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Beloved Cub Ryne Sandberg Passes Away at 65

Beloved Cub Ryne Sandberg Passes Away at 65

Ryne Sandberg was more than a baseball player.
Posted by Tuesday, July 29, 2025 at 01:00pm

Ryne Sandberg passed away on Monday after a long battle with prostate cancer.

He was 65.

This is harder to write than the post I wrote for Ozzy Osbourne. Ryne was not only my favorite baseball player but also my favorite athlete.

I’m pretty sure the majority of you reading this, especially around my age, feel the same way. Who else remembers coming home from school, switching on WGN, and watching a Cubs game?

Who else remembers being able to watch the Cubs on WGN during the summer?

Thanks to WGN, everyone around America got the privilege to watch Ryne, the greatest second baseman to play the game.

(OK, this is when I go to bed because I cannot stop crying and need some sleep.)

I’m awake. I’m still crying. I’m still having a hard time putting into words what Ryne meant to the Cubs, Chicago, and baseball.

Ryne was born on September 18, 1959, in Spokane, WA. He excelled in basketball, football, and baseball.

I’m forever grateful to the person who encouraged him to choose baseball.

The Philadelphia Phillies drafted him in the 20th round in 1978.

Ryne played his first game in 1981.

The Phillies traded Ryne to the Cubs before the 1982 season.

The rest is history.

Ryne burst onto the scene and into the hearts of every Cubs fan on June 23, 1984. The game is known as The Sandberg Game because he tied the game in the 9th and 10th innings, leading the Cubs to victory over the dreaded St. Louis Cardinals.

Ryne helped the Cubs reach their first postseason in 39 years and got so close to breaking the curse, but I’d rather not talk about that game against the San Diego Padres in the NLCS.

You know, I could spend a long time talking about Ryne on the field:

1984 NL MVP (19 3B, 19 HR, 32 SB)
10X All-Star
9X Gold Glove
7X Silver Slugger
2,386 Hits
403 Doubles
282 Home Runs
1,061 RBI
344 Stolen Bases
.285 Hitter with 114 OPS+
1.098 OPS in NLCS (10 Games)

Thanks to WGN, the whole country could watch Ryne Sandberg. Sure, TV would show clips (who else LOVED This Week in Baseball??), but with WGN, you could watch the entire game!

Ryne made it okay to love the Lovable Losers.

But let’s talk about Ryne off the field because my goodness. You never saw Ryne without a smile. He embraced becoming our generation’s Mr. Cub. It’s no disrespect to Ernie Banks, who will always be THE Mr. Cub.

Gah, I don’t know how people write these memorial posts because it is so hard to describe what Ryne meant to the Cubs, to Chicago, and to baseball.

Here’s a great way to sum it up: The name Ryne has become pretty popular, especially among those in Chicago.

I mean, if I had a son his name would be Ryne Ronald Ernest for Sandberg, Ron Santo, and Ernie Banks.

I wonder how many people are named Ryne, Michael, and Jordan in the Chicago area since the mid-80s.

Better yet, nationwide. I’ve met three people with the name Ryne and none of them are from Chicago.

A kind man. A humble man. A man who never made it about himself. A man who knew he was lucky to have the best job in the world.

It was never about Ryne. No, Ryne made it all about his team, the city, and the fans.

In his HOF speech, Ryne said he regretted not getting to a World Series for Cubs fans.

Ryne also said:

I was taught you never, ever disrespect your opponent or your teammates or your organization or your manager and never, ever your uniform. Make a great play — act like you’ve done it before. Get a big hit — look for the third base coach and — and — and get ready to run the bases. Hit a home run — put your head down, drop the bat, run around the bases, because the name on the front is more — a lot more important than the name on the back.

That’s Respect.

That last part: “Because the name on the front is more, a lot more important than the name on the back.”

It was about the game and others:

Dallas Green brought me to Chicago and without him, who knows? I couldn’t let him down. I owed him too much. I had too much respect for him to let him down. People like Harry Caray and Don Zimmer used to compare me — they used to compare me to Jackie Robinson. Can you think of a better tribute than that? But Harry, who was a huge supporter of mine, used to say how nice it is that a guy who can hit 40 homers or steal 50 bases or drive in a hundred runs is the best bunter on the team. Nice? That was my job. When did it — When did it become okay for someone to hit home runs and forget how to play the rest of the game?

When we went home every winter, they warned us not to lift heavy weights because they didn’t want us to lose flexibility. They wanted us to be baseball players, not only home run hitters. I played high school football at a hundred and eighty-five pounds and played big league baseball at a hundred and eighty-two. I’d get up to maybe 188 in the off-season because every summer I’d lose eight to ten pounds. In my day, if a guy came to spring training 20 pounds heavier than what he left, he was considered out of shape and was probably in trouble. He’d be under a microscope and the first time he couldn’t beat out a base hit or missed a fly ball, he was probably shipped out. These guys sitting up here did not pave the way for the rest of us so that players could swing for the fences every time up and forget how to move a runner over to third. It’s disrespectful to them, to you, and to the game of baseball that we all played growing up.

Respect.

A lot of people say this honor validates my career, but I didn’t work hard for validation. I didn’t play the game right because I saw a reward at the end of the tunnel. I played it right because that’s what you’re supposed to do — play it right and with respect. If this validates anything, it’s that learning how to bunt and hit and run and turning two is more important than knowing where to find the little red light at the dug out camera.

He ended the speech: “I hope others in the future will know this feeling for the same reason: Respect for the game of baseball. When we all played it, it was mandatory. It’s something I hope we will one day see again.”

Ryne remained a star in Chicago. From what I’ve read from others, it seemed the atmosphere in the room would change when he entered it.

Ryne never took anything for granted.

I hate that I never met him, but I’m so glad so many others had the honor.

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Comments

destroycommunism | July 29, 2025 at 1:20 pm

Respect.

A lot of people say this honor validates my career, but I didn’t work hard for validation. I didn’t play the game right because I saw a reward at the end of the tunnel. I played it right because that’s what you’re supposed to do — play it right and with respect. If this validates anything, it’s that learning how to bunt and hit and run and turning two is more important than knowing where to find the little red light at the dug out camera.

wow

thats top notch

rip and condolences to the family and to you mlb/cub fans

JimWoo | July 29, 2025 at 1:40 pm

RIP Ryne. That 1984 game against the Cardinals was the greatest game IMO ever played. I think the final score was 23-22 or something like that. And IIRC it was Rynes defensive play that pushed it to extra innings.

    G. de La Hoya in reply to JimWoo. | July 30, 2025 at 4:26 am

    The 23-22 game was against the Phillies. Both Dave Kingman & Mike Schmidt each had 3 HRs apiece and finished before sundown 😉

diver64 | July 29, 2025 at 2:45 pm

If your crying over a baseball player passing away you need help.
Sandberg was the consummate professional. Act like you have been there before, don’t show up the opponent and above all, respect the fans. One of the games finest and what I remember is those early WGN games with the immortal Harry Carry announcing we got on cable about the same time TBS and The Braves showed up.
RIP Rino.

nordic prince | July 29, 2025 at 3:02 pm

Lifelong Cub fan here – my fav was Ernie Banks, and Rick Monday drew my admiration for his rescuing the American flag…Ryne Sandberg was also admirable for not letting things go to his head. Class acts all around.

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