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Cubs legend Ryne Sandberg reflects on memorable career, Louisville Slugger Living Legend Award
In less than two decades, the Louisville Slugger Living Legend Award weekend has become one of the hottest tickets on the Hot Stove circuit, and the latest player to receive the prestigious award is Ryne Sandberg, who was honored on Nov. 15, 2024.
The award, first bestowed on Ken Griffey Jr. in 2007, was created to honor “a person whose career in baseball, and life outside the game, have taken on legendary qualities; recognizing a triple threat of talents, achievements, and personal conduct. Beyond statistics, recipients of this award have demonstrated an exceptional impact, shaping baseball and American culture as we know it today.”
It was a grand evening at the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, full of baseball chatter and camaraderie, held in an exciting baseball setting, and highlighted by a splendid acceptance speech by a humble, enthusiastic, and joyful Sandberg. It was one of the best Living Legend Award events and a night to remember.
Attendance is by invitation-only, but purchase of the special Louisville Slugger baseball bat made to commemorate the event entitles the purchaser to two tickets. Only 100 of the Sandberg-autographed bats were made, and they sold out quickly. And judging by the attire of the crowd, many were fans of the Chicago Cubs, the team Sandberg played for in all but the first 13 games of his 13-year major league career.
Sandberg, who was named after Yankees pitcher Ryne Duren, began his career in the Philadelphia Phillies organization and made his major league debut with the Phillies at the end of the 1981 season.
Sandberg collected his first career major league hit with the Phillies off Mike Krukow of the Cubs, ironically, the team Sandberg was traded to over that winter. It was the only hit of his career that did not come with the Cubs.
Every player remembers his first major league hit, and Sandberg spoke of the hit in a way that made this abundantly clear. When he was given the first-hit baseball after the game, he noticed that some of the blue ink on it had been smudged. To complete the connection, the bat he used also had some of the same blue ink smudging on it. That first-hit ball and bat maintain a place of honor in his man cave.
Deana Lockman, executive director of the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, and her husband and Cubs fan, Matt, were celebrating their 21st wedding anniversary, and she got a hearty laugh when she said that for Matt’s present she was giving him Ryne Sandberg.
The event featured spectacular memorabilia displayed in more than a dozen large display cases that was up for bid in the Louisville Slugger live auction run by Hunt Auctions.
Dave Hunt, the founder and president of Hunt Auctions, referred to the famous “Sandberg Game,” a critical game in the Cubs’ drive to the 1984 National League pennant won primarily by Sandberg’s two home runs off Bruce Sutter. He called the acquisition of Sandberg from the Phillies “the greatest trade the Cubs ever made.” On cue, a video of Sandberg highlights was shown on a large screen, including the “Sandberg Game” at Wrigley Field against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Jake Misener, marketing manager for Louisville Slugger, explained that pre-Sandberg Cubs fans had experienced a lot of losing. “Not even Ernie Banks could change that,” he lamented, but 1984 and the “Sandberg Game” changed everything. Prior to 1984, Sandberg had been known as mostly a defensive wizard, but after the slim second baseman began to pull the ball, an adjustment which unleashed his power, he became an offensive force. More importantly, he became the “face of the franchise” and the focus of hope for Cubs fans.
Sandberg always played hard, kept his nose to the grindstone, and made everyone around him better. For years, Misener said, fans came out to Wrigley Field just to watch him play. Sandberg, he said, “personally embodies what the Living Legend Award stands for.”
Misener also made reference to the greatest challenge Sandberg has faced off the field: his recent battle with prostate cancer, against which “he came out on top.”
“Ryne Sandberg is a humble, kind man who appreciates every day given to him,” Misener said. “He has always made time for the fans, and he is a member of the family to Cubs fans.”
RYNO REMINISCES
After a congratulatory video from one of Sandberg’s teammates and best friends, former Cubs great Andre Dawson, the man of the hour took the stage to more applause.
