[NU Sports] Santo elected to Hall of Fame--at last

[Beamsley, Jeff]

It was that 1969 Cubs team that drove me to become a life-long White Sox
fan.

I moved from Omaha to Chicago in the fall of '68 to enroll at NU.  My
folks through sheer coincidence followed shortly after that and moved to
the western 'burbs.  So the first full summer I got to spend in the
Chicago area was '69.  My brother and I didn't have any MLB allegiances
because the closest team to us growing up was KC.  We wanted to go see
some games, but couldn't get tickets to Wrigley.  They were virtually
giving tickets away at Comiskey though because the team owner at the
time, Arthur Allen wanted to move the team to Milwaukee.  In fact they
played a handful of games at Milwaukee County Stadium and drew like
three times as much as they drew in Chicago.  Arthur ended up selling
the team to his brother John, and the Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee.

Harry Carry joined the radio broadcast team in 1971.  In 1972 they
finished second to Oakland. Wilbur Wood pitched 49 games that year and
went 24-17 with an era of 2.51. Dick Allen and Carlos May both hit over
300 and Allen had 113 RBI's. Bill Veck bought the team back from the
Allens in 1975 and I was hooked. 

I will always be grateful to the Cubs for the great year they and Ron
Santo had in 1969.

Jeff   
  



-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
On Behalf Of Mike Nolan
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2011 3:25 PM
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: [NU Sports] Santo elected to Hall of Fame--at last

He didn't live to see it happen, but the Baseball Hall of Fame finally
found room for Ron Santo, joining his teammates from those great 60's
teams, Billy Williams and Ernie Banks, possibly the best 3-4-5 
combination of the last half century.  Hall of Fame member Fergie
Jenkins 
was also on those memorable Cubs teams.

Thanks to the newly reworked Golden Era Committee for doing what 
the sportwriters and the (not lamented) Veterans Committee never 
had the common sense to do.

The honor was announced on the one year anniversary of Santo's death.

Not exactly a Northwestern topic, but one that this Chicago sports
team fan has been waiting a LONG TIME to see.
--
Mike Nolan

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