Fun card to
spotlight today on the blog, my 1982 “missing” custom for Ryne Sandberg,
from my “Whole Nine” set released a few months back, before he became a
Hall of Famer with the Chicago Cubs:
Sandberg made his
Big League debut in 1981, appearing in only 13 games, going 1-for-6 at
the plate, scoring two runs, with time out at both shortstop and second
base.
Of course, we know
that over the Winter before the start of the 1982 season he was traded
to the Chicago Cubs with Larry Bowa for Ivan DeJesus, in one of the most
lopsided trades of the modern era.
All Sandberg would
end up doing is become an MVP second baseman, taking home the Award in
1984 when he helped lead the team to their first playoff action since
1945, leading the league with 114 runs and 19
triples to go along with his 200 hits, 36 doubles, 19 homers and 32
stolen bases.
Over the next dozen
or so seasons he would steal as many as 54 bases in a season (1985),
while also becoming a home run king, which he did in 1990 when he
blasted 40 homers while also topping the league with
344 total bases.
Defensively,
Sandberg was no slouch, taking home nine straight Gold Gloves between
1983 and 1991, becoming one of the game’s top all-around players, yet
somewhat overlooked.
I was always a huge
Sandberg fan, and was blown away when he returned from retirement in
1995, missing the entire season, then hit 25 homers with 92 runs batted
in in 1996 at the age of 36.
By the time he
retired after the 1996 season, he finished his stellar career with 2386
hits, 1318 runs scored, 282 homers, 1061 RBIs and 344 stolen bases, with
a career .285 batting average.
What a great ballplayer, and I’m so glad to have seen the bulk of it as a kid back then.
