Monday, December 8, 2008

The Raw Deal

So, after tossing out the offhand promise that I would be updating regularly through the holidays, my computer did the unthinkable, and suddenly stopped thinking. Thankfully, this magic box of mine was under warranty, and I got my hard drive replaced. Fancy, right? What a lucky bloke I am after all, right? This is what you're probably saying, if you hate beautiful memories and the people that have them. I didn't back up anything on that hard drive: no music, no pictures, no stories, and now they're all gone. Mostly. The internet is a wonderful thing, and a lot of things ended up in a gmail archive, but still. You probably think I should've backed up those files, and of course you're right, but we (hard drive, me) were young and foolish then, and we felt like we would live forever. We spent a week or so cursing the vanity of youth and being repaired, and now we're back in the saddle. We are older now, and wiser, and we try to take care of each other. Every day, I stuff a salad (low-cal dressing, of course) into the disk drive, and I've downloaded a program which reminds me to take my fish-oil pills.

It's a terrible thing to forget the past, yes? A clunky and poorly delivered sentiment, I know, but it's just a clumsy segue, so bridle your fury. The title of this post refers not to me and my computer buffoonery, but to a significant injustice in the world of baseball. The Veterans Committee again voted down Ron Santo's Hall of Fame bid,which has become a familiar story to Cubs nation. You can say whatever you want about his...unusual broadcasting style, but his credentials as a player are tough to beat. But because I'm a huge fan of Ron as both a player and a person, I'll leave the job of making his hall of fame case to some experts: Joe Sheehan, of baseball prospectus, and Rob Neyer, writing for ESPN. What I like about both of these arguments is that they focus almost exclusively on his playing career, which is where I think this discussion belongs. On the other hand, the guy battled Type 1 diabetes in secret through most of his career, and has been an exceptional baseball ambassador and philanthropist since his retirement. I think Ron got screwed again today, and I just hope that the obviously broken Veterans Committee is under warranty, and that someone sends them off to get fixed up soon. I know it's just a plaque in a building, and baseball nerds and Chicagoans will likely remember Ron Santo just the same, but he deserves this recognition while he's still alive to enjoy it, and I hope he gets another chance at that.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would just like to point out that blogger.com works from any computer with an internet connection.

Your excuse, like Ronnie's grasp of broadcasting, is thin.

dana dana dana said...

oooo. that's quite a bit of sass from a blogger who hasn't posted in nearly a month...

dana dana dana said...

will you ever blog again?

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