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- ⚾Ron Santo fractures his cheek but keeps his streak alive
⚾Ron Santo fractures his cheek but keeps his streak alive
June 26, 1966 Chicago's Ron Santo singles in the 1st and his next time up is struck in the face by a Jack Fisher pitch that fractures his cheek. Before Santo's at bat, the Mets' Ron Hunt and the Cubs' Adolfo Phillips had both been hit by pitches. Santo will be operated on the following day but will return to action in a week. The injury ends his consecutive game streak at 390, but his 27 game hitting streak continues one shy of the franchise mark, stays intact with a first-inning single. Santo will extend his streak 2 more games upon his July 4th return.
ALSO
June 26, 1960 At Forbes Field, Cubs rookie Ron Santo, making his major league debut, leads Chicago to a sweep of the first-place Pirates. Santo is 3 for 7 and drives in five runs as the Cubs win, 7 - 5 and 7 - 6.
Listen to Ron on Hardball link below
More on Ron, Santo is the greatest third baseman in Chicago Cubs' history. He hit 342 career home runs and won five Gold Gloves. Playing all but one season with the Cubs, Santo never made it to the post-season. He hit 30 homers and batted .300 four times each, despite playing much of his career in an era where scoring was suppressed. He paced the National League in walks four times. He topped NL third basemen in putouts seven times, assists seven times, and double plays four times.
Best Season, 1964
The wrong third baseman won the MVP Award. Cardinal Ken Boyer took home the hardware as his team won the pennant, but Santo outplayed him in '64. Santo batted .312, hit 33 doubles, 13 triples (which led the NL), 30 homers, drove in 114, walked 86 times and won the Gold Glove. Not sure how any other third baseman was deemed more valuable.
Stable Cubs
The Cubs of the 1960s and early 1970s are one of the most talented teams who never made the post-season. Ron Santo became the third baseman in 1960, and for the remainder of the decade, the Cubs had a very stable lineup of players. Ernie Banks played two years at short next to Santo and eight years at first; Don Kessinger moved into the shortstop spot in 1965 and stayed for 11 seasons; that same year, Glenn Beckert won the second base job, which he filled through 1973; for four seasons Dick Bertell was the Cubs' starting catcher, and starting in '66 Randy Hundley enjoyed an eight-year run behind the plate, through 1973; Billy Williams was starting in the outfield every year from 1961 to 1973.
Banks (1B), Beckert (2B), Kessinger (SS), Santo (3B), Hundley (C) and Williams (LF or RF) were 75% of the team's lineup from 1966-1969. Five of those players were in the starting lineup in four other seasons (1965, 1970, 1972, 1973). In 1966 the six players played in 910 of 972 possible games at their positions. In 1967 it was 916 of 966, in 1968 it was 949 of 972, and in '69 it was 917 of 972. Thus, for four seasons, the six played in 95% of the Cubs' games.
The manager of those Cubs teams was Leo Durocher, who had favored a set lineup when he led the Dodgers and Giants in the 1940s and 1950s. Durocher had the advantage of having very durable players in Chicago. Banks played at least 150 games 12 times in his career. Santo had a 390-consecutive games played streak at one time and appeared in at least 160 games seven times. Kessinger played at least 150 games eight times, and missed just 43 games from 1968 to 1975. Williams set the NL record for most consecutive games played (1,117).
December 5, 2011, three days after the first anniversary of his death, Santo was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee which was looking at players from the "Golden Era". He received 15 of 16 votes, being the only person on the ballot to receive enough votes to be elected. He was inducted on July 22, 2012, with his wife Vicki present in Cooperstown, NY to represent him. Until his belated election, Santo had been considered by many observers to be one of the best players not in the Hall, and there had been a long campaign by supporters to have him enshrined (see the quote below by Bill James). The most similar player to Santo, based on the similarity scores method, is Dale Murphy, although there is no player truly similar to him, as is often the case with great players.
Did you know?
June 26, 1968 At Busch Stadium Cardinal Bob Gibson pitches his 5th straight shutout in the first game of a doubleheader with Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh wins the second game, 3 - 1, although the Cardinals stop Maury Wills' 24-game hitting streak. The future Hall of Famer's accomplishment is one shy of the major league mark, set earlier in the month by Don Drysdale. Gibson would run his string of scoreless innings to 48 2/3 in his next start.
TRIVIA:
Who was the last pre-expansion player with a hundred of each of these stats in the same season: a.) Bases-on-balls, b.) Runs, c.) Runs batted in and d.) Extra-base hits?
Hint: #1 His RBI total for that season is only one short of the American League record.
