The Baseball Hall of Fame is not all about numbers. My brother would argue otherwise as he holds up his "Mazeroski, You Don't Belong!" sign. With all due respect, and remember I am saying with all due respect, my brother is wrong, the truth is the Hall of Fame is about one word "fame." Fame is about importance and significance to us all.
Let's review the initial Hall of Fame class. The legendary 5. Ruth, Cobb, Johnson, Matthewson and Wagner. While each of these individuals had some of the most impressive numbers in history at the time, it was not all about the numbers. Ruth was the most famous baseball player ever. Cobb was a son-of-a-bitch on an epic scale, and therefore endlessly entertaining. Matthewson lost it all in the Great War. Wagner, well he might have been about the numbers. Johnson was an incredible talent, but like Wagner, had incredible numbers. However, a lot of the numbers guys, Young and the deadball era players, had to wait behind their more famous colleagues.
The point of the Hall of Fame is not to just reward numbers. If it were the Bert Blyleven would already be in. The Hall is about being important to us as a society. Ruth altered baseball forever. Johnson was unprecedented in his dominance. Cobb lead the most important statistic of his time, batting average, by a large margin. Mazeroski created one of the most indelible memories in baseball history.
Very few players of his time are currently more important to baseball than Santo is today. Santo is the high priest of Cubs suffering. His passing marks, for us Cubs fans, another sad milestone. Another one of us that passed away before seeing the Cubs break the curse. I heard someone today say that no one deserved to see the Cubs win the World Series more than Santo. I wholeheartedly agree.
Santo's passion and love for the lovable losers make him a paragon of what baseball should be about. The child in all of us loving unconditionally something that means nothing at all. (Thanks to Mike Greenberg) Santo didn't just love. he didn't just love unconditionally. He loved completely and we loved him back. He should have been in the Hall of Fame anyway you look at it...numbers...fame...importance.
Finally, no one should overlook Santo's work as a humanitarian. His efforts with Juvenile Diabetes and diabetes awareness are immeasurable. I read somewhere today that Santo would personally call diabetes patients that wrote him about losing a limb. He thought it made it more memorable for them. I'd like to see evidence Cobb made one call that did not involve money or getting laid.
The fact Santo was not voted into the Hall of Fame during his lifetime is one of the great tragedies of baseball history. Sadly, it can never be corrected. Even posthumous induction will rob us all of the opportunity to watch Santo bask the universal love he so deserved from the entire baseball world.
The hall of fame is quickly becoming a hall of metrics to pundits and writers. Simply evaluate the player based on the metric of the day (regardless of how success was measured during his playing days) and if he exceeds a certain mark congrats you're in.
ReplyDeleteHall of Famers players are like porn to the Supreme Court (you've heard that oomparison before right) I'll know one when I see one. So here you go, name 5 to 10 third baseman, how many had Santo on the list. Name 5 great Cubs, was here there too? Santo was Cub's baseball, more than Harry Carey, more than even Ernie Banks, and at the end of the day when you look at him you think hall of famer, a piece of baseball history best not forgotten. After all it is a museum not an statistical database, and museums are there to help us remember the things in the past worth remembering.