I am a Yankee fan but I because my grandfather was a Mets fan, I watched a lot of National League games in the 1960s. Ken Boyer was very good, but Ron Santo was the best third baseman in the league in that decade. That is the reason than he was a perennial all-star at a time when the players, not fans, made those selections. It is a fact that there are fewer third basemen in the HOF than any other position and Ron Santo is better than most of those enshrined. Was he as good a fielder as Brooks Robinson? Of course not. If he was in the same league, Santo doesn't win any of his five gold gloves. But he was a very, very good defensive player and a better hitter than Brooks. He was a better player than Kell, Lindstrom, Jimmy Collins, and I would argue better than Pie Traynor, who was generally considered the best third baseman of the 20th century until Brooks, Brett, and Schmidt came along.
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