Ryne Sandberg

Ryne Sandberg, Chicago Cubs: "We see so many round, concrete stadiums, it's great to play in a ballpark with a lot of character like Wrigley Field. It's high tech, cement and steel, yet it's got such an old time feel to it. It's got a lot of good, fun things about it."

Ryne Sandberg has done it again. Cast aside by the Cubs a year ago, he has turned in another highly successful season as a minor league manager. Sandberg guided the Lehigh Valley IronPigsto the Governor's Cup championship series in the International League, completely turning around the culture of a losing situation. One of the minor leagues' worst teams the last three years, the Phillies' Triple-A team won 22 more games in 2011 than '10 and then beat the Pawtucket Red Sox in the first round of the playoffs before the Columbus Clippers eliminated Lehigh Valley Friday night.

Blue Jays: Jose Cruz was a late scratch with a strained hip flexor. He's listed as day-to-day.Cubs: Ryne Sandberg was out of the lineup for a third consecutive game because of back spasms.Expos: Rookie Vladimir Guerrero left in the second after straining his left quadriceps muscle running to first in the first. Guerrero has made three trips to the disabled list this season and missed 52 games. Attendance was a season-low 8,782.Pub Date: 9/10/97

Citing a confidentiality agreement with Major League Baseball repeatedly during a 25-minute teleconference yesterday, Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro avoided specific questions about when and what he might have taken that triggered a failed steroids test and a subsequent 10-day suspension. Another question he couldn't answer, however, is the one that surely will cloud the twilight of Palmeiro's career and his first few years in retirement. Will yesterday's announcement and suspension taint his legacy and cost him a spot in the Hall of Fame?

On the field: Brady Anderson, who hit his 41st homer yesterday, is only the third player to hit more than 40 homers in a season and steal more than 50 bases in a season (he stole 53 in 1992). The other two are Ryne Sandberg (40, 54) and Barry Bonds (46, 52).In the dugout: B. J. Surhoff, out of the starting lineup the last two xTC days, pinch hit for catcher Mark Parent in the seventh inning. Surhoff grounded out, and Chris Hoiles took over at catcher. If Pete Incaviglia wasn't so hot, Surhoff might've taken over in left and Hoiles would've batted in Incaviglia's spot -- a rare AL double-switch.

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken set seven major-league defensive records last season, but it wasn't enough for him to earn his first Rawlings Gold Glove, an award decided by a vote of major-league managers and coaches.The Chicago White Sox's Ozzie Guillen today received his first Gold Glove despite making 17 errors last season. Ripken, a nine-year veteran, made only three."I'd like to win one of those things to be honest with you," Ripken said. "I hadn't gotten my hopes up too high.

This week's Burning Question, posed by your friendly Winners and Losers staff is: Which active major leaguers have a legitimate shot to join the Hall of Fame? For guys like Dave Winfield and Eddie Murray, the question is not if they'll get to Cooperstown, but which hat will make their plaque. Here's a look at the current output of six players who could be enshrined in the Hall.Tony Gwynn .. .. .. .. .. .. ..Winner Off and running for his fifth National League batting title with average over .400 as of Friday.

HE DID NOT have a unique batting style or stance that Little Leaguers could mimic, didn't grip a bat in an unorthodox manner the way Ernie Banks did, didn't swing fluidly and gracefully the way Billy Williams did, didn't dig in and rip from the heels as Sammy Sosa does. He was not immortalized in verse the way Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance were, wasn't a screwball like Dizzy Dean, a flake like Rube Waddell, a bigot like Cap Anson, a boozer like Grover Cleveland Alexander or a freak of nature like Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown.

Former Orioles catcher Rick Dempsey has turned down th team's offer to manage the Single-A Frederick Keys, deciding to accept a similar position with the Los Angeles Dodgers so he can spend the summer closer to his family.Dempsey said he will manage the Dodgers' Single-A team in Bakersfield, not far from his family home in West Lake Village, Calif."If the Orioles had had another job at a higher classification, I would have taken it," Dempsey said in a telephone interview from his home last night.

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -- Even if he is the pride of the Windy City, even if Bo couldn't even keep up with him in the cross-town popularity polls, even if he is more sacred in Chicago than Da Bears, Ryne Sandberg is guilty.Guilty of creating the biggest stir of baseball's otherwise tranquil spring.Call it the $7 million fallout.When the Cubs' extraordinary second baseman signed a four-year extension for a staggering $28 million a few weeks ago, it generated shivers of concern from the fields of Arizona right on through the front offices of every team in the sport.

HE DID NOT have a unique batting style or stance that Little Leaguers could mimic, didn't grip a bat in an unorthodox manner the way Ernie Banks did, didn't swing fluidly and gracefully the way Billy Williams did, didn't dig in and rip from the heels as Sammy Sosa does. He was not immortalized in verse the way Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance were, wasn't a screwball like Dizzy Dean, a flake like Rube Waddell, a bigot like Cap Anson, a boozer like Grover Cleveland Alexander or a freak of nature like Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown.

Blue Jays: Jose Cruz was a late scratch with a strained hip flexor. He's listed as day-to-day.Cubs: Ryne Sandberg was out of the lineup for a third consecutive game because of back spasms.Expos: Rookie Vladimir Guerrero left in the second after straining his left quadriceps muscle running to first in the first. Guerrero has made three trips to the disabled list this season and missed 52 games. Attendance was a season-low 8,782.Pub Date: 9/10/97

On the field: Brady Anderson, who hit his 41st homer yesterday, is only the third player to hit more than 40 homers in a season and steal more than 50 bases in a season (he stole 53 in 1992). The other two are Ryne Sandberg (40, 54) and Barry Bonds (46, 52).In the dugout: B. J. Surhoff, out of the starting lineup the last two xTC days, pinch hit for catcher Mark Parent in the seventh inning. Surhoff grounded out, and Chris Hoiles took over at catcher. If Pete Incaviglia wasn't so hot, Surhoff might've taken over in left and Hoiles would've batted in Incaviglia's spot -- a rare AL double-switch.

At Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Palmeiro stepped up to the plate and peered out at the pitcher's mound.He took a big cut -- right-handed.Oh, this wasn't Rafael Palmeiro, the Orioles' leading hitter.This was Patrick Ryne (for Ryne