Sunday reading (6/17)

Ron Santo made an appearance at O'Brien Field in Peoria last night. Chief beat writer Kevin Capie catches up with the Cub legend. It covers the ground of "Hall of Famer or not", but there are some other things in the article that may be familiar to those who know the Santo story.

Santo: 'I was given a gift'

When Santo was diagnosed, not much was known about the disease. Understandably, he was concerned about his future.

"The first thing when (the doctor) said diabetes, yeah I had a couple of candy bars here and there," Santo said. "Then he looked at me and I asked, can I play baseball any more and he said. 'I don't know.' We weren't familiar with diabetes at that time."

Given the state of baseball at the time, with just 16 major league teams and hundreds of minor league teams, Santo did what was expected.

"Did I hide the fact? Yes," Santo said. "The only person I would tell was my roommate, in case I went into a coma."

Santo told the club after his first all-star game appearance in 1963. He went on to another 10 years with the Cubs and one with the White Sox before retiring after the 1974 season.

Also, Jeff Johnson of the Cedar Rapids Gazette has this article today about the MWL as development:

A learning ground for big leaguers

Jack Roeder remembers faxing some sheets to the Cincinnati Reds after a Cedar Rapids Reds game at Memorial Stadium.

It was 1991, before the advent of e-mail. The fax machine was how minor league managers and coaches shipped game reports to farm directors.

As Roeder, in his first year as Cedar Rapids general manager, was doing his duties, he happened to glance at one of the pages about to be sent. A comment in it went something like this:``Will be premier closer in the big leagues within three years.

''That comment was about Cedar Rapids relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman. More than 500 major league saves proves it was dead on.

``What I remember was this was his first year as a pitcher,'' said longtime Cedar Rapids Reds/Kernels public-address announcer Dale Brodt. ``I think he was an infielder before that. It was quite obvious he had a talent for getting guys out.''

At the beginning of last week, The Gazette scanned each major league team's active roster and disabled list and determined how many players were in the Midwest League at one time and where they played.

Jeff goes through and picks the best current major leaguers from each team in the Midwest League. His pick from the Appleton Foxes/Wisconsin Timber Rattlers: Alex Rodriguez over David Ortiz.