The record books say that Ryne Sandberg broke into the big leagues with the Phillies late in the 1981 season, but I distinctly remember Sandberg being used as a pinch-runner in the September, 1980 Phillies pennant drive which resulted in their World Series victory over the Kansas City Royals.

In 1982, Sandberg, a second baseman, was traded by the Phillies, with Larry Bowa, to the Chicago Cubs for shortstop Ivan Dejesus who played 3 mediocre years with Phils, including committing a crucial error in game 3 of the 1983 World Series and hitting .125 for the series which the Phils lost to the Baltimore Orioles in 5 games. Dejesus went on to the Cardinals in 1985, then to the Yankees, Giants and Tigers where he played only sporadically.

In the meantime, Sandberg amassed a Hall of Fame career apanning 16 years with the Cubs despite the absence of both post-season play and a championship ring.  Ryno had 2,386 hits, 282 home runs, another 479 extra base hits, a .285 lifetime batting average and a .989 career fielding percentage, an all-time record for a second baseman.   At the end of the 1989 season,  he broke Manny Trillo’s second base record of 89 straight errorless games.  Sandberg went 4 years without a throwing error.

One can only wonder what might have happened had the Phils given Ryne Sandberg a shot at 2nd base and if they had stayed with Larry Bowa for a couple of more years at shortstop after trading Manny Trillo (who had 5 fine years with the Phils at 2nd base) in the 5 for 1 trade for Von Hayes.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 14th, 2006 at 10:13 am and is filed under All Time Baseball Highlights, All Time Team Highlights, All Time Hitting Highlights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.