It's the 25th Anniversary of The Sandberg Game

25 years ago today I went to the greatest live sporting event I've ever seen.

The Sandberg Game.

It was the NBC Game of the Week, Cubs vs. Cards at Wrigley, and also the game where Ryno went 5 for 6 with 7 RBIs.

But the big drama and beginning of the Ryno legend came from his 2 home runs off the best reliever in baseball at the time, Bruce Sutter, with each home run tying the game.

The first came in the 9th tying the game 9 to 9.

In the top of the 10th, the Cardinals scored twice (Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee).

And in the bottom of the 10th with Bobby Dernier on and two outs and McGee already named player of the game, Ryno did it again.

The Cubs won 12-11 in the 12th when Dave Owen knocked in Leon Durham.

Afterwards, Cards manager Whitey Herzog said something like Ryno was the best player he'd ever seen.

But I'm telling you, this game was a turd early.

It was 7-1 at the bottom of the 2nd.

A friend of mine from Belleville (right next to St. Louis), Norma Reis, drove up with some friends and tickets for me, Flynn, my brother Grog and maybe Brannigan.

I think they used to seat all the out of towners in the same sections, because it was our couple of lonely blue Cub hats in a sea of red that day.

So we were kinda not having so much fun early on.

But I remember afterwards, there used to be a phone booth on Addison and we called my Cub fan dad in AZ collect, all too hoarse and filled with fine tasting Anheuser Busch products to really make any sense.

Pretty sure he figured out we'd just seen something amazing, though.

Here's the box score.

(I wrote this before leaving on the fishing trip, so when you read this I still don't know what's goin' on.)

Comments

[DB]

Ah, Ryno. He was a hottie back in the day.

[Tim@Cubby Blue]

Hi DB.
I'm back.
Wells got his first win!
I gotta catch up...

[Bud]

Hi Tim...

I'm back from AZ too. Did you get any stripers up there on Lake Powell?

How'd you like our welcome home game tonight? Thanks KG...pardon me while I go puke!

[thepaintedbaseball.blogspot.com]

That's one pissed off Cards fan! Love it!