The Chicago Cubs have announced one of their all-time greats, Ryne Sandberg, will be immortalized with a statue outside Wrigley Field, and the club already has a special date in mind for the event.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the ceremony will take place Sunday, June 23, at 3 p.m. ahead of the Cubs appearance on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball against the New York Mets.
June 23 will represent the 40th anniversary of what many Cubs fans have come to know as “Sandberg Game,” a 12-11 win in 11 innings over the arch rival St. Louis Cardinals in 1984, in which Sandberg went 5-6 with two game-tying home runs and 7 RBI, effectively putting the North Siders on the map as Major League Baseball contenders.
Sandberg spent 16 seasons in the MLB, 15 of which were spent rocking Cubby blue and calling the Friendly Confines home.
In those 15 seasons on the North Side, Sandberg racked up ten all-star selections, nine consecutive Gold Gloves at second base, seven Silver Slugger awards, a home run derby championship and most notably of all, the 1984 National League MVP several months after the Sandberg game.
Nicknamed “Ryno,” Sandberg was formally inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on July 31, 2005.
The Chicago Cubs (32-35) are amid a three-game series at the Tampa Bay Rays, with their next scheduled game to take place on Thursday at 5:50 p.m. CT.
