DEAD!

[Henry Hawk]

Sparky Anderson (who managed three teams to World Series championships) DEAD!@ 76.

   I always liked him...

[Palehorse]

   I always liked him...

Me too. He died of complications due to dementia! 

[Palehorse]

Jill Clayburgh, DEAD! @ 66.

(from chronic leukemia, a disease she quietly battled for 21 years,)

[Locutus]

Dick Cheney isn't looking so hot these days.  Look at this video of him from just today.  He doesn't even look like the same man.  How long can he remain off of this thread?

[Palehorse]

Yeah, I think the reaper is now in his neighborhood! 

[Henry Hawk]

after all of his heart attacks and surgeries, I think he is on borrowed time as it is.

[Locutus]

The heart failure is going to get him.  He's in the late stages of that and the prognosis for late stage heart failure isn't good. 

[Palehorse]

Leslie Nielsen - DEAD @ 84 - pneumonia

[Henry Hawk]

Shirely you can't be serious?

[followsthewolf]

Don"t call me Shirley.

[Henry Hawk]

Chicago Cub great Ron Santa - Dead.

One of my favorite childhood baseball star....He was also a great Cubs announcer....a classy man.  RIP

[Palehorse]

Chicago Cub great Ron Santa - Dead.

One of my favorite childhood baseball star....He was also a great Cubs announcer....a classy man.  RIP

I'm sure Ron is clicking his heals along the third base line on the other side.

I am sorry to see he has left us though. He may not have been the best third baseman to ever play the game, but what he lacked in skill and ability, he made up for with desire, drive, and leadership.

The big "C" got him, (bladder), although diabetes did its best to take him well before this. He lost both his legs to it back in 2002 I think it was)

RIP Mr Santo! 

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/2941978,ron-santo-dead-cubs-baseball-120310.article

[Henry Hawk]

He may not have been the best third baseman to ever play the game, but what he lacked in skill and ability, he made up for with desire, drive, and leadership.

Man, do I ever agree with you on this...

[Palehorse]

Man, do I ever agree with you on this...

Chicago Cub Ron Santo gone, and forgotten in Cooperstown
Posted: 10:00 AM ET
The Windy City is breathing a sigh of sadness today.

One of my boyhood heroes has passed away. He was one of the best to ever play third base. He played on a team known as the "Loveable Losers." But the most impressive thing about Ron Santo is that he played 15 seasons in the majors while suffering from juvenile diabetes—something he kept a secret from his teammates and the world for years. Santo's battle only became known when he fell down in pain after a routine throw to first.

He didn't have the kind of medical treatment we do today. We don't know if he regularly took insulin but he would eventually lose both his legs to the diabetes. His passing was reportedly from complications from bladder cancer.

But the biggest injustice of all, is this man (even while fighting a life-long uphill battle against diabetes) was one of the five or six best players to ever play third base and he died not being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

It's been a bad year for baseball. The ratings were terrible in the post-season and there were several blown calls. But Santo not being inducted while he was alive is the biggest blown call for me, and that was one they could have overturned. Sadly time has run out let Santo on the podium.

He wasn't just a good player. He was also a good man and a loving husband and father. There's a saying that states, "no cheering in the press box," but when Santo covered the Cubs in the booth he unapologetically cheered for Chicago. "I'm a fan," he explained. And we loved him for it. There was no pretense about him. He was who he was and those are the kind of people most of us tend to admire and adore.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ron once and it was a moment I'll never forget. The warmth that he emanated was palpable. Sadly he's gone now and baseball didn't give others a chance to get to know him like I did with an enshrinement in Cooperstown.

Hopefully this is a call baseball will reverse.

R.I.P. Ron. You will be missed.

http://mxp.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/03/chicago-cub-ron-santo-gone-and-forgotton-in-cooperstown/?iref=allsearch


Ron Santo, who played third base for the Chicago Cubs for 15 years and later joined their broadcast team, died of complications of bladder cancer Thursday night, the Chicago Tribune reported. He was 70.

Santo suffered from juvenile diabetes, which he kept secret even from his teammates. He was loved in Chicago as a great player on a bad team in the 1960s and '70s. He played his final season for the crosstown White Sox in 1974. The Cubs retired the nine-time All-Star's No. 10 after he retired.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/03/cubs-great-ron-santo-dies/?hpt=T2

A damned shame a guy like him has to die before the national press understands what a travesty his being shunned by cooperstown was and IS!

He was man that kids could hold as a hero and never be ashamed of doing so! A rare breed of public sports figure, especially in this day and age!

[Henry Hawk]

Palehorse, this is a great tribute to a great man.  That is awesome that you had the opportunity to meet him......I also, hope that he gets into Cooperstown, somehow.