The Veterans Committee failed to vote Ron Santo into the Hall of Fame on Monday. Santo received the most votes of the ten players on the post-1942 ballot. The Hall requires a vote of 75% for induction, and Santo received a total of 39 votes (60.9%), down from two years ago. The Committee did elect Joe Gordon on the pre-1943 ballot.
To receive induction into the Hall by the Veterans Committee the former player would have to be named on 48 of the 64 ballots, Santo fell 9 short with 39 votes. This is the “fourth consecutive time that the Veterans Committee that a committee made up predominantly of the living Hall of Famers did not elect a player” according to a report from MLB.com. Ron Santo was five votes short in 2007 with his name on 57 of the 82 ballots.
Santo said on the day his number was retired at Wrigley back in September of 2003 that “This is my Hall of Fame“…for now this will have to do for one of the best third basemen to ever play the game.
Put aside the fact he is a fan favorite in Chicago, Ron Santo, the player, should be in the Hall of Fame….the numbers back the previous statement whether he played in Pittsburgh, Los Angeles or Chicago…or the fact he was a diabetic, he put up the numbers in the era that he played necessary to be elected to the Hall of Fame. Did Santo ‘rub players of his generation the wrong way’ with clicking his heals in 1969? If that is the case, haven’t the former players made him wait long enough?