The Chicago Cubs have a Ron Santo Statue bobblehead night on August 20th to honor the late Cubs legend.
The Chicago Cubs have a promotional night on August 20th against the Kansas City Royals to honor Cubs legendary third baseman Ron Santo. The first 10,000 fans that arrive to Wrigley Field will receive a Ron Santo Statue bobblehead, courtesy of Reynolds/Hefty.
The original statue was constructed in honor of Santo in 2011 shortly after he passed away in late 2010 from complications of bladder cancer and a life long battle with diabetes. It is difficult to articulate and quantify what Santo meant to the city of Chicago and Cubs fans alike.
Santo was a stalwart of the Cubs lineup in the 1960’s into the early 1970’s, playing fourteen seasons dawning the Cubbie blue playing alongside the likes of Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins and managed by Leo Durocher.
Ron Santo was one of the elite fielding third basemen of his time, mostly being overshadowed by the stellar play of Brooks Robinson. Santo won five Gold Glove awards at his position in the National League, finishing his career with a positive 8.7 career defensive wins above replacement (dWAR) .
Santo was no slouch with the bat either, concluding his career in the top-ten in multiple hitting categories for the hot corner. The Seattle native clubbed 342 career home-runs, slashed .277/.362/.464 on 2254 hits with a total WAR of 70.5 in fifteen seasons in the MLB. Santo was likely robbed of a NL MVP in 1967 where he led the league with 9.8 WAR but only finished fourth that year, a casualty of the era he played in.
Santo’s career was shortened due to his near lifelong battle with diabetes. Santo worked heavily with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and is estimated to have raised over 60 million dollars for the foundation throughout his life.
Santo joined WGN in 1990 well after his years in professional baseball to be a radio color commentator for the Cubs. There was likely no bigger Cubs fan than Santo himself and became an iconic voice for the Northside over the years.
“Pizza Ron”, as he was affectionately known, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011 via the Golden Era Committee. Ron Santo was criminally overlooked for the Hall of Fame for years and it is one of the great crimes in baseball history that Santo did not have the chance to see himself enshrined in Cooperstown after he passed away at the age of 70 in late 2010.
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