Tuesday Flashback: Meet Ryne Sandberg

By Karl Klockars in News on Jun 23, 2009 9:00PM

Despite the fact White Sox fans outnumber Cubs fans on this site (though a Cubs fan is in charge), we have to take time to acknowledge a historic game played within the Friendly Confines 25 years ago today. It was on June 23rd, 1984 that the baseball world saw what a young player with the goofily-spelled first name of "Ryne" could do.

It was a Cubs/Cardinals game broadcast nationwide on NBC, in which Sandberg put up 7 RBIs, took the game into extra innings with a game-tying home run, tied it again with another homer in the 10th, and then left the rest of the team to collectively knock in the winning run in the 11th. Instantly, kids across Chicagoland started the hunt for his baseball card and added Sandberg to the roster of favorite players like Rick Sutcliffe, Jody Davis and Leon Durham.

After the jump, Rick Kaempfer from Just One Bad Century talks about being at the park for that very game - including a completed program from that day - and just for good measure, Ryno singing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" on the night his jersey was retired. Sandberg now coaches the Tennessee Smokies, after a stint with the Peoria Chiefs. Chicago Cubs Online and Cubby Blue also both have remembrances of the historic game as well.