Ron Santo’s Special Day and Other Bullets

Penn State’s football program is about to get bombed into the Stone Age. I’m ready to stop hearing about it, and stop thinking about it.

  • Yesterday, after many years too many, Ron Santo was finally inducted into the Hall of Fame. It was the very definition of bittersweet, but Santo’s family certainly didn’t treat it that way, showing genuine happiness and excitement on behalf of Ronnie. His widow, Vicki, gave an incredible address. Cubs fans came to Cooperstown to be a part of the celebration. Writers penned love letters for Santo. Other Cubs Hall of Famers took as much pride and joy in the day as Santo would have. And Cubs players clicked their heels in celebration as they took the field yesterday. It was a special day.
  • Dale Sveum summed up the Cubs’ abysmal series in St. Louis with a plain-faced look at the numbers: “To score one run, and they scored [23], it was tough because we were playing well. Guys were swinging the bats better and getting bigger hits. We had only two extra-base hits the whole series, let alone not getting any big hits when we had opportunities.”
  • The Cubs are expecting to know more about Matt Garza’s injury later today, and, so far, both Garza and Dale Sveum are optimistic that the pitcher will be able to make his next scheduled start on Friday (or maybe pushing it back a day to Saturday). You know the stakes: if Garza can’t make his start, the Cubs realistically lose the option of trading Garza altogether.
  • If Garza can’t start, or is traded (or if there’s another trade), Dale Sveum confirmed what we suspected – Justin Germano is next in line to get a shot in the rotation.
  • Garza on his superhero costume idea: “I had just taken my son to see the Avengers. I looked in the outfield and I thought, ‘Let’s do a super hero trip.’ We just ran with it from there. We were supposed to do it a while back but he wanted to give guys more time to get costumes …. It’s kind of to have guys let loose, have a little fun. It takes a little pressure off and adds a little embarrassment along the way. It gets you out of your own skin a little bit. When you are in a mask you can be whatever you want.” In case you missed it, you can see some of the costumes here. Garza dressed as Batman, and not in any kind of feline bedwear. Still, the idea, itself, was the cat’s pajamas.
  • The MLBullets at BCB look at, among other things, the 2013 Hall of Fame class. With Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens and more, it’s going to be a unique and difficult discussion.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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