Hall of Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg dies at age 65 | SportsCenter

Jesse Rogers joins Nicole Briscoe on SportsCenter to report on the news that Hall of Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg has died at the age of 65.

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Welcome to Sports Center. He’s Kevin. I’m Nicole. You know, when I was eight years old, my dad took you me to my first Cubs game, the field. Obviously, Wrigley was part of the magic that day, but so was the team’s second baseman, Ryan Samberg. He has died. He was 65. To an entire fan base, he was Rhino. To a generation, the best second baseman in the game. The title Mr. Cub may have been taken, but few ever were as beloved in the Windy City. Tim Kirken now on the life and legacy of Ryan Sandberg. I’m a baseball player. I’ve always been a baseball player. I’m still a baseball player. That’s who I am. There was a certain elegance beyond his greatness and toughness to Cubs Hall of Fame second baseman Ryan Sandberg. There was a regal quality to the way he swung the bat, the way he caught a ground ball, the way he ran the bases, and the way he always carried himself. Make a great play, act like you’ve done it before. Hit a home run, put your head down, drop the bat, run around the bases, because the name on the front is a lot more important than the name on the back. He is one of the greatest defensive second baseman of all time. He won nine gold gloves, second only to Roberto Alamar’s 10. Sandberg once held the record for the most consecutive games without an error, 123, by a second baseman, covering 584 chances. No second baseman was better at making the turn on the double play than vanishing before a base runner could crush him. Sandberg became an offensive force in 1984 when Cubs manager Jim Fry convinced him to pull the ball as often as possible. That was definitely a turning point for me and uh I just feel like I’ve learned what he was talking about. Things have come together the last few years as far as swinging for power. Sandberg won the nationally MVP that year which included what is known as the Sandberg game into left center field and deep. This is a tie ball game. On June 23rd against the Cardinals, he went five for six and hit gamety homers in the ninth and tth inning against brilliant closer Bruce Sudter. Look out. Do you believe it? It’s gone. Leading the Cubs to a 12-11 victory. In 1990, Sanberg led the NL in homers with 40. He would finish with 282. He also stole 344 bases. He and Hall of Famers Joe Morgan and Craig Bigio are the only primary second baseman in baseball history with 250 homers and 300 steels. Indeed, Sandberg could play the piano and move it too. The greatest number 23 in sports history is of course Michael Jordan. One of the greatest number 23s in baseball history is another Chicago icon. One of the greatest players in Cubs history, Ryan Samberg. We now welcome in our ESPN Major League Baseball reporter, Jesse Rogers. Uh you are at the Cubs game tonight as they take on the Brewers. From your perspective, this is a man who was so beloved in the city of Chicago. How is he going to be remembered as a gracious superstar? And I’m sure the Cub players behind me as this game comes to its completion will say the same thing. He was often at spring training talking to players, but he didn’t big-time them. He never showed off that he was a Hall of Fame player. He would listen to them and he wouldn’t tell them how great the game was back in his day. He would actually have that kind of a conversation you’d love to have with a Hall of Famer. Um, sometimes they say you shouldn’t meet your heroes. I don’t think anybody my age that grew up in Chicago would would agree with that when it comes to Ryan Samberg. He was somebody you wanted to meet. He played the game the right way. He talked about the game the right way. And as I mentioned, the players behind me and the team and the organization really embraced him before he got ill and then even while he was fighting cancer, he still showed up in spring training. So, as I say, he’ll be remembered for what he did on the field, but also as a gracious, gracious superstar off of it. So, speaking of the things he did on the field, and you can run through the stats, you know, he made those 10 seasons, 10 consecutive seasons as an all-star, the nine gold gloves, all of those home runs, including the two seasons back-to-back, 89 and 90, where he hit 30 or more when you think of him just as a player, what made him stand out? Yeah, he could do it all. He could run the bases. He could hit for power. At a time when second baseman did not go deep very often. He hit 282 career home runs. In his MVP season in 1984, he hit 19 triples, 19 home runs, hit 314. John Smoltz, who he hit six home runs against in his career, second most off of any pitcher, told me his swing was perfect for Wrigleyfield. A flat swing, he’d hit the gaps, he’d go down the line, and of course he’d hit the ball out of the ballpark as well. Larry Boa, his shortstop during those years, mentioned to me how he learned to pull the ball and put it in the air. His manager, Jim Fry, used to tell him in batting practice, just pull it in foul territory every time, over the tarp, down the left field line in foul territory, and that will teach you how to pull the ball. And he learned uh that way to to sort of um take his game to another level. And so, uh he really could do it all, but he didn’t start out that way. He struggled early on but kept at it. Mentally tough. Really wasn’t a bo a boisterous guy in the locker room but everyone said he was a lot of fun. So on and off the field just um a guy you’d want on your team and um someone that fans could really root for and an absolute legend in the city of Chicago. Jesse, we appreciate your time. Look, the Cubs have also released a statement saying in part that Ryan Sandberg was a hero to a generation of Chicago Cubs fans and will be remembered as one of the all-time greats in the nearly 150 years of this historic franchise. His dedication to and respect for the game along with his unrelenting integrity, grit, hustle, and competitive fire were hallmarks of his career. Ryan Sandberg was 65.