It's The Hall Of Shame If Santo Isn't In It

He sits by his locker; needle in hand, ready to inject himself. The room is empty, for he doesn’t want anyone to know what he is doing. He knows he needs this stuff to be able to play, and he doesn’t know how his teammates would react if they found out. He doesn’t care, because baseball means everything to him, and this is going to allow him to perform.

His name is Ron Santo, and we’re sitting in the Cub’s locker room in the early sixties. His needle is full of insulin, and he needed it to live. He kept it a secret when he first found out about it at eighteen. He didn’t want to be shunted aside because of his handicap. He let his little secret out after he had established himself as a star ballplayer.

Unfortunately, while many players felt they needed to inject themselves in the backside to play in the past several years, a true hero with more heart than any of them suffers another slap in the face every two years when he’s told he’s not good enough to be a member of the Hall of Fame.

His name is on the list again this year, and we’ll know tomorrow if he will be allowed to join this exclusive club.

The disease has taken a toll on him. He has lost both of his legs, had heart problems, and so many other serious complications from diabetes that his medical records could fill a season of ER.

While many of today’s players were not playing on a level playing field, Santo never did either. He never knew how the disease was going to react from one day to the next.

He had to constantly monitor himself. If he didn’t, he could go into an insulin related coma. He kept candy bars stashed in the dugout in case his blood sugar got too low.

He once told a story that his blood sugar was so low that he didn’t think he was going to be able to come to bat. He was the next hitter, and sucked it up and marched to the plate.

The bags were jammed, and he could barely see. He said he saw three balls coming at him and swung at the one in the middle. The ball ended up in the seats for a grand-slam home run. But people don’t talk about that.

After the veterans committee that was previously formed to vote on players that were out of baseball for fifteen years or more was disbanded, a new system was put in place in 2001 with the current living Hall of Famers deciding who should enter the vaunted hall.

So far, they’re pitching a shutout. When asked about the election process at the time, Tom Seaver stated, “I’m of the opinion it’s going to be awfully hard to get in, and maybe that’s how it should be.”

Brooks Robinson played in the same era as Santo, and was elected on the first ballot. Santo dwarfed his offensive numbers, and was closer to him as a fielder than most people know.

The difference is that Robinson had the chance to shine in the spotlight of the World Series, and shine he did. He was like a vacuum cleaner as he sucked up every ball hit to his side of the field. That performance put him in. Santo was never given that opportunity.

If you never win a championship, does that mean you’re not a Hall of Famer? Does Ted Williams belong? How about Ernie Banks? Should Phil Rizzuto have been voted in?  Wasn’t he the beneficiary of playing for a great organization and not really a great player?

The system has changed this year, and now there are ten players that made it through the process that are eligible to be voted for. It’s supposed to make it a little easier for someone to be voted in. Santo is one of them.

I wonder if any of those not voting for him knew how difficult it was for him to perform day in and day out. What would his numbers have been if he hadn’t been affected by this debilitating disease, and how much longer could he have played? How many of those players deciding his fate could have done it?

Yet Santo never complained or mentioned how unfair it was that he was afflicted. He just went out there everyday and gave an honest days work. And he did it better than most.

He doesn’t want or deserve anyone’s pity. He only wants what he’s earned. He shouldn’t be elected into the Hall of Fame because he had diabetes. He should be voted in because he was good enough.