Although Keith Moreland has filled in passably for Ron Santo in the Cubs radio broadcast booth this season, the fact remains that Moreland is not Santo. Accordingly, the newly unveiled statue of Santo will relieve Moreland of his broadcasting duties effective immediately.
Premier voice of the Cubs Pat Hughes agrees with the Cubs decision, and with his usual grace wishes Moreland well in his future endeavors.
“Moreland is a bright baseball guy,” Hughes said. “But he is no Ron Santo. I knew Ron Santo, and Moreland is no Ron Santo.”
The decision was made by Cubs owner Tom Ricketts, who said he gathered data from Cubs fans this season on Moreland’s warmth and competency in the Cubs radio booth. The overwhelming findings are that Moreland is not Ron Santo, and that even a statue of Ron Santo would be better than any living person, including Moreland, broadcasting Cubs games over the radio.
“I’m not surprised Cubs fans feel so positively about Ronnie,” Ricketts said. “After all, I was a Cubs fan myself until I bought the team. In my heart of hearts I knew Moreland was not Ron Santo, but I wanted to gather support for our decision to replace him with the Ron Santo statue.”
Cubs fans are just thrilled to have the Ron Santo statue in the Cubs radio booth.
“I couldn’t be happier,” lifelong Cubs fan Lindsay Major said. “Moreland has an easy conversational style, an expansive vocabulary and is very knowledgeable about baseball, but he is no Ron Santo. There is only one Ron Santo and if the closest we can get to him is his statue, then so be it.”
The fate of any future on-the-air long running gag between Pat and Ron Santo statue concerning the statue’s hairpiece will become known once the statue joins Hughes for its first game in the booth Thursday afternoon.
By Rob C. Christiansen
