As Ron Santo's induction into the Baseball Ball of Fame was celebrated Sunday, I was reminded of what a huge part numbers have always played in baseball.

One of the Chicago papers ran a copy of Santo's plaque that morning. The plaque's text is numbers-heavy, listing everything from the number of All-Star appearances and Gold Glove awards Santo accumulated to his career hit, home run and RBI totals.

When Master of Ceremonies Gary Thorne discussed Santo at the afternoon's induction ceremony, he cited many of those same statistics. Those same numbers appeared were cited countless other times during the day — in TV and radio sports news programming, in online articles and blogs and in conversations among Cubs fans.