Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Cubs 365, September 18

On this day in 1959, future Cub Ryne Sandberg was born.

He was destined to have a great nickname because he was named after the famous Yankees relief pitcher "Blind Ryne" Duren. Ryno is a hall of famer, but he was just a throw in to even out the Ivan DeJesus/Larry Bowa trade with the Phillies. The Phillies had two other second base prospects who were pretty good (Juan Samuel, Julio Franco), but neither one of them had the career Ryno had.

Nicknamed Ryno for obvious reasons (not his similarity to the horned beast), when he retired, Sandberg held the record for home runs by a second baseman. He was an MVP (1984), a ten-time all-star, nine-time gold glover, seven time silver slugger, and the most popular Cubs player of his era.