Once again, Santo on pins and needles over Hall call

The ballots have been cast.

The votes are being counted.

And now Ron Santo waits - again.

He waits and fights through sleepless nights, and tries with all his might to keep from getting his hopes up, but a month from now the results of the Veterans Committee vote will be announced at baseball's annual winter meetings in Las Vegas.

Until then, Santo will fight the urge to believe this is really the year he reaches the Hall of Fame.

"If I don't make it this time, then I really feel like I'm not gonna make it ever," Santo said Thursday from his home in Arizona, his voice devoid of emotion. "That's just the facts the way I see it.

"I mean, I feel good. My health this year was better than it's been in years. But we've talked about this before.

"Let's face it: my time's limited. If it happens, if it ever happens, I'd like to be alive for it."

The 68-year-old Santo was able to laugh about it, but it's true. He's been on borrowed time and he knows it, and the thing he wants most from life consumes much of his waking thought, and nearly as much when he sleeps and dreams.

"I'm not avoiding it," Santo said of the Dec. 8 announcement. "I want this so bad and I just don't want to be disappointed again. I don't know if I can go through it again. That's what I'm thinking, that I don't want to get my hopes up again."

But he has, and for legitimate reasons.

The process has changed after the veterans were criticized for repeatedly failing to vote anyone into the Hall.

In 2006, 27 names were on the ballot, and Santo led the voting with 57 of 82 votes, five less than needed for 75 percent.

But this time, only 10 names were on the ballot, and conventional wisdom suggests that without those 17 other players, and the 168 votes they collected, there ought to be room for Santo to find five more.

"The difference is they made a change and they know they have to get someone in," Santo said. "The veterans haven't put anyone in since (Bill) Mazeroski (in 2001), and none since they gave the vote to the players themselves.

"I only need five more votes, and with all the other guys off the ballot, I feel those votes have to go somewhere and someone's going to get in. I think someone has to get in this time."

It's logical on many levels, but might also be flawed, because many older Hall of Famers never saw players of their generation who were in the other league, and the younger Hall of Famers didn't see the players on this ballot at all.

A couple Hall of Famers have said that they feel as though a player who didn't get in with the writers' vote, as they did, shouldn't get in.

And then there are the Joe Morgans of the world, who simply believe the Hall of Fame was built as a monument to Joe Morgan, and those kinds of Hall of Famers aren't going to vote for anyone.

That might leave Santo out in the cold again, along with other notables like Dick Allen, Jim Kaat, Gil Hodges, Tony Oliva and Joe Torre.

"I'm trying to stay on an even keel about it,'' Santo said, "but I can't pretend it's not on my mind."

Santo had hoped the Cubs would play until nearly Nov. 1 and keep his mind on his work, but another rapid first-round exit spoiled that plan.

"In the postseason, you look for your big boys to carry you and get some big hits and relax the rest of the guys, but the big boys didn't get it done,'' Santo said. "They got us to October - they got us there, yes - but then they didn't hit in October.

"It was very, very disappointing, because I really felt like it was the best Cubs team I've ever seen in all my years."

Nevertheless, Santo remains the eternal optimist.

"(GM) Jim Hendry has done such a great job and he'll continue to do that and make us even better for next year," Santo said. "I still feel like we had the best team in the National League, and I think we'll be better in 2009."

And if the Cubs make it three straight division titles, Santo hopes by then that MLB has turned the first series into a seven-game battle.

"All I can say is when you win 97 or 100 games, like we did and the Angels did, you deserve more than a five-game series to prove yourself," Santo said. "As bad as we played the first two games, I think if it's a seven-game series, we approach Game 3 different and we might still have a chance.

"I think over seven games, the best team will win."

Santo has months until spring training to mull that over, but only 30 more nights to dream about his next chance to join baseball's immortals.

Recent history suggests this outcome will be no different from the last few that have ended in disappointment, but that doesn't stop Ron Santo from being optimistic.

He believes in his chances this time, just as he believes next year will be the year the Cubs win it all.

He has no choice in these matters.

After all, he is at heart, a Cubs fan.

brozner@dailyherald.com