Saddened to hear about the passing on Monday of Ryne Sandberg at the age of just 65.
After making his debut for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1981, Sandberg spent the next 15 years with the Chicago Cubs, where he became a 10-time All-Star with nine Gold Gloves seven Silver Slugger Awards and the NL MVP in 1984, when the Cubs returned to the post-season in almost 40 years. He came to national attention in what became known as “the Sandberg Game” on June 23 in a 12-11 win against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals, when he went 5-for-6 with two game-tying home runs in the 9th and 10th innings, and driving in seven runs.
He retired after the 1994 campaign. The next year he release Second to Home: Ryne Sandberg Opens Up, co-written with Barry Rozner. His hiatus was short-lived, however. After dealing with domestic issues, he returned to the Cubs in 1996 before hanging up his spikes for good after the following season. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2005. Sandberg was the uncle of Jared Sandberg who played for the Tamp Bay Devil Rays from 2001-2003
It’s hard to reconcile the death of players who were active when I was a young man because the older I seem to get, the closer to them in age I am. Just like the “kids” I had as a counselor at Camp Maromac in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec from ages 19-24. When you think about it, in most cases it was only a difference of five to ten years I usually had the oldest groups). Now they’re AARP-eligible (or whatever the Canadian equivalent is).
As would be expected, this was a major story not just in the baseball world, but especially in Chicago. Here’s is obit from the Tribune and the Sun-Times, as well as The New York Times by Richard Goldstein,
is available on Amazon.com,
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