Sometimes there is crying in baseball

We lost a great one last night.

There are some people that are so interwoven in to the fabric of a time and place that they transcend the petty tribalisms that make up the human experience.

Ron Santo was one of those people in the city of Chicago.  And Chicago will not be the same place without him.

I say this not as a Cubs fan, but as a member of that opposing tribe down on the other end of the Red Line.  The Cubs/White Sox rivalry in the city of Chicago has been bitter, angry, and juvenile at...well, it's pretty much always at least two of those things.  But even at that I believe I can say with some certainty that the Cubbies loved Santo and the White Sox respected the hell out of him.

It's not just because he was a great player, but because in so many ways he embodied the Chicago self-image: a scrapper, an underdog, and a criminally overlooked great one.  Cooperstown never made the call for reasons I don't think anyone will ever be able to understand.  But, in the end a plaque is just a plaque.  All it would have been was a physical reminder of something everyone already knew.

RIP, Ronnie.  You will be missed.

Comments

[sploozer]

He'll never see the Cubbies win a World Series! It makes me so sad. I loved listening to him on the radio, even though the Cubs suck. Sad day for Chicago.