Oh No!

Or
Santo Closed
Ron Santo, the best diabetic Chicago Cubs third baseman not in the Hall of Fame, has died of bladder cancer at the age of 70. In his 15-year career, all but one with the Cubs, Santo hit 342 HRs, won 5 Gold Gloves and was named to 9 All-Star Games. A good career, and one that Cubs fans have been arguing was worthy of Cooperstown despite 19 rejections from sportswriters and baseball veterans. Santo provided some of the defining moments of the 1969 Cubs, jumping in the air to click his heels after Cubs wins, and for his hubris, he got to be the one standing in the on-deck circle at Shea Stadium as a black cat ran in front of the Cubs dugout, staring down the team that had once led the division by 8 ½ games and would finish 8 games back of the Mets. Not content with one choke job, Santo tried it again two years later by strangling manager Leo Durocher. After becoming the first player to exercise his rights as a player with 10 years in the majors and 5 with the same team to block a trade to the Angels, and opting for the White Sox instead, Santo returned to the Cubs organization, spending 20 years as the team’s radio analyst where he lived and died, mostly died, with the Cubs fortunes, endearing him to the Friendly Confines Faithful. As his diabetes claimed both legs and caused several heart attacks while he got closer to the Hall of Fame, the Cubs gave him the next best thing, retiring his number 10 in 2003.