With a huge smile, Sandberg looked at the beautiful ring which symbolizes the Living Legend Award and exclaimed, “Wow. There’s nothing left to say.”
For Sandberg, two words summed up his feelings about the honor, his life and career: “blessed” and “thankful.”
He reminisced about playing in the back yard with his older brothers, trying to hit a plastic golf ball with a broomstick and an old Carl Yastrzemski model Louisville Slugger, all the while imitating major leaguers such as Willie Stargell and Pete Rose. His dreams of playing pro baseball, he said, were stimulated by watching Cubs games on TV in the afternoons and Dodgers and Reds games at night and on the weekends.
After his first season at Double-A Reading, he was invited to major league camp with the Phillies. His agent told him not to be late, and there was no danger of that happening. After all, the Phillies had just won the 1980 World Series and had an All-Star at virtually every position. On the first day of camp, Sandberg was the first one to show up. It was still dark outside and the janitor had to open the clubhouse for him. He walked into the room and was starstruck by the names on the jerseys hanging on the locker cubicles: Larry Bowa, Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt … Pete Rose! And then he saw his own cubicle with his name on the back of the jersey.
“I got to spend 15 days in the same locker room with my idols,” he said.
He didn’t make the big club that spring, but the experience helped him a lot.
“I watched Pete Rose on a daily basis,” he said, “and I saw his focus and concentration on everything he did, and I realized, ‘Wow, that’s what it takes.’”
In Triple-A that year (1981) with Oklahoma City he won an American Association Gold Glove.
“I thought, gee, this might be the only award I win in pro ball,” he said, a remark that brought chuckles from those in attendance who knew that he would go on to win a record nine Gold Glove Awards for National League second basemen.
He then talked about his September call-up, most of which he spent standing behind Larry Bowa during batting practice, fielding ground balls. (He played shortstop in the minors because nobody was going to unseat Mike Schmidt at third base on the big league club). He recalled the second game of a double-header one day.
“‘Sandy,’ Dallas Green said, ‘you’re gonna start the second game. Larry [Bowa] is talking the night off.’”
Sandberg didn’t have any of his own bats to use—“mine were coming by covered wagon, I think”—so Bowa told him to pick out one of his. Afraid of breaking one of Bowa’s favorite bats, Sandberg said he picked out the worst bat he saw, but it worked for him, as that’s the bat he used to get his first major league hit off Krukow.
In the winter of 1981-82 Sandberg went to Venezuela for winter ball, but he spent most of his time on the bench, a utility player stuck behind infielders the Phillies favored over him. Shortly afterwards, the trade that fleeced the Phillies was made. It was basically a swap of shortstops, Bowa for Ivan DeJesus (the Phillies wanted DeJesus because he was younger than Bowa and a somewhat better hitter). The Phillies considered Sandberg a throw-in, but Cubs GM Dallas Green knew what he was doing. That spring Sandberg tore the cover off the ball and it was obvious he was ready for the big leagues. The only question was where he would play. Right before the start of the season, the Cubs released Ken Reitz and gave his third base position to Sandberg.
Sandberg got off to a horrible start, going 1-for-32, but he recovered and finished with a respectable .271 average. He finished sixth in Rookie of the Year voting and set a team record for stolen bases by a rookie third baseman with 32. More importantly, Green and manager Lee Elia decided to take advantage of his quickness and move him to second base, his natural position. In September they told him about their decision and Sandberg thought, “That’s great! I’ll have the whole winter to work on making the double play.” But they meant right away, so that night Sandberg switched from third to second base, and the rest, as they say, is baseball history.
Sandberg, of course, recalled the magical “Sandberg Game” in 1984.
“I won my first Gold Glove in 1983 and after the 1984 season I was the MVP, so that’s when I really felt that I belonged. ‘I’m a major leaguer,’ I told myself.’ But, yes, that game on June 23 was important. That was my uniform number too, by the way,” he said.
