Prep baseball: Remembering the Phillies' other Sandberg

photo by Tiffany Tompkins-Condie

As you can see by the hat, Manatee's Cord Sandberg was a third-round pick of the Philadelphia Phillies today during the second day of the baseball draft.
Of course, this isn't the first time the Phillies took a flyer on a Sandberg: Ryne Sandberg, no relation to Cord, was the franchise's 20th-round pick June 6, 1978. He signed with the Phillies nine days later.
Ryne made it to the Phils' Triple-A affiliate in 1981 and made his major-league debut Sept. 2 of that same year, batting .167 in 13 games.
That was the last of Sandberg's stint with Phillies - on Jan. 27, 1982, Sandberg and Larry Bowa were shipped to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for outfielder Ivan de Jesus in a trade not many Phillies fans wish to discuss, and with good reason.
Sandberg became a Hall-of-Famer with the Cubs, batting .285 with 282 home runs and 2,386 hits.  A 10-time All-Star, Sandberg was the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1984 and won eight straight Gold Gloves at second base.
de Jesus, meanwhile, spent three years in Philly (1982-84) and batted .249 in 463 games with a .319 on-bast percentage. He was dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals in '85.
Now we'll get to find out how the local Sandberg pans out for the Phillies.