One of the constants in Ryne Sandberg’s career has been his flair for the dramatic, as exemplified by his two home-run afternoon on Saturday, only a few hours after he had announced he would retire at the end of the season.
Sandberg’s days as a Cub will be remembered for many things, including his steady fielding, his quiet demeanor, his lousy Aprils, his record-setting $28 million contract, his two retirements, his overpublicized personal life and his signature day in June 1984.
The Cubs plan on honoring Sandberg with his own day on Sept. 20 in Wrigley Field. His number 23 is likely to be retired within the next year and will wave from a yet-to-be-determined flag pole at Wrigley Field for years to come.
Sandberg has 50 games remaining to add to his legacy. Here are some of the more memorable moments and quotes from his Cubs career:
Day of the Ryno: The day Ryne Sandberg became Ryne Sandberg was June 23, 1984, when he went 5 for 6 with two home runs and seven runs batted in in a 12-11 victory over St. Louis, one of the greatest games in Cubs history. Sandberg homered off ex-Cubs closer Bruce Sutter leading off the ninth inning, tying the game 9-9 and putting Wrigley Field up for grabs. He outdid himself in the 10th inning, after Bob Dernier drew a two-out walk from Sutter on a close 3-2 pitch.
“Then comes Baby Ruth,” Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said afterward.
Sandberg drove a 1-1 split-finger fastball into the left-field bleachers, tying the game at 11 and sending Wrigley Field into delirium.
“To go up there and think I’m going to hit a home run again is unbelievable,” Sandberg said.
The Cubs would go on to win in the 12th on Dave Owen’s RBI single, but that wonderful Saturday belonged to Sandberg, and forever will.
“Sandberg is the best player I have ever seen,” Herzog said.
Sandberg went on to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award that year, though the Cubs’ dream season turned into a nightmare in San Diego. He finished with 114 runs, 36 doubles, 19 triples, 19 homers, 32 steals, 84 RBIs and a .520 slugging percentage.
Sandberg missed by one home run and one triple becoming the first player in history with 20 or more homers, triples, doubles and stolen bases in one season.
Highest high/lowest low: On Sept. 24, 1984, the Cubs beat Pittsburgh 4-1 at Three Rivers Stadium to win the NL East title, their first championship of any kind in 39 years.
“I don’t show a lot of emotion,” Sandberg said afterward, “but I have been storing this up for the last two months. I’ve really been waiting for this game.”
On Oct. 7, 1984, the Cubs lost 6-3 to San Diego in Game 5 of the National League playoffs after taking a 3-0 lead into the sixth inning with ace Rick Sutcliffe pitching. Leon Durham’s seventh-inning error allowed the tying run to score and, with two men on, Tony Gwynn hit a hard smash that took a hop over Sandberg’s shoulder, resulting in a two-run double that would put an end to the Cubs’ best World Series chance in most of their fans’ lifetimes.
“It would have been a perfect double-play ball,” Sandberg said. “We gave it our best shot. What else can you do? We just didn’t swing the bats here. Five hits today. I’m disappointed.”
In the beginning: The man Sandberg replaced at third base for the Cubs in ’82 was Ken Reitz. Sandberg had been a shortstop and had never played third. The Cubs originally had penciled him in as a center-fielder; Larry Bowa, the main man in the trade that brought Sandberg to Chicago, was solid at short. But they got rid of Reitz and gave Sandberg the third-base job.
“I just wanted to make the team,” Sandberg recalled in ’84. “But switching positions didn’t really make me happy. It seemed like no one had any confidence in me at short, and I was pretty nervous because I didn’t know if I could play third.”
Sandberg moved to second the next year and never left.
King of the hill: On March 2, 1994, a year before he was eligible for free agency, Sandberg became the first $7 million player in baseball, signing a four-year deal worth $28.4 million. Bobby Bonilla had been the highest-paid player with an average salary of $5.8 million. Many major-league general managers were livid with Tribune Co. for raising the salary bar so high.
“My 3-year-old son could have made that deal,” then-Minnesota General Manager Andy MacPhail fumed. “To jump from 5.8 to 7.1, that was absolutely stupid a year ahead of free agency. That’s stupidity and timidity. It’s a terrible deal. We’re going to spend ourselves into oblivion. I don’t blame the players. It’s the owners’ fault. We keep giving it to them.”
MacPhail, as president of the Cubs, later would welcome Sandberg back from retirement.
The cruelest month: April in Chicago usually meant two things: lousy weather and another bad start by Ryne Sandberg. Sandberg hit .209 this April as the Cubs lost their first 14 games, ending the month 6-19 and out of contention. In his first April as a Cub in 1982, Sandberg started out in a 1-for-32 slump. Over his career, Sandberg had an April average of .231 with 27 home runs and 122 RBIs. The rest of the time he has been a .292 hitter with 251 homers and 918 RBIs.
Sandberg trivia: Did you know . . . that Sandberg’s father, Derwent, named him for former Yankees pitcher Ryne Duren and that his older brother, Del, was named for former Phillies outfielder Del Ennis? . . . That he took piano lessons for five years as a child and hated it? . . . That his only 200-hit season was in 1984, and that he went 4 for 5 on Sept. 29 against St. Louis in Wrigley Field to reach the plateau?
The final word: Former Cubs manager Don Zimmer, after Sandberg first retired in 1994: “He was a bashful guy who didn’t have the greatest personality in the world. It’s not that he didn’t want to talk. He just was private. But in baseball, he was tops, the best second baseman I saw in my time.”
