MESA, Ariz. (AP) – Ron Santo turns 67 on Sunday, but the legendary Chicago Cubs third baseman and broadcaster hopes the real celebration comes two days later. That’s when the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee voting is announced.

“All I know is I want it very badly this year,” Santo said.

He’s not sure where he’ll be when the announcement is made. He may be at his home near the Cubs’ spring training complex. If he’s out, his cell phone will be on.

“I don’t know what exactly I’m going to do,” Santo said.

All he knows is he’ll be on an emotional high if he makes it.

The baseball writers passed on him, and the old and new veterans committees have done the same, although he and Gil Hodges came close in the most recent vote two years ago. The two fell eight votes shy of the required 75 percent.

“People who have had really solid careers and have been dominant players at their positions should get in,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said.

Diagnosed with Type I diabetes when he was 18, both legs were amputated below the knee in recent years. In between, Santo was a nine-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner during a career that spanned from 1960 to 1974. He batted .277 with 1,331 RBIs and 342 home runs, but he’s had no luck getting into the Hall.

No one has with the new veterans committee, for that matter.

It has not selected anyone in two votes, and the shutouts in 2003 and 2005 have raised questions about whether the panel – which includes all living members of the Hall of Famers and members of the old committee whose terms have not expired – is too selective. The old committee, which usually had 15 members, was accused of cronyism and was abolished after it elected Bill Mazeroski – a .260 hitter but a great fielder – in 2001.

Santo “felt very, very good” when the new system was implemented. He just wishes the vote was every year for several reasons.

One is his health: “Two years, because of what I have with the diabetes, is like eternity. If I do get in, I’d like to enjoy it.”

Another is the fickle nature of voters: “Players sometimes forget who they voted for or might change it. I’m almost sure there were a couple guys who lost votes after two years.”

Santo has the support of at least one Hall of Fame third baseman – Mike Schmidt, who recently said he should be inducted.

“I like that,” said Santo, who spent his first 14 seasons with the Cubs and one with the White Sox. “I like that very much. That’s telling me he realizes there are guys that belong in there from the veterans committee.”

“If there’s a doubt, instead of saying “No,’ say “Yes,”‘ Piniella said.

But Santo has come up short ever since his name first appeared on the writers’ ballot in 1980. He received just 15 votes – 3.9 percent – that year and did not reappear on it until 1985. He got 43 percent in 1998, his final year on the writers ballot.

“There are a lot of guys who deserve (it),” Santo said. “It’s not just about numbers. You’ve got to look at the numbers, but you’ve also got to look at the consistency, defense, offense, impact. Was he an impact player?”

Santo hit at least 25 homers in eight seasons and finished with 30 or more four times. He had seven seasons with at least 98 RBIs, and his 393 assists in 1967 were a record at the time for a third baseman.

He did it with a condition that ultimately led to open heart surgery and eye problems, besides the amputations, and left him with a weakened immune system. He was hospitalized for a week in July with pneumonia – the second time in six months he caught it.

Santo hid the diabetes from the Cubs until 1963, when he was 23 and made the All-Star team for the first time. He did not reveal his condition to the public until “Ron Santo Day” on Aug. 28, 1971.

“During my career, it was not as easy as people realize and yet I put up big numbers,” Santo said. “I had a disability. Baseball was a gift to me. I loved it. I just wonder: Would I have played longer (without diabetes)? There were a lot of times that my sugar was low, and that’s a big problem. Your faculties are much slower, your eyes are not the same.”

Notes: RHP Kerry Wood threw 25 pitches off the mound and will likely get in two or three more sessions before facing hitters. Wood is a few days behind schedule because he slipped and landed on his stomach and chest while getting out of a hot tub at home last week. “It’s my second time off the mound, and I’m doing fine,” he said.

AP-ES-02-19-07 1934EST