(Photo courtesy of www.baseballhalloffame.org)Ryne Sandberg - a hard-working ballplayer - was a natural star without the usual ego. With Sandberg at second, the Cubs won two division titles but failed to reach the World Series. Sandberg himself always played well in the clutch, hitting .385 in the playoffs for his career.
Defensively, Sandberg ranks as one of the best second basemen of all time. He once had a streak of 123 errorless games (an NL record) and went four years without a single throwing error.
At the end of 1989 he broke Manny Trillo's second base record of 89 consecutive errorless games, with manager Don Zimmer playing him for only one inning in each of the last three games of the season. Upon retirement, his career fielding percentage of .989 tied Tommy Herr's all-time record at the position.
From 1984 through 1993, Sandberg sealed his reputation with ten consecutive All-Star appearances; he was the NL's starting second baseman in all but one of those games.
In 1994, at the age of 35, Sandberg announced his retirement from baseball. Sandberg made a comeback in 1996 and when he finally retired for good in 1997 his last hurrah had pushed him over the 1,000 RBI mark and past Joe Morgan's all-time record for career home runs by a second baseman.
Sandberg is now a minor league coach in the Cubs farm system.
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