Happy Birthday to Ryne Sandberg. In a career that lasted 16 seasons, he spent all but one playing for the Chicago Cubs; his first year was spent with the Philadelphia Phillies. Sandberg would establish himself as a Hall of Fame for what he did at Second Base.

Career Statistics/Accolades (1981-94;96-97):

.285 BA 2,386 HITS 282 HR 1,061 RBI 1,318 RUNS .344 OBP

  • 10x All-Star
  •  9x Gold-Glove
  •  7x Silver Slugger
  • 1984 MVP

He wore #23 during his entire Cubs career, and during that time, Michael Jordan was in town, who also wore #23 for the Chicago Bulls of the NBA. For ten years, Sandberg was the best all-around, if not one of the three best all-around Second Baseman in all baseball. While Sandberg had some power, he was more of a top-of-the-lineup guy with speed. From 1982-86, Sandberg stole 32 or more bases. Sandberg scored 100 or more Runs seven times, batted over .300 five times, and only twice did he strike out 100 times in a year. In 1984, Sanberg won the NL MVP and put six “black-bold type” stats on the back of his baseball card career-wise. I want to remind everyone that historically, winning an MVP or leading the league in statistical categories for second baseman is rare. No Second Baseman has won more Silver Sluggers than Sandberg’s seven.

Defensively, only Roberto Alomar has won more Gold Gloves than Ryne Sandberg. Sandberg spent 17,231.2 Innings in the field at Second Base, putting up a .989 Fielding Percentage, an MLB record among Second Baseman at the time of his retirement.

When you factor in Offensive and Defense, is Ryne Sandberg a top-10 Second Baseman all-time? Yes. It would take until his third year of eligibility, but in 2005, Sandberg was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and during that same year, the Cubs retired his #23 uniform. I don’t think he’s a Hall of Famer regarding his offensive numbers. However, as I said, it’s rare for a Second Baseman to be as successful offensively as Sandberg was. 

References:

  1. Ryne Sandberg via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryne_Sandberg#
  2. Ryne Sandberg Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sandbry01.shtml