'An incredible day for an incredible man' Ron Santo inducted into the National Baseball Hall Of Fame

The Chicago Tribune ^ | 7/22/2012 | Phil Rogers

[Beave Meister]

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — In one of baseball's sweetest traditions, Stan Musial would play "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" on his harmonica for the so-called seventh-inning stretch of baseball's Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Johnny Bench has stepped in for the 91-year-old Musial, doing a pretty good Harry Caray imitation.

On Sunday, in Ron Santo's honor, Bench put on a Cubs jersey before he went to the podium and slipped into character.

"Ron would have loved it," Vicki Santo, Ron's widow, said afterward. "He and Johnny were such good friends. He would have thought it was hysterical. He would have laughed hysterically."

There were tears in Cooperstown on Sunday, for sure. But with regard to the Cubs' third base and broadcasting legend, they were the kind that Santo's daughter, Linda Santo Brown, had said her father would have cried had he lived to see his induction as one of 297 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

[Beave Meister]

"It's not about what happens to you in life, it's about how you handle those difficulties life throws at you.".......Ron Santo

[12Gauge687]

It’s about time that he was inducted. And I’m a South Sider.