FanHouse Ron Santo

Once again, the Veteran's Committee shut the door on their precious Hall of Fame to anyone who played after World War II. The most blatant snub was Ron Santo. I know, I know. Time to pile on the Cubs fans and tell us why Santo didn't deserve to get in. You'll have your chance. First, I get mine. Here's why Santo should easily be in the Hall of Fame.

First of all, when talking Hall of Fame, the game changes so much with the times that you have to find a comparison within the same era. That's easy here, as the gold standard at third base pre-Mike Schmidt was Brooks Robinson. Robinson and Santo played in the same era, so it's a good starting point for conversation.

I'll break down some of the more telling stats here between Santo and Robinson and decide which one has the upper hand.

Our MLB editor files dispatches from this year's Winter Meetings in Las Vegas in Notes From Sin City.

Baseball fans know what the Winter Meetings are. They know what happens every year -- trades, big signings, and plenty of gossip in the lobby of a grand hotel. What they might not have an idea about is what the atmosphere is like inside the Bellagio.

(Full disclosure: This is my first trip to the Winter Meetings, and, frankly, it was a little bit terrifying flying out here. I had absolutely no idea what to expect.)

Let's start with the city. Las Vegas seemed a bit deflated when I arrived Sunday night -- a perfectly understandable feel considering the Oscar De La Hoya-Manny Pacquiao fight was the night before. The Winter Meetings are a nice distraction, but Vegas seems to love big prizefights more than anything else.

Still, if my conversation with the cab driver who took me from the airport to my hotel is any indication, the denizens of Sin City seem virtually oblivious to the baseball invasion. He had no idea what the Winter Meetings were or that they were taking place in Las Vegas, but he had plenty to say about the National Finals Rodeo, which are taking place through the end of this week at the Thomas and Mack Center. Go figure.

We've seen it work with baseball teams before, as the Yankees, Red Sox, and Mets all have their own television networks in YES, NESN, and SNY respectively. It turns out, if you play in a market large enough to support such a move, owning your own network is a nice way to bring revenue into the club.

It also turns out that teams and owners like making money, so when the chance to start their own station presents itself, organizations are going to give it some strong consideration. The latest team to toy with they idea? Why, it's the Chicago Cubs.

A new channel devoted to the Cubs is one of the enticing potential revenue-generating items that Tribune Co. is floating as part of its planned sale of the Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field and its 25 percent stake in Comcast SportsNet.

So far, the media company has provided few financial details about Comcast SportsNet in the confidential briefing books it provided to prospective buyers, making it difficult to calculate a price tag for the channel, according to sources familiar with the documents, who asked not to be identified because the sales process is ongoing. Opening bids for the team are due by Friday.

But Tribune Co. also planted a seed of opportunity with prospective buyers. After Comcast SportsNet's rights to broadcast Cub games expires in 2019, a new owner could create a new sports network dedicated to the Cubs.

Ron Santo is one of the Hall of Fame's most glaring omissions. He's the kind of guy who's been overlooked thanks to his position, his success in non-traditional areas, and the curse of being stuck on some truly terrible 1960's Cubs teams. Santo should be in, and it's a shame he's had to wait 20 years for it.

That might be happening soon. According to the Chicago Sun-Times (via BBTF) the Hall of Fame voting will be different this year -- instead of selecting 10 names from 20-25 and shooting for 75 percent, voters will vote both in the initial vote and then again for the top ten names. Because Santo has been the leading non-Hall vote getter for years, his chances of making it in a smaller field sound pretty good.

What's ironic about this is the man leading the charge: Joe Morgan. Joe knows Santo's case is partially based in his OBP and slugging percentage, right? But those are funny acronyms! OPS? Pshhhh!

That's not my opinion, it's a fact, as Ron Santo once again came up short of being elected to the MLB Hall of Fame. He missed by only 5 votes.

Ron Santo inched a little closer to Cooperstown on Tuesday, but came up five votes short of baseball immortality.

Voting by the Veterans Committee for the National Baseball Hall of Fame resulted in another shutout, as none of the candidates on the players or composite ballots received the 75-percent plurality required for election.

Now whether or not Ron Santo deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, I don't know. I never saw him play baseball, and know him only as the crazy guy in the Cubs radio booth.

What I do know is that the Veterans Committee is absolutely pointless. They have yet to elect a single player to the Hall of Fame in their 5 years of voting. The committee is made up of Hall of Famers, Ford C. Frick Award winners for broadcasting and J.G. Taylor Spink Award winners for writing to total 84 voters, all of whom are angry old codgers who will never elect anyone for anything.