“We were excited about that game to begin with because we were going to be the ‘Game of the World’ on TV—the players called it that back then. To this day, Steve Trout takes credit for it because he was pitching when the Cardinals jumped out to the 7-0 lead ... and then Lee Smith blew the save. I already had three hits in the game when I led off the bottom of the ninth. Bowa told me, ‘You gotta aim underneath the ball against this guy (Sutter).’ So I did, I took an uppercut swing for the first time in my life and hit it out of the park to tie the game. Next inning, same approach, same result, and we won the game.”
Sandberg’s two-out, two-run homer in the 10th inning tied the game again, and the Cubs went on to win 12-11 in 11 innings. For the game, Sandberg went 5-6 with two homers and seven RBI.
“Whitey Herzog said, ‘He’s the best player I’ve ever seen,’” Sandberg recalled. “He was being sarcastic, but it read in the paper the next day like he was serious. I thought the next time we play the Cardinals, I can’t let them down. I have to play great again. I went on to get 200 hits, MVP, and I was 24 years old.”
Sandberg said the keys to his success were “dedication, hard work, and be coachable.”
“I would watch Tony Gwynn and Andre Dawson take BP and learn so much from them,” he said. “That’s how you get longevity. In the locker room back then we had one little TV screen. We would play cards and talk about the game—who’s pitching today or tomorrow, and what’s he got? There were no cell phones or iPads. I learned so much in 1982-83 talking with the veteran players before and after games.”
Sandberg went on to list the highlights of his career: his first Gold Glove as a second baseman in 1983; the big 1984 season, including his first of 10 consecutive All-Star Game appearances and being named NL MVP; the 1989 Cubs playoff team, which was loaded with special players, such as Greg Maddox, Mark Grace, Jerome Walton, and Mike Bielecki; Ryne Sandberg Day at Wrigley Field; his 2005 Hall of Fame Induction in Cooperstown; the 2005 retirement of his Cubs jersey; and the erection of a statue of him near Wrigley Field earlier this year.
“And, now, here in Louisville, the Living Legend Award,” he said.
HUMBLE HERO
There was still his bout with cancer to address, and he was eager to share his message about the experience, which was “early detection.” About 48 hours after his diagnosis, he and his family decided they were going to let everybody know about his condition, which he called the “best thing they could have done.” He was intent on going ahead with his life because he’s not a stay-at-home, lay-on-the-couch kind of guy. He said the support he got was overwhelming, and not just from Cubs fans either. He got get-well wishes from around the country, many of them starting out, “I’m a huge Mets [or Cardinals] fans … but you are my favorite player!”
“I’m blessed and thankful for that,” he said.
His final story was about how he was determined to make a decent ceremonial first pitch at Wrigley Field during his fight against the cancer.
“I had no hair, no feeling in my feet, only 20 percent feeling in my hands, and double vision, but I made a one-bounce, relay throw, and I’m thankful for that,” he said.
Blessed and thankful. Those words made up the theme of his remarks and his outlook on life.
“I’m blessed and thankful to be here tonight, and I love all the Cubs fans here tonight,” he said. “I have my Hall of Fame ring on, and now I will also wear my Living Legend ring. Thank you.”
That big smile Sandberg started with was still there, and it had spread around the room to settle on the faces of everyone in attendance.
LIVING LEGENDS
Louisville Slugger Living Legend Award Winners:
2007 Ken Griffey, Jr.
2008 Frank Robinson
2009 Hank Aaron
2010 Ernie Banks
2011 Johnny Bench
2012 Tony Gwynn
2013 Cal Ripken, Jr.
2014 Ozzie Smith
2015 Andre Dawson
2016 Dave Winfield
2017 Frank Thomas
2018 No award
2019 Mike Schmidt
2020 No award
2021 Derek Jeter
2022 Jim Thome
2023 Rickey Henderson
2024 Ryne Sandberg
