Ron Santo Marquee Hall of Fame 2012

The Cubs he anchored won 92 games in 1969 and finished second to the Mets; he never reached a postseason game. He played 2,129 games at third base, batting .277 with 2,254 hits, 342 home runs and 1,331 runs batted in, won five straight Gold Gloves from 1964, and made nine All-Star teams.

Doctors found type 1 diabetes when he was eighteen, and he kept it from the club and the press until 1971 — years when there was no way to test blood sugar during a game. In 1973 he became the first player to veto a trade under the new rule; the White Sox got him anyway and put him at second base.

Writers dropped him off the ballot in 1980 with 15 votes of 385 and, when he returned, never got him past 204 of 473. Four veterans committees turned him down. He spent two decades calling Cubs games on the radio, lost both legs to the disease, and died in December 2010. The Golden Era Committee elected him for the 2012 class, 15 votes of 16.