MILWAUKEE – On an April, when Ian Happ had a particularly tough month on the record, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg was looking for him for a competition in the Slag cages.
Sandberg pulled Happ aside and rattled his own career metals in April – he hit a meager .230 in March and April, with only one .660 Ops – but noticed that he always came out of that funk.
“Just cool to have someone who has played forever and has experienced moments to take the time,” said Happ, “and to give so much attention, and to keep an eye on that and to know how much weight his words are carrying. … I felt that we have formed a pretty special bond over the years. I know I will miss him a lot.”
Sandberg’s performance on the field like a cub will always bear weight. The 10-way All-Star, Nine Time Gold Glover, seven-fold silver Slugger and 1984 MVP played one after all 16 major League seasons in a Cubs-uniform. Last summer he only became the fifth Cubs player who was honored with a statue outside Wrigley Field, in which he joined Ernie Banks, Fergie Jenkins, Ron Santo and Billy Williams.
Sandberg continued to leave a stamp on the franchise long after he retired. He completely embraced the ambassador role that he has been with the Cubs since 2016, and often lived to Cubs Convention, Spring Training and Games on Wigley Field.
Sandberg died at home on Monday after a fight with cancer. He was 65.
“He was just very good at everything,” said Craig Counselell manager, who was a teenager during the MVP season of Sandberg. “And he was fast, he was a big defender, loved triples.”
Counsell said that he will wonder once a week and bench coach Ryan Flaerty out loud how Sandberg hit 13 triples on Wigley Field in 1984. It was a franchise record, according to Mlb.comIn a season in which he held a competition-tone 19 in total.
Counsell heard Van Sandberg’s death shortly before the Cubs game on Monday, he said, and some players found out during the game. Counsell then tackled the team.
“Think of him and everything he meant for the Cubs organization and clearly his family,” said Second Honkman Nico Hoerner. “He is a bit of the blueprint for what it means to be a great cub – as far as he was wearing himself, clearly, through his career and everything, but no matter how selfless he was with us in his time. It was never about him.”
When the Cubs unveiled the statue of Sandberg on Gallagher last year, he publicly fought against metastatic prostate cancer, but was encouraged by his response to the treatment.
Counsell had the team schedule -pregame activities around the ceremony, and the players who were submitted in full uniform, the stairs on the Wigley Field -façade and bent over the railing to listen carefully to Sandberg’s speech.
“One of my most special memories as CUB is to see his statue reveal,” said Happ. “How many people showed up, former players and people who wanted to be in the neighborhood and wanted to see it. There are only five images above, and for him to be one of those guys and see that, get to see what it meant for him and what it meant for his family, was really very special.
“And throughout the fight, the courage, the power and openness with everyone was really remarkable.”
Sandberg announced in December that his cancer had returned and that he had resumed intensive treatment. But after missing the spring training in 2024, months after his first diagnosis, he made sure that he was in Cubs Camp this year, anyway.
“What is so cool is that what we do for a living is about competing and beating people, but his presence was almost due to kindness,” Counselell said. And that is so rare [thing,] And he probably lived on a higher level than the rest of us. That is what he was known for, that made him special. And that’s why people like that make you better. “
The former teammates of Sandberg, Mark Grace and Shawon Dunston, surprised him in the camp and joined Fergie Jenkins and Rick Sutcliffe, who were already there.
Sandberg, with a smile on his face, was back when dealing with current players, those he already knew and those who were new to the organization.
“I met Ryno for the first time this spring,” said Cubs Werster Matthew Boyd, who is sitting at the club in his first season, “and he treated me as if I had worn a Cubs uniform all my life.”
Sandberg got Wind that Hoerner was interested in the gloves with which he played in the 1980s, so he brought two with it.
“He has achieved so much in this game, but was never above the little things that make it such a special sport, and the connections that brings the game,” said Hoerner. “He just wanted to talk about baseball, and things we did were different from what they did then, and things he saw. And never came from him with a perspective of him who had discovered everything. He just wanted to be on the field and talk about the sport he loved – and who loved him, to be honest.”
Sandberg’s recent absence on Wigley Field was felt. And two weeks ago he placed a health update that describes a “challenging few months” of regular treatment.
“I look at every game and am excited for the second half and to see Wigley rock as 1984!” He wrote on Instagram. “Thanks for all support support. Go Cubs!”
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