Cubs nation and the baseball world have been in mourning during the past few weeks with the news of the passing of baseball great Ryne Sandberg, affectionately known as “Ryno”. His battle with cancer over the last two years ended his life, but not the spirit he shared with his beloved Cubs family. Since his passing, the conversation at Wrigley and among all Cubs fans is how Ryno touched our lives. To a person, Ryno is remembered as gracious, always there to shake your hand with a warm smile, and often willing to talk a little baseball, the game he dearly loved.

Ryno’s baseball numbers are off the charts, earning him a spot in the Hall of Fame in 2005. He’s at the top of the list in all-time second basemen in terms of hitting for average, power, and fielding prowess – 1984 NL MVP; career .285 batting average; 282 HRs; ten consecutive All-Star appearances; nine consecutive Gold Gloves; and a .989 fielding percentage. The list of plaudits could go on and on.

Sandberg’s story though is much more than the numbers. He began his MLB career as a shortstop for the Phillies in 1981. Prior to the 1982 season, Chicago GM Dallas Green orchestrated one of the best trades in Cubs history, sending SS Ivan DeJesus to Philadelphia for Larry Bowa and Ryno. While Sandberg started slowly as a Cub in 1982, playing third base and weathering an early hitting slump, his career blossomed in 1983 when he became a stalwart at second base. His Cubs though finished in fifth place in the division and attendance at Wrigley Field remained sparse.

1984 was a whole different story. Sandberg in his NL MVP year lifted the team and the ballpark on his back. For the first time since 1945, the Cubs were in the playoffs, winning the NL East. Attendance soared at Wrigley, with over 2 million fans watching their Cubbies, breaking the all-time attendance record at the historic ballpark. And Ryno, well, he led the team with a .314 batting average; 200 hits; 114 runs scored; 19 HRs; and 84 RBIs! The number that really sticks out that year is 19 triples, quite a feat at the Friendly Confines.

1984 may be remembered most by the so-called “Sandberg Game”, a nationally televised game on June 23, featuring the Cubs against their bitter rivals, the Cardinals, at Wrigley. The game went back and forth, as the Cubs trailed 9-8 in the bottom of the ninth against former Cub and then Cardinals closer, Bruce Sutter. Sandberg tied the game with a homer into the left field bleachers, and then unbelievably, tied it again in the bottom of the 10th, also against Sutter, with a two-run blast. Ryno remarked years later that the two swings were the only times in his career that he intentionally swung six inches under the pitch to match Sutter’s dropping, split finger fastball. As Bob Costas aptly said, not many players have a game named after him.

In Cubs lore, 1990 might have been a season named after Sandberg based on his play on the field. While batting second in the Chicago lineup, he led the NL with 40 HRs and knocked in 100 runs. Defensively, he played error free baseball for 123 consecutive games! At the All-Star Game that year hosted by the Cubs at Wrigley, he even won the home run derby, launching a handful of HRs onto Waveland Avenue. The early 1990s saw continued success, but in 1994 his numbers dropped and Ryno surprisingly decided to retire mid-season. He did come back for two more seasons, 1996 and 1997, his final two as a player.

I’ve watched many Hall of Fame speeches, but none was better Ryno’s address in 2005. He emphasized playing baseball the right way, which to him meant not only following proper fundamentals but respecting your teammates and the game itself. It came at a time when baseball was still reeling from the news of players abusing steroids and posting numbers the game had not seen before. Famously, in his remarks, Sandberg stated: “(L)earning how to bunt, hit and run and turning two is more important than knowing where to find the little red light on the dugout camera.” Those words remain so true today.

Sandberg’s baseball career did not end there, as he soon decided to take his “right way” approach to instructing young players. Unselfishly, he began managing at the lowest level in the Cubs organization in 2007, the Class A Peoria Chiefs. After two seasons there, he managed the Double A Tennessee Smokies. Then in 2010, he took the helm of AAA Iowa Cubs, where he was named Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year. Unfortunately, he never got the opportunity to manage the Cubs, but left in 2011 to return to his first team, the Phillies. He managed their AAA team before heading to Philadelphia as third base coach in 2012 and as manager (2013-2015).

Ryno returned home to Chicago in 2016, serving as a team ambassador and often appearing at spring training to assist young players. I recall fondly his visit to Sloan Park this past spring. Today’s Cubs adored Ryno. When his statue was unveiled outside the ballpark on June 23, 2024, the 40th anniversary of the Sandberg Game, the entire team watched the festivities from a ramp overlooking the ceremony. Indeed, the statue characterizes his approach to the game, as he sits in a defensive crouch ready for the next play. Of all the comments in the baseball world over the past two weeks memorializing Ryne’s passing, current Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner captured it best: “It was never about him, ever. It was just truly love of the game of baseball.”

I, too, have a Ryno story. In January 2023 on the day before the Cubs would announce that Sandberg would receive a statue, I had the pleasure of being in the Cubs clubhouse in a group that included Ryno and another all-time Cub great, Andre Dawson. A Cubs official demonstrated the use of a batting cage where a pitcher’s type of pitch, speed, and release point coud be simulated. Dawson turned to Sandberg and simply remarked, “if we would have had this, we would have hit .350 every year”.

Somehow, Ryno has always hit 1.000 in everything he gave to the game he loved. What is your favorite Sandberg memory?

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach