Ryno wasn’t just a player. He was the embodiment of an era, the quiet but ferocious force behind the resurgence of the Chicago Cubs in the 1980s.
And on Monday, baseball lost more than a Hall of Famer—we lost a symbol of how the game “should” be played. Sixty-five years old. Prostate cancer. It hits hard.
Ryne Sandberg was the kind of guy who could steal a base and your breath in the same inning. He wasn’t loud. He wasn’t flashy. But man, could he play. You could feel the electricity in Wrigley when he was in his prime. He didn’t just “man” second base—he owned it. Nine Gold Gloves. Seven Silver Sluggers.
And that unforgettable 1984 season, when he was crowned National League MVP and basically gave Cubs fans a reason to believe again. But let’s rewind for a second. Because the way he got to Chicago? That was fate working overtime.
Originally drafted by the Phillies—yes, the “Philadelphia” Phillies—in the 20th round of the 1978 draft (after most teams had given up on him because he wanted to play football), Sandberg was basically a footnote in a trade between the Cubs and Phillies.
The deal? Ivan DeJesus for Larry Bowa and “a throw-in named Ryne Sandberg.” Well, that “throw-in” became a cornerstone of Cubs history.
His rookie season in 1982 hinted at what was to come—.271 batting average, 33 doubles, 32 stolen bases. And then boom: Ryno took off, and he never looked back. He led with hustle, with grace, with a grit that made blue-collar Chicagoans nod in respect. He played like he meant it. Every pitch. Every game.
And after retiring, he returned to where it started: managing the Phillies from 2013 to 2015, giving back to the game that gave him everything—and to the city that let him go all those years ago.
But through it all, through every glove and every bat, Ryne Sandberg was proudest of one thing: his family. His wife Margaret, his children, his grandkids. That’s what meant most to him.
So here’s to Ryno. A player’s player. A fan’s favorite. And a name that’ll echo through Wrigley Field as long as baseball is played.
