[NU Sports] Santo

[Harry Kirsch]

Those of us that came of age in the 60's and 70's and lived in a 1 league town (everywhere but NYC, LA, SF or Chicago) had very little opportunity to see the other league's teams and players--NBC had its game of the week--so about 1 game very 2 weeks, the ASG, and the WS was about it for seeing the stars from the other league-

-Growing up in Boston, that meant I could only read about the NL stars--Anybody who followed basebal then, knows that the NL had far and away more stars and better teams--  The Cubs were rarely shown because except for 1967 and 1969, they were basicly non-contenders---But I read every magazine I could--and I followed Santo closely from the print media, because he was one of the few third baseman with really good hitting stats--(it was tough to follow the great fielding 3B  like Clete Boyer through the papers--you had to see it, no stats could explain good fieldingt-)-Of course I got to see Brooks Robinson becuase he was in the AL--But because of Santo's stats, and because I didnt like Richie Allen,he was my favorite 3B form the NL--

Had baseball had a playoff system then like they do now (and believe me, i dont like the current system) he , Banks and Williams would probably hae had some post season exposure --(Williams may have with the A's--not sure)

Anyhow a long winded way of saying an honor long overdue and happy to see there are still some players from my youth that are making the HOF

Harry