Three Up, Three Down: Santo’s best wishes last a lifetime

When I was in kindergarten, my mom helped me write a letter to a ballplayer on preschool penmanship paper, the kind with the two solid lines and a dotted line in the middle.

The ballplayer was Ron Santo, the beloved former Chicago Cubs third baseman who died Thursday at age 70.

I was 5 in 1962. Santo was 22, at least according to the backs of my baseball cards with his picture on front.

He was my favorite ballplayer, although when you are 5, these things sometimes are decided for you. Maybe he was my dad's favorite ballplayer, too. I don't remember my dad saying that, but my dad would have been 26 then. Maybe that's the age dads stop admitting they have favorite ballplayers and start complaining about stuff.

The three of us had the same first name. My dad and Ron Santo also had the same middle name: Edward. But there had to be more to it than that. Neither my dad nor I became Ron Swoboda fans or Ron Perranoski fans or Ron Hansen fans, not even after he recorded an unassisted triple play.

I would receive a black-and-white postcard of Ron Santo in the mail, autographed by Ron Santo. It was a momentous occasion, the first time I had received mail. And from Ron Santo himself, no less. His picture was on front, and my name and address were written on back. It was probably the handwriting of a Cubs secretary, but there wasn't a handwriting expert in the whole wide world, as we used to say in 1962, who could have convinced me that wasn't Ron Santo's official handwriting.

A short time later, one of my dad's pals bumped into my hero in a restaurant near Wrigley Field and got his autograph for me on a cocktail napkin. "To Ronnie," it read. "Best wishes. Ron Santo."

Not one wish. Plural wishes. Many wishes. Best wishes.

I still have that postcard. I still have that autograph.

I still think when something good happens, it's because the little boy in me believes that Ron Santo wished it so in 1962.

THREE UP

■ BISHOP GORMAN: The Gaels beat McQueen 40-0 in Saturday's Class 4A state championship football game and immediately accepted an invitation to the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl. Local oddsmakers have installed Gorman as a 3-point favorite over Southern Miss.

■ FOUR-POINT SHOT: The Harlem Globetrotters will play the Washington Generals on Feb. 23 at the Orleans Arena, where a new 4-point line, 35 feet from the basket, will be in effect. "Long-range marksmanship is a Generals trademark. If anything, this only makes us stronger," said Generals president and former star Red Klotz. The Generals-'Trotters series reminds me of the UNLV-UNR football rivalry in that the Generals' last win came in 1971.

■ MAACO BOWL LAS VEGAS: Provided the Bowl Championship Series releases Boise State from consideration as expected today, the fan-friendly Broncos will provide the opposition for Utah at Sam Boyd Stadium on Dec. 22. This fortuitous development most likely will result in yet another sellout and provide further proof that bowl director Tina Kunzer-Murphy and her bosses at ESPN are a more formidable tag team than The Fabulous Freebirds.

THREE DOWN

■ MOUNTAIN WEST TV: With the National Finals Rodeo -- and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals watchdogs -- in town, I hate to beat a dead horse, even an animated one. So out of respect for Quick Draw McGraw, let the record show that Saturday night's UNLV-UNR basketball game was not available on local television. Just like last year's football game up there.

■ MOUNTAIN WEST BRIBE ... ER, INCENTIVE: The Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram has reported the Mountain West Conference offered to hand over Hawaii's incoming conference membership fee directly to Texas Christian in an effort to keep it from bolting to the Big East. A source said the Horned Frogs are holding out for Sarah Cummard's telephone number and the Subway sandwich allowance of former Utah basketball coach Rick Majerus before they'll reconsider.

■ KONNICHIWA, GUILLENSAN: Having spent the past five seasons managing in Japan, new Las Vegas 51s skipper Marty Brown says he is looking forward to doing the same at Cashman Field, where most everybody speaks English and Ozzie Guillen tries real hard when he brings the White Sox to town to play the Cubs on Big League Weekend.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352.