DALLAS • Former Chicago Cubs star third baseman Ron Santo is in. And former Cardinals star third baseman Ken Boyer, for several years a contemporary of Santo's, is not.
Santo, who died a year and two days ago from complications of bladder cancer and pneumonia, was the only man elected to the baseball Hall of Fame on Monday at baseball's winter meetings by a special veterans' committee enlisted to review players, managers, executives and umpires from the so-called Golden Era of baseball. That covers those who made the biggest contributions in their careers from 1947 to 1972.
Nominees needed at least 75 percent of the vote to be elected (12 or more). Santo received 15 of 16 votes. Jim Kaat, who was a reliever for the 1982 world champion Cardinals and won 283 games, mostly with the Minnesota Twins' franchise, got 10 votes. Gil Hodges and Minnie Minoso received nine each. Tony Oliva had eight and the other five on the ballot, including Boyer, had fewer than three votes.
Santo never came close to election during his 15 appearances on the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot, peaking at 43 percent — far short of the needed 75 percent in his last year of eligibility in 1998. Boyer's best was 25.5 percent in 1988.
For his career, Santo, playing in what is considered a more favorable hitters' park in Wrigley Field, batted .277 with 342 homers and 1,331 runs batted in. He stole 35 bases and earned five Gold Gloves.
Boyer was the National League's most valuable player when the Cardinals won the World Series in 1964. He batted .287 with 282 homers and 1,141 RBIs. He stole 105 bases and also earned five Gold Gloves.
Santo will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., on July 22, along with any players elected by members of the BBWAA.
Former Cubs star Billy Williams, a veterans' committee member who was a teammate of Santo's, said Santo, who later broadcast for the Cubs for 21 years, was discussed in terms beyond the playing field.
"Some people brought out something other than numbers for Ron Santo," said Williams. "They talked about what he did for the community.
"Everybody saw the numbers. I think they looked at it with a different view, saying this guy should be in the Hall of Fame."
The Golden Era committee was composed of 16 individuals, including Hall of Fame players, baseball executives and veteran baseball reporters, including former Post-Dispatch baseball writer and sports editor Dick Kaegel.
Others who received under three votes were executives Buzzie Bavasi and Charlie Finley and pitchers Allie Reynolds and Luis Tiant.
Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr., one of the voting committee members, was very familiar with Boyer's career as he grew up in St. Louis.
"They (Santo and Boyer) were both great third basemen in the same general era," said DeWitt. "It's hard to say how the voters view one versus the other. Kenny was a wonderful player with the Cardinals, as we all know."
Boyer, who after his playing career managed the Cardinals from 1978-80, died in 1982.
The selection of Santo as a Hall of Famer means that, counting manager Leo Durocher, the Cubs have five Hall of Famers from their clubs of the late 1960s and early 1970s, but those clubs won no titles, including blowing a sizeable lead in the National League Eastern Division in 1969. Besides Durocher, Santo and Williams, Ernie Banks and Ferguson Jenkins became Hall of Famers after long, esteemed service with the Cubs.