Hint: #2 New York Giants’ manager John McGraw passed on him, finding him “too clumsy”.
Hint: #3 His date of birth can be represented with a single digit.
June 26, 1912 At Griffith Stadium, Boston Red Sox Smoky Joe Wood outguns the Nationals' ace Walter Johnson to win, 3 - 0. Wood allows three hits to the "Big Train"'s 4. Johnson fans 10 batters in the loss and collects 1 of the Senators 3 hits. Tris Speaker, Wood's roommate drives in 2 runs for the visiting Red Sox. Wood improves to 15-3 on the season, Johnson drops to 13-5.
June 26, 1938, at the Polo Grounds Carl Hubbell goes the distance in a 5-1 win over the Chicago Cubs, notching his 200th major league win, pushing the New York Giants to a two-game lead in the National League pennant race. Larry French takes the loss. Newly-acquired Bob Seeds, up from Newark, leads the way with a 470-foot inside-the-park homer to the Eddie Grant memorial in dead center. Nicknamed “The King,” Hubbell will finish his career with 253 victories and will earn election to the Hall of Fame in 1947.
June 26, 1944 At the Polo Grounds with over 50,000 fans looking on, the New York major league teams face each other in a six inning three-team game (a team played consecutive innings against the other two teams then sat out an inning) to raise money for war bonds. The charity contest, billed as the Tri-Cornered Baseball Game, ends with the final score of Dodgers 5, Yankees 1, Giants 0.
June 26, 1951 - Fresh from a doubleheader loss on the 24th at Forbes Field, the Dodgers get further bad news at the Polo Grounds. Sal Maglie shuts out Brooklyn on three hits, and Preacher Roe takes his first loss after ten wins. Eddie Stanky and Whitey Lockman hit homers.
June 26, 1962, Earl Wilson of the Boston Red Sox becomes the first black pitcher in American League history to hurl a no-hitter. Wilson also hits a 400-foot home run off loser Bo Belinsky, who pitched his no-hitter six weeks earlier, in the 2-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels at Boston’s Fenway Park.
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June 26, 1970 - Frank Robinson belts two successive grand slams during a 12 - 2 Oriole romp over the Senators, just the 3rd major leaguer to ever accomplish the feat. Dave McNally, the winning pitcher, Don Buford and Paul Blair trot home ahead of him on each blow. They will be Robby's only grand slams for the O's.
June 26, 1971, the California Angels suspend starting outfielder and defending American League batting champion Alex Johnson. Earlier in the season, Johnson had been benched five times and fined 29 times for failing to hustle.
Listen to Alex by clicking his name
June 26, 1976- At Royals Stadium, Marty Pattin and Steve Mingori combine on a one-hit shutout as the Kansas City Royals beat the California Angels, 3 - 0. Dave Collins single in the 6th inning broke up the no hit bid for Pattin. Pattin improved to 2-7 on the season. Pattin will finish the year 8-14 but posted a fantastic 2.49 ERA for the Royals. As of 2020 it is the 9th best Single Season ERA in franchise history.
June 26, 1979, the New York Yankees re-acquire outfielder Bobby Murcer from the Chicago Cubs for minor league pitcher Paul Semall. The 33-year-old outfielder batted .258 in a part-time role for Chicago. The Yankees had traded the former All-Star and fan favorite to the San Francisco Giants after the 1974 season. Murcer will once again thrive in Yankee Stadium, hitting .273 with eight home runs
June 26, 1983, At Shea Stadium, Rusty Staub of the New York Mets ties a major league record by delivering his eighth consecutive pinch-hit. Staub’s pinch-hit, which comes in the ninth inning of an 8-4 loss, vs Ron Reed. The hit matches the single-season mark set by the Phillies Dave Philley on September 28, 1958. Staub Staub’s streak will be snapped by the Cards’ Bruce Sutter three days from now. During his streak that extended over 14 days, Staub had 9 RBI's, 3 Doubles and a home run.
June 26, 1985 At Jack Russell Stadium, the organist is ejected by umpire Keith O'Connor from a Class A Florida League game for playing Three Blind Mice following a close call which goes against the Clearwater Phillies. The self-taught musician becomes famous, signing autographs, "Wilbur Snapp, Three Blind Mice organist'' as the incident is reported by NBC's Today show weatherman Willard Scott and is heard on Paul Harvey's syndicated radio program.
Quote of the day:
"To me it is clear and unequivocal that Santo is a Hall of Famer." - baseball writer and analyst Bill James
Milestones
Birthdays:Highlights: Bill Robinson | Debuts:Notable: Doyle Alexander |
Final Games:Highlights: Billy Rohr | Passings:Notable: Roy Campanella |
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