Archive: Veterans Committee now Santo's last hope for Hall

Originally published Jan. 6, 1998

Ron Santo didn't try to hide his disappointment at being bypassed again Monday for election into baseball's Hall of Fame.

“I'm feeling bad,'' Santo said from his home in Arizona. “I'm disappointed. It's 15 years I've been waiting. I thought this was a good opportunity.''

Santo, who starred for the Cubs at third base for 14 of his 15 major-league seasons, missed out on a chance at Cooperstown in his final year of eligibility in voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

He now must wait three years before the Veterans Committee takes up his candidacy. Santo, who turns 58 next month, is likely to win election from the committee, which is made up of media members and former players and executives.

“The way I look at it, if I don't get voted in by the Veterans Committee ... well, that would be sad,'' he said.

Santo hit 342 home runs and drove in 1,331 runs while batting .277 during his career, which began in 1960.

Defensively, he was the premier third baseman in the National League at the same time Brooks Robinson was carving out a Hall of Fame career with the Baltimore Orioles.

Santo won five Gold Gloves and was a nine-time NL all-star. He finished his career with the White Sox in 1974.

Despite those credentials, Santo fell 151 votes short this year, as he finished behind lone inductee Don Sutton and Tony Perez.

Santo's name was taken off the ballot because he did not receive at least 5 percent of the vote in his first year of eligibility after his retirement. He won reinstatement several years later, but never could muster enough support from the writers.

Still, Santo did not blame the system.

“The system is what the system is,'' he said. “My only situation is that when I first became eligible, I didn't get 5 percent of the vote. The writers realized they had made a mistake, but five years passed before I was on the ballot again. By that time, a lot of writers who had watched me play were gone, and a lot of the new writers are kids.''

There are only 10 third baseman in the Hall of Fame, the lowest number of any position. Santo's statistics are as good or better than most third baseman in the Hall, but the fact that he never appeared in the postseason surely hurt him.

Santo also played with diabetes, which may have suppressed his statistics.

“I know what kind of player I was,'' he said. “I played my whole career with diabetes when people didn't understand it. I didn't know if I could do it, but I did. I wonder what my numbers would have been without it.

“Getting into the Hall of Fame would mean a lot to me, that and the Cubs getting into the World Series. Those are the two things that are left for me as far as I'm concerned.''