Cubs-Padres Series Reminds of Chicago Great Ryne Sandberg

In deference to the late, great Ryne Sandberg, who died from acute prostate cancer this past July at 65, this column about the current Cubs-Padres Wild Card Series at Wrigley Field is for him.

The last time the two teams played each other in the playoffs was 1984 when Sandberg was a key figure as the Cubs’ breakout star at second base and the National League MVP. Just like 1984, the Cubs jumped out to a series lead on Tuesday. They defeated the Padres 3-1 in Game 1 win and can end the series Wednesday.

“It’s a Wild Card Series, and it goes by real quick,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said.

No kidding.

In 1984, the Cubs won both games at Wrigley in convincing fashion. But that was before wild cards and three divisions in each league. First place teams from the NL East and NL West went right into the Championship Series, which from 1969 to 1984 was a best-of-five-game affair.

The Padres came home from Chicago for three games at San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium and were given little chance by the public of winning that NL Championship Series. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mike Royko, a Chicago institution, wrote that the Padres didn’t deserve to win, because San Diego fans were a white wine-drinking and sushi-eating bunch.

That became bulletin board fodder. Buttons circulated with a Ghostbusters-type themed circle and slash over the Cubs logo. “We ain’t scared of no Cubs,” the buttons read.

The Padres tied the series at two each when Steve Garvey hit a two-run homer off Lee Smith in the ninth inning of Game 4. It was a walk-off homer before it was called a walk-off homer and is still the greatest sports moment in San Diego sports history.

True to form, when commentator Tim McCarver congratulated Garvey via post-game network TV on his 4-for-5 night with five RBIs, he said simply: “It was my pleasure.”

That’s the back story. Now back to Sandberg.

When it all came down to a deciding Game 5, a seventh-inning incident on the Cubs bench involving Sandberg led to his club losing the game and the series.

Inadvertently, Sandberg dumped a bucket of Gatorade on the glove of Cubs’ teammate Leon Durham. Instead of switching to a fresh first baseman’s mitt Durham took the field with his own glove a gooey, sticky mess.

As fate would have it, the Padres came back from a 3-2 deficit with four runs in the inning for what turned out to be a 6-3 final. The big play was a grounder by Tim Flannery that shot through Durham’s legs and tied the score. In true Cubbie fashion, they collapsed.

Another crucial play was a Tony Gwynn grounder that hit a hard spot on the Murph infield and hopped over Sandberg’s shoulder for a double that drove in two more runs.

But the damage had already been done.

Though no one knew about it at the time, Durham claimed later he couldn’t open the flap of the glove to make the play. The Sandberg rumors circulated.

As I became close friends with Sandberg long after his playing days were over and he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2005, I asked him about the incident. He sheepishly confirmed it, with a twinkle in his eyes and a chuckle. Durham, then a minor league coach, declined to talk about it.

The Padres went on to the 1984 World Series where they lost in five games to the Detroit Tigers. It would be decades before the Cubs made it to the World Series themselves in 2016 when they came back from a 3-1 deficit of their own to defeat the then-Cleveland Indians in seven games. It was their first World Series win in 108 years.

The Durham glove. The Sandberg hop. The Bartman ball in the 2003 NLCS. And when Rajai Davis tied Game 7 in 2016 with a three-run, eighth inning homer off Aroldis Chapman, it seemed as if history would repeat itself.

It didn’t, as the game ended with a soft grounder to third baseman Kris Bryant, who tossed it to first baseman Anthony Rizzo and rain started to fall in Cleveland on what’s now known as Progressive Field. Sandberg was there wandering around the clubhouse sopping wet from a mixture of champagne, beer and rain water along with other Cub greats, protected by a yellow rain slicker.

Now, a statue honors him outside Wrigley Field.

Cancer is a tough taskmaster, and doctors didn’t detect it early enough. By the time he was diagnosed, it had reached stage 4. The treatment was short and dramatic. Doctors thought they’d arrested it, but the disease came roaring back.

He was a great player, a fine manager and should have been hired to manage the Cubs after years of prep in their minor league system. It’s a rare Hall of Famer who will do that.

But when Theo Epstein took over baseball operations he passed on Sandberg in favor of Dale Sveum. That was Theo’s loss.

In honor of Sandberg, only three months after his death, it would be a poignant if the Cubs win Wednesday and fans sing “Go Cubs Go,” the W flag flying over Wrigley, which has still never been graced with a Cubs World Series deciding victory.

Sandberg at least got to throw out a ceremonial first pitch in Game 5 in 2016. The organization gave him that duty several times through the years, but this was arguably the biggest game in franchise history to that date. He was a natural choice. After hitting the target, Sandberg watched the Cubs win.