Phillies hire Sandberg for Triple A
News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Phillies hire Sandberg for Triple A
Daily News staff
Ryne Sandberg is coming back to the Phillies organization as the manager of the Triple A Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Phillies announced today.
"I see this as a tremendous opportunity for me. I’m going back to the roots where I learned to play the game of baseball as a young player," Sandberg said. "In a lot of ways, I feel like a young kid again with this opportunity; reliving the days of almost 35 years ago when I was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies, 20th round, signed that June, reported to Helene, Montana and got started in professional baseball ... I couldn’t be happier about the situation."
He was originally drafted by the Phillies in 1978 and made his major league debut with the club in 1981, appearing in 13 games before being traded to the Cubs where he went on to a Hall of Fame career.
Sandberg, 51, spent the last four seasons as a manager in the Chicago Cubs’ minor league system with single-A Peoria (2007-08), double-A Tennessee (2009) and triple-A Iowa (2010). He led his clubs to two first-place finishes and, overall, has a managerial record of 284-277-1 (.505).
This past season, his first as a triple-A manager, Sandberg was named Manager of the Year in the Pacific Coast League after leading the Iowa Cubs to a tie for the best record in the Northern Division (82-62).
“Ryne impressed us in so many ways, but as we told him at the start of the interviewing process, we weren’t going to dwell on his Hall of Fame status,” said Phillies assistant general manager Chuck LaMar. “We’re here to hire the best Triple-A manager and the best player development person for the Philadelphia Phillies and obviously he is that.”
A 2005 inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame, Sandberg was a 10-time National League All-Star and won nine Gold Gloves and seven Silver Slugger awards during his 16-year career (1981-94, 1996-97).
Sandberg finished his career with a .285 batting average, 282 home runs, 1,061 RBI and 344 stolen bases in 2,164 games. At the time of his retirement, his 277 home runs as a second baseman was a major league record.
The remainder of the Phillies’ 2011 player development staff will be announced at a later date.
Better late than never.— Turtle072- @erniebanks14 - How'd that Cliff Lee fare against the Giants? Get over it.
- This is a great move. Even Blake will agree with this.— BMJ
- My God! Enough about Cliff Lee! I thought it was a stupid move at the time, too. But think, if we kept Cliff Lee he'd be gone now. We have Roy Oswalt for 2 more years. We wouldn't have traded for Oswalt if we had Lee.
The Sandberg discussion on the message boards in Chicago is interesting. A lot of bitterness that their hall of famer deserted them. I don't think that Amaro hiring Sandberg is a message to Charlie. I think that it's a smart move. See what Ryne does at AAA in the next 2 years and then make your decision when Charlie retires.— Mandela 
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- Seeing as how Ryne Sandberg should have been a career Phillie and never a Cub, it's nice to see a class act back in the Phillies colors!— MFinSC
- No way was this hiring a signal to Charlie...get real. It was a good hire and thats that. Charlie didn't hit under .200 or make the errors and stupid plays in the field in the playoffs....I would've thought maybe the Cliffy infatuation would die down after his WS performance....if you guys think Rueben and/or Charlie are ruining your lives....think again.— dirttracker
- I was about to use this space to deride commenters who rail at the Phillies for trading away a guy who was, at the time of his trading, a marginal prospect. Then I looked up his minor-league numbers. 1980 Reading: .310/11/79/.403 OBA/.469 SLG. 1981 OKC: .293/9/62/.352/.397. Let's set aside the OPS numbers, which weren't in vogue then. I have no idea what Reading is like to hit in, whether it favored batters or pitchers; same with the old OKC '89ers stadium. Still, Ryno had pretty decent power numbers for a middle infielder. Toss in his 30+ SB each of those two seasons and, well, yeah, Paul Owens was an idiot for trading him and Bowa for Ivan F. DeJesus, who I'm sure is a nice guy but was not then and of course not ever the player either of those two guys were. How you trade BOTH of them for DeJesus is Hall-of-Fame stupid. Nevertheless, if it weren't for the Pope, the Phillies would continue to be the worst team in the history of professional sports. He made great trades for McGraw, McBride, Maddox, Sarge, and Dick Ruthven and developed the minor league system that gave us Luzinski, Schmidt, and Bowa. And, Pope has one World Series ring and one NL pennant ring. Ryno? None.— andrewfrombrooklyn
- Um...I wouldn't say CM is on the hotseat yet...— Philly Fan in Kuwait
- Not a biggie, but it's Helena, not Helene.— Steve Jeltz, the home-run king
- Green stole Sandberg, but wasn't he a third baseman at the time or had just switched to second? Look, no one cared at the time when he got traded because no one knew how good he'd get. erniebanks, how'd Cliff Lee do in the WS this year?— mike l
- To all the idiots for bashing Lee's performance in WS. How did Halladay look in NLCS to Giants? Game 5 was an absolute struggle and Game 1 probably cost us the entire series. If Halladay pitches a strong Game 1 and doesnt get bombed by Ross twice, mix in Oswalt's dominant Game 2 and the Phils probably beat the Giants comfortably and every one in Philly watched a parade two weeks ago. Rangers werent ready for Primetime, so just another missed opportunity. Point is, Giants made every pitcher look bad, probably chemical enhancement. The Giants offense was labeled as "torture" all year by their own announcer. How did all these rejects become unstoppable in Oct and Nov. Oh, and Carlos Gullien was busted with HGH shipments to his house. Im, sure he was the only one using it!!+
- I do not know if this is a good move or not and neither does anyone else... most people just like the name.— Theo1980
- GREAT PICK UP FOR THE PHILLIES!!!!!!!! Ryno has just passed Samuel as the next Phillies Manager.— Philly4fanDoc
