Ryne Sandberg

Ryne Dee Sandberg was born on September 18, 1959, in Spokane, Washington, to Elizabeth Sandberg, a nurse, and Derwent D. "Sandy" Sandberg, a mortician. He was named after the New York Yankees relief pitcher Ryne Duren.

At North Central High School in Spokane he starred in three sports and graduated in 1978. In the fall of 1977 he was one of eight quarterbacks named to Parade magazine's High School All-America football team. The school later named its baseball field "Ryne Sandberg Field" (1985) and retired his varsity number in both football and baseball.

Sandberg was recruited as a quarterback by NCAA Division I programs and signed a letter of intent with Washington State University in Pullman. Phillies scouts Bill Harper and Wilbur "Moose" Johnson persuaded scouting director Dallas Green to draft him anyway. His parents, especially his mother, worried about him skipping college, but after a walk with his brother Del he accepted a reported $20,000 bonus and never enrolled.

Drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 20th round in 1978, Sandberg played shortstop for Helena, Spartanburg, Reading (Eastern League All-Star, 1980) and Oklahoma City before a brief call-up in September 1981. His only Phillies hit came at Wrigley Field with a bat borrowed from Larry Bowa.

In January 1982 the Phillies traded Sandberg and Bowa to the Chicago Cubs for Ivan DeJesus. He played third base as a rookie, finishing sixth in Rookie of the Year voting, then moved to second base full-time in 1983 and won the first of nine consecutive Gold Gloves.

In 1984 he hit .314 with 200 hits, 114 runs, 36 doubles, 19 triples and 19 home runs, formed "the Daily Double" with Bob Dernier, led the Cubs to the NL East title and won the National League MVP award. The June 23, 1984 "Sandberg Game", when he homered off Bruce Sutter in both the ninth and tenth innings, made him a national star.

He stole a career-high 54 bases in 1985, led the league with 40 home runs in 1990 (also winning the Home Run Derby at Wrigley Field) and drove in 100 runs in both 1990 and 1991. He played 123 consecutive games at second base without an error, a major league record at the time. In March 1992 he signed a four-year, $28.4 million extension that briefly made him the game's highest-paid player.

Struggling early in 1994, he retired on June 13 of that year, then returned for 1996 and 1997. On April 26, 1997, his 267th home run as a second baseman passed Joe Morgan for the position record. He played his last game at Wrigley Field on September 21, 1997, finishing with a .285 average, 2,386 hits, 282 home runs, 1,061 RBIs and a .989 fielding percentage.

After seven years as a Cubs spring training instructor, Sandberg managed the Class A Peoria Chiefs (2007), Double-A Tennessee Smokies (2009) and Triple-A Iowa Cubs (2010), earning Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year. Passed over for the Cubs job, he rejoined the Phillies organization in November 2010, leading the Lehigh Valley IronPigs to their first playoff appearance and winning Baseball America's 2011 Minor League Manager of the Year award.

He became the Phillies' third-base coach in 2013 and interim manager on August 16, 2013, when Charlie Manuel was fired. Named permanent manager that September, he joined Ted Williams and Frank Robinson as the only Hall of Fame players to manage full-time after induction. He resigned on June 26, 2015, with a managerial record of 119 wins and 159 losses. In 2016 he returned to the Cubs as a goodwill ambassador and occasional color commentator on Marquee Sports Network.

Sandberg married his high school sweetheart, Cindy White. They had two children, Lindsey and Justin, and divorced in July 1995. In August 1995 he married Margaret Koehnemann, who has three children from a previous marriage. His nephew Jared Sandberg played third base for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays from 2001 to 2003. He lived in Lake Bluff, Illinois, in his later years.

Sandberg was known for a quiet, workmanlike approach and for respecting the game's fundamentals. In his 2005 Hall of Fame speech he said that learning to bunt, hit and run and turn two mattered more than knowing where to find the red light on the dugout camera, and he used the moment to campaign for former teammates Andre Dawson and Ron Santo, both of whom were later inducted.

Sandberg is widely ranked among the best second basemen in baseball history. He shares the record for Silver Slugger awards by a second baseman (seven, with Jose Altuve), and his nine straight Gold Gloves were a record at the position until Roberto Alomar won ten. The trade that brought him to Chicago is remembered as one of the most lopsided in the sport. Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog called him the best baseball player he had ever seen. His number 23 was the fourth retired by the Cubs, after Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ron Santo, and a bronze statue of him stands on Gallagher Way outside Wrigley Field.

National League Most Valuable Player (1984); 10 consecutive All-Star selections; nine consecutive Gold Glove Awards (1983 to 1991); seven Silver Slugger Awards; NL home run leader (1990); Home Run Derby champion (1990); Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year (2010); Baseball America Minor League Manager of the Year (2011); National Baseball Hall of Fame (2005, 76.2 percent on his third ballot); number 23 retired by the Cubs (August 28, 2005); Order of Lincoln, Lincoln Academy of Illinois (2017); statue at Wrigley Field (2024).

Sandberg's two home runs off Bruce Sutter on June 23, 1984 were called on radio by Harry Caray and on NBC by Bob Costas, and the broadcasts are among the most replayed in Cubs history. After his playing days he worked as an ESPN Radio 1000 analyst during the 2004 season, became a spokesman for National City Bank in 2005, and from 2016 appeared as an occasional color commentator on Cubs telecasts.

No significant controversies are recorded. His abrupt mid-season retirement in June 1994, during a career-worst slump, surprised the club and fans, but he returned to the Cubs in 1996. His 2015 resignation as Phillies manager came with the team holding the worst record in baseball.

In January 2024 Sandberg announced that he had begun treatment for metastatic prostate cancer. After months of chemotherapy and radiation he was declared cancer-free in August 2024, but on December 10, 2024 he announced that the cancer had returned and spread to other organs. He died at his home in Lake Bluff, Illinois, on July 28, 2025, at the age of 65. The Cubs, Major League Baseball, the Hall of Fame and former President Barack Obama paid tribute, and on August 2, 2025, every Cubs player and manager Craig Counsell wore number 23 in his memory.