Santo!

Yesterday, the Cubs unveiled a statue of Ron Santo. It's located on the corner of Addison and Sheffield, right near the Billy Williams statue. That is appropriate, since those two played more games together than any other National League duo.

One thing that was mentioned at the ceremony is that Ron did know back in 2010 that the Cubs were going to put up a statue of him; Billy Williams in 2010, Santo in 2011. And he was very excited about that. I just assumed the Cubs decided to do the statue after he died. I'm glad that although he never saw the finished product, he at least knew the honor was coming.



The statue dedication gives me the chance to show my two newest Santo cards. They are both from the Post cereal sets



This is from 1961. It's impressive that he had a card in the set at all, since 1960 was his rookie season. If you look at his stats, you'll see that he played only 95 games. He looks so young in the picture.



Here is the other card, from the next year, 1962. The first thing I noticed is that Post used the same picture. It's cropped a bit tighter, but it's the same photo. Also check out the number of games played: 154. In 1961, that was every game. He was an iron man with sugary blood.

There is also a 1963 card, but I haven't been able to find a decent card at a decent price. But I will. like Santo, I'm an optimist!