Chicago Cubs Baseball

I like to think of myself as a simple man. A simple man who has found that in life there are even a few simpler rules.

And at least for myself, accepting the notion that these rules are indeed truths certainly hasn’t made the path any smoother either as a man or a Chicago Cubs baseball fan. But it has made the dust kicked up along the journey a little easier to swallow.

So what are these divine rules? Simple.

Rule Number One: Life is not fair.

Rule Number Two: The world does not owe you a thing.

As Chicago Cubs baseball fans, who knows - heck, who’s seen, lived and breathed - these two tenants better than we?

A short countdown:

• 1969: The season that branded the Cubs as baseball’s most loveable losers to this day.
• 1984: Leon Durham’s error in Game Four of the NLCS or remembered by many as the Gatorade Glove Play.
• 2003: Eighth inning, Game Six, NLCS. From Alex Gonzalez’s boot to Mark Prior’s mental meltdown, this game had enough real goats to lift the Curse of the Billy Goat forever.

And what do we have to show for these taints of near-victory and the hell of defeat? For if these rules were merely meanderings wouldn’t there have been some payback by now?

Nope. Rule Number One is hard coded into the DNA of every Chicago Cubs baseball fan. And sad to say as Chicago Cubs baseball goes, Ron Santo is it’s poster child.

Last Tuesday the Hall of Fame Veteran’s Committee left the former Cub third baseman five votes shy of induction. It was the second time the Veterans’ Committee bypassed Santo.

Travesty? Injustice? Just plain wrong?

As a Chicago Cubs fan I’d say yes to all three. Then I’ll kindly refer to Rule Number One.

There’s plenty of speculation and innuendo why This Old Cub has been snubbed first by the Hall of Fame Association and now by the Veteran’s Committee. Some of it may be justified and some may not.

But numbers don’t lie. Especially in baseball. Nine-time All Star, five-time Gold Glove winner. He finished with a career .277 batting average with 342 home runs and over 1300 RBIs.

All statistics comparable to Hall of Famers, including the best third baseman to ever play the game in my lifetime, Brooks Robinson.

Beyond the numbers, Santo went from a professional athlete who could click his heels to an announcer who’s lost limbs to diabetes. And if you can laugh at life like Santo did when his wig caught fire in the broadcasting booth, you’ve got more going for you than a quick bat and soft hands.

As for Rule Number Two - the world does not owe you a thing - I stand by that. The world doesn’t owe Santo a place in the Hall of Fame.

But maybe when the Veteran’s Committee reconvenes in ‘09, it would do itself well to at least think that just maybe the great game of baseball does.