Phillies’ Mea Culpa with Ryne Sandberg Could End Soon

What could have been.

Seems like the Phillies story for many years before 2007 to present.

The Phillies gave Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs manager Ryne Sandberg permission to talk to the St. Louis Cardinals’ for their open managerial position after Tony LaRussa retired after winning the World Series this year.

For those of you who don’t remember Sandberg he had a Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Cubs.

He was a 10-time All-Star, won the MVP award, had 2,385 hits in a Cubs uniform, 282 homers, 1,061 RBI, 344 stolen bases, and was a nine-time Gold Glove winner.

But in 1981, he was a Phillies farm hand and was a throw-in the Larry Bowa for Ivan DeJesus trade.

DeJesus batted .249 in three seasons with Phillies. He was traded three more times before his career ended in 1988.

Former Phillies manager Dallas Green was the general manager of the Cubs and must have known what a good player Sandberg could become.

Green took several Phillies coaches with him to Chicago, but his biggest borrow was to steal Sandberg from the Phillies.

Oh, well, we did trade Rick Wise for Steve Carlton.

Sandberg returned to the team that drafted him to become the Phillies farm hand Triple A team, the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs.

Sandberg guided the Iron Pigs to a playoff position in his rookie season as manager.

It was thought that Sandberg would succeed Charlie Manuel as manager in a couple of years.

It may not happen now.

Sandberg is too good, to valuable to stay put for too long.

Losing him again would be understandable.

But, he did return the favor to the Phillies … at least for one year.