Phillies hire Sandberg for Triple A
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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.
Who wrote this article? In third grade this would be a C at best! What happened to the prior Pigs manager? And how about mentioning Sandberg's snub by the Cubs for their vacant position? He'll have a managerial job in the majors I suspect before Charlie retires!— dadlaz
There's no message here at all. Don't read into the pattern of the fabric on the sofa. Cholly's got the best winning percentage of all the managers in the NL. RAJ has done an admirable job since taking over. The Lee trade will haunt him for the rest of his career, as well it should, but he made up for it and we're back on the path to another title. I would love to see Sandberg step in once Cholly's had enough but he should be a big league coach under Cholly first, and see what its like in a winning club house. The Cubs never won anything. He needs to taste winning first.- Hey doc, a little premature to pencil him in for the big job. His minor league managerial stats are OK, but he must prove his mettle with a loser franchise before he heads down the NE extension.— NewMick314
- Sure the Ryan Sandberg trade was a lopsided one...he turned out to be a great player. But the worse trade of all time was the 5 for one Von Hayes trade. Hayes was good...but he wasn't worth 5 players. And one of the players we traded was a highly reguarded prospect named Julio Franco...( remember him? )— tony b
- GREAT PICK UP FOR THE PHILLIES!!!!!!!! Ryno has just passed Samuel as the next Phillies Manager.— Philly4fanDoc
- I do not know if this is a good move or not and neither does anyone else... most people just like the name.— Theo1980
- 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!!+
- 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
- Not a biggie, but it's Helena, not Helene.— Steve Jeltz, the home-run king
- Um...I wouldn't say CM is on the hotseat yet...— Philly Fan in Kuwait
- 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
- 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
- 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
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- 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 - This is a great move. Even Blake will agree with this.— BMJ
- @erniebanks14 - How'd that Cliff Lee fare against the Giants? Get over it.
- Better late than never.— Turtle072
- Message to Reuben: You shouldn't even still be here, you twerp, after 'giving' Cliff Lee away! Three great 'prospects' we got in return for a World Series MVP! Nice job, Rube you Boob!— erniebanks14
Outstanding!!!— pedge- Message to Cholly from Ruben: You won the 2008 WS, not the 2009 and 2010 WS. You wanted the "threats to your job" (Jimmy Williams and Davey Lopes) gone. Your contract is up after 2011. Now, your successor has been hired in AAA. Uh, watch your back, Cholly.— Phront_Runner
- Unwritten story here is that the Cubs passed up Sandberg for Mike Quade as their new manager to repalce Pinella, after Sandberg succesfully lived up to his agreement with them to coach himself through the minors in preparation for the head job with the Cubs. So, he comes to the Phils' AAA job with a sizable chip on his shoulder. Worked pretty well for Rino when he was traded to the Cubs as a player. Says here it will work this time too - Sandberg will eventually become a successful manager in Philly and turn the tables on the Cubbies!— topwonk
- How the dope (GM) in charge in 81-2 let Ryne Sandberg go to Chicago is another of those beyound belief "deals". If it had been to ANY other team, it might have been understandable, but, didn't the idiot notice he was trading him to Dallas Green? Didn't he notice that Dallas Green had just left Philly? Didn't he have the least suspicion Dallas Green MIGHT HAVE KNOWN SOMETHING! Oh, well, we can look for Mr. Sandberg to be the field manager for "the big club" in a couple of years now that he's back to where he should have been for a long time!— BEMiller
- Like this move and Samuel hiring as 3B coach. Wonder if Joe Savery will be Ryno's 1B next season.— yardbyrd
- Good pickup. He can replace Cholly in a couple of years.— alihajishank
- Excellent signing !— Polecat_39
what irony
A message has been sent to the bubble gum chewing boob in the dugout.- Good move!— TerryW
- This is an excellent hiring. Possibly Uncle Cholly's replacement with the big club after he retires?— Tartan69
- He's your next Phillies manaager -- great hire!— 25years/100seasonsandcounting
- Comment removed.
A quality guy and a quality player. They should never have given him away when they did. Still aggravated about that!!! :(— djlen
