Our friend Emily reminded me last night that today is the 27th anniversary of “The Sandberg game”
I’ve written about this before… (From my post dated 1/26/2011)
It was June 23, 1984. NBC had chosen to nationally televise a game between long time rivals the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs at Wrigley field. The Cubs were playing well this season, and as a team that had been pretty bad over the years, the league hadn’t really taken them seriously yet. That would change with this game. The Cardinals were ahead by one run enterering the bottom of the ninth inning and pitching was their ace closer, Bruce Sutter. To bat was a young Ryne Sandberg. Sandberg tied the game with a home run over the left field ivy to tie the game at 9. The Cardinals responded with two runs of their own in the top of the 10th inning. Sutter remained in the game with a 2 run lead and again faced Sandberg, this time with a runner on base. Sandberg again took Sutter deep to tie the game. The Cubs went on to win the game in the 11th inning.
Although St. Louis’ Willie McGee had already been named the NBC Player of the Game, it was Sandberg’s feat that played the ultimate role.
The Cubs would win the Division that year with a record of 96 wins – 65 losses. They went on to lose to the Padres in the National League Championship Series. The Cardinals would finish in third place, 12.5 games back.
In 1984 Sandberg would earn his 1st All Star game selection, his 2nd Gold Glove, his 1st Silver Slugger Award and was named the National League MVP. He was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 2005. He is currently the manager of our Lehigh Valley Ironpigs.
When you get to the game tonight, go and help Ryne Sandberg remember this great day and hope our IronPigs can pull out a win!
OinK!
noisenation.mlblogs.com 
“Holy cow! He did it again! He did it again! The game is tied! The game is tied!” — Harry Caray
“Do you believe it?” — Bob Costas