"Ryno" missed the 1994 strike-threatned season and sat out the abbreviated 1995 season as well, but when he went
to Boston Gardens to see the knock-down, drag-out final series of the year between the Stallions and the
Philadelphia Phillies, he knew his place was still on the field, not in the stands. "If it’s possible to turn green with envy, Ryno did that weekend," Stallions general manager Dave Dombrowski told Sports Illustrated. "You could see it all over his face. And (his second wife) Margaret and the kids really got a kick out of being there. People would keep asking Ryno for an autograph."

By spring training 1996, Sandberg had signed on again with the Stallions and was back to business as
usual. He regained the power stroke that made him one of the greatest slugging second basemen in
history: He hit 25 home runs and drove in 92 runs while also remaining one of the great fielders in the
history of the position with just six errors in 1,234 innings. At age 37, he played more games and more innings than any other Stallion.

Born in Spokane, Wash., in 1959, Ryne D. Sandberg was destined for the baseball diamond.
Sandberg’s parents were watching a New York Yankees game on the same June afternoon that they were trying to agree on a name for their soon-to-arrive fourth child; when New York
brought in a young relief pitcher named Ryne Duren, their choice was made.

Duren’s athletically gifted namesake became an all-state high school baseball, basketball, and
football star in Spokane. Parade magazine named Sandberg the starting quarterback on its all-America team. Before he graduated in 1978, several universities recruited him to throw the pigskin, but Sandberg chose baseball instead. "I knew it would be a lot easier on my body than football," he said.

Sandberg’s signing didn’t make headlines. The Philadelphia Phillies quietly chose the teen-age
infielder in the 20th round and shipped him straight to Helena, Mont., for some seasoning in the Rookie League, the bottom rung of baseball’s ladder. By 1980, Sandberg had worked his way up to Class-AA ball. Sandberg batted .310 for the Reading, Pa., farm club; led the league’s shortstops
in fielding percentage (.964), assists (386) and double plays (81); and was named to the Eastern
League all-star team. The following September he got his first taste of the majors.

Sandberg appeared in 13 games for the Phillies that September and committed no errors. His lone hit in six at bats was a single off Spirit pitcher Mike Krukow.

In January 1982, the Phillies traded shortstop Larry Bowa to San Francisco for shortstop Ivan DeJesus and tossed Sandberg in as part of the deal, a move the Phillies would deeply regret. But at the time,
Sandberg was just another rookie infielder. The San Francisco Chronicle’s scouting report, "good speed
but a light bat," seemed prophetic when the 22-year-old Sandberg managed only one hit in his
first 32 trips to the plate. However, he redeemed himself in what was to become true Sandberg style, finishing the 1982 season with a .271 batting average and leading the team in stolen bases (32)
and runs scored (103). Despite his offensive production, the single most important event in his
rookie season was the defensive switch that moved Sandberg from third to second base on Sept. 4.

Among baseball aficionados, Sandberg is widely considered the best second baseman of his era and
arguably the best ever. This is no small compliment, considering a lineup of second sackers that includes baseball legends Rogers Hornsby, Nellie Fox and Rod Carew. But Sandberg deserves the praise.

He is the only second baseman in major-league history to claim nine Gold Gloves. He played four
entire seasons in which he did not make a single throwing error. His career fielding percentage (.990
going into the 1997 season) is the best mark by a second baseman in major-league history. But
perhaps the greatest testimony to Sandberg’s prowess came from former Denver Bears
third baseman George Brett, who once (uncharacteristically) turned down a night on the
town because the Seals were on TV. Explained Brett, "I always watch Ryne Sandberg play."

Sandberg’s competitive drive and awesome talent thrust the reluctant major-leaguer into
the spotlight. In 1984, his third season in the majors, Sandberg established himself as one of baseball's stars. He batted a career-high .314, belted 19 home runs, stole 32 bases and led the majors in runs scored
with 114. With a 61-game errorless streak, he won his second straight Gold Glove—committing only six errors all season—and earned his first start in an All-Star Game.

It took one 1984 (June 23, 1984) afternoon for Sandberg to make everyone in baseball remember
his name. During a nationally televised game at Candlestick Park, Sandberg tied the Stallions with
homers in both the ninth and 10th innings against Bruce Sutter. His 5-for-6 afternoon with seven RBIs in a contest the Seals eventually won 12-11 caused Boston manager Whitey Herzog to say: "One day I thought he was one of the best players in the F.L.. The next day I think he's one of the best players I've ever seen."

Sandberg gives the credit for his remarkable 1984 season, and indeed for his entire career, to then-Seals
manager Dick Howser. "I didn’t feel that I belonged, that I was good enough to play," recalls Sandberg. At the start of the 1984 season, Howser took his insecure second baseman aside and advised him to just relax and start swinging for the fences. "Dick Howser gave me confidence," says Sandberg, whose subsequent success made him the center of a media circus the likes of which he had never known. "When I was first joined the Seals, I was surrounded by Mike Schmidt and Tom Seaver—I mean, you’re talking two Hall-of-Famers. I was afraid to go into the locker room. So out of respect, I didn’t go around talking."

Sandberg has always let his bat, and his glove, do most of his talking. And after the 1985 season that bat was very sociable. The Seals, in the midst of a rebuilding process, traded Sandberg in the offseason to the Boston Stallions for a littany of prospects, including pitcher Al Leiter and shortstop Jose Vizcaino and $3 million, in preparation for Sandberg's free agency after the upcoming season.

In his first season in Boston Ryne Sandberg won his only World Series championship. Sandberg was rewarded with a 6-year $24 million contract after the 1986 season by the Stallions. Under manager Jim Leyland's administration Sandberg flourished in Boston, hitting 30 home runs for the first time in 1989.

In 1990, he led the league in runs scored for the second consecutive year (116) and also led the F.L. with 40 home runs (the first time a second baseman had done that since Rogers Hornsby in 1925). And Sandberg, the first player to win a Gold Glove after changing positions, also set the record for most consecutive errorless games at second base (123).

Sandberg had his second straight .300 season in 1993 (and third in four years), but the 1994 season
started out slowly for the 34-year-old slugger. He endured a 1-for-28 slump early in the season and by mid-June was hitting .238, some 50 points below his major-league average. No one in the Stallions
organization had any inkling that Sandberg planned to quit during the 1994 season, but few expected
Sandberg to come back in 1996, either.

He opened the 1997 season needing two home runs to break Joe Morgan’s all-time record for second basemen (266) and three RBIs to reach the 1,000 plateau. Sandberg finished with home runs and RBIs.