews (who hit 512 homers) had more home runs as a third baseman, and he was only the second third baseman in history to go yard 300 times.
He set many fielding records for third basemen. Among third-sackers who came after him, only Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt combined the slick glove with the power displayed by Santo.
Yet, surprisingly, despite expert analysis by such sabermetricians as Bill James that proved what a high-quality, Hall of Fame caliber player he was, Santo received little respect from Hall of Fame voters. The oversight was so egregious that several overhauls in the voting procedure were instituted so that deserving candidates like Santo would be better served. Yet, in his life-time, though he finished first three times in Veterans Committee voting, he was denied induction as he failed to reach a threshold of votes.
He became a broadcaster for WGN-Radio covering Cubs games in 1990, earning the moniker, "the single Biggest Cubs fan of all time".
At the time he was playing pro ball, Santo was suffering from Type 1 juvenile diabetes. He did not let on that he was ailing, as he was afraid that he wold be forced to retire. In 2002, both of his legs were amputated.
Ron Santo died on December 2, 2010 in Scottsdale, Arizona from bladder cancer. He was 70 years old.
Long considered one of the very best players not to be in Baseball's Hall of Fame, Santo took his failure to enter the Vahalla of pro baseball with grace and equanimity. (There is a paucity of third baseman and catchers in Cooperstown as they require players with outstanding fielding skills rather than the slugging that typically punches a ticket to the Hall of Fame.) In December 2011, Ron Santo finally was voted into the Hall by the Veterans Committee. He will be officially inducted in 2012, taking his proper place in Cooperstown with other immortals of the game.
