Tell Me About Ryno

The original #23 Chicago jersey.

quiet, smooth, rarely made a throwing error or for that matter any other errors, was critizied for not diving after balls ( Joe Morgan ), excellent baserunner, pulled the ball, and was to extent screwed by Larry Himes the GM at the time that screwed Maddux .

 Just a wonderful player.

… was one of the greatest regular-season games I have ever attended.

Before that game, Sandberg was seen as a good player, a solid regular, but hardly HoF material. Hitting not one, but two game-tying HR off the man considered the best closer in the game at the time (Bruce Sutter) got him noticed on a national level.

The game itself was electric, and nearly over when Bob Dernier got a break on a close 3-2 pitch that was ruled ball four. Sandberg hit the next pitch into the LF bleachers to tie the game.

We knew we were seeing something special that day.

Dave Owen, who had trouble hitting his way out of a wet paper bag, delivered the game winning pinch hit—a little floater over the infield. It had to be the biggest hit of his career.

Ryno was ruling Cubs world. My mom’s maiden name is Sandberg, so I’d tell all the kids at school the he’s my uncle. It made me quite popular… and also a liar.

it in a fairly recent thread about his promotion.
 
anyone remeber these quirks?
-him blowing bubbles with bubblegum in the field and at the plate (i don’t think he chewed tabacky.)
-that and the little hop on his right leg he’d do when he’d foul one off or miss.

I watched him play in person and on TV many times.

Classy guy, solid all-around ballplayer, handled second base like he was born there, hit for average and power, just went out and did it, day after day, year after year.

One of the best, if not the best, to ever play the game at second base .

Ryno was the Chiefs manager for a couple of years and before EVERY home game, he would sign autographs for anyone who lined up. There was always a line. He made sure that it did not interfere with the pregame routines and would stop when he needed to get back to preparing for the game. I heard many stories of people around the area who ran into him when he was out and he was always gracious.

…was the terrible start he had as a rookie third baseman for the Cubs in 1982. If memory serves, he started the season something like 1 for his first 24. The sportswriters were clamoring for the Cubs to send him to the minors but since, “luckily”, the Cubs were a terrible team in full scale rebuilding mode, they could afford to be a little more patient with Ryno and let him at least try to work though his growing pains on the major league level.
It worked too as he ended up hitting .271, scoring 103 runs and ending up third in the balloting for rookie of the year.

I most remember Sandberg for his gracefulness. Grace may have had the name at first, but it was really in spades at second. Ryno had a quiet everyday professionalism about him, a day-in/day-out quality that might be lost on those who only tuned into an occasional game, but he was a joy to those who watched him over the course of a season. I’m sure if he did back flips in the field like Ozzie Smith or arm-pit pumps at bat like Joe Morgan he would have been a first ballet HoFer, but Sandberg was never flamboyant, just steady and unrelenting and almost seemed to have reached perfection in some ways, at least in the field. Sandberg was a quiet-seeming guy, like Robin Yount, both of whom had long, distinguished HoF careers without incident or controversy, a quality I find sadly underappreciated considering how me-fist/look-at-me so many big-name athletes are or have become. Give me Sanberg ranging out to shallow RF on a ground ball and flinging it to an eagerly waiting Grace and making it seem like nothing every day of the week.

Hopefully my next memory of him will be winning a WS as the Cubs manager.

My wife and I were passing through town and I got her to go. July, but the wind was blowing in hard and it was really, really cold – hit the concessions for two sweatshirts when all the clothes we had brought weren’t enough (we had been warm in Milwaukee!).

The Cubs won because Sandberg somehow managed to hit two homers. I swear those balls only went out because both were line drives that never got above the windbreak from the bleachers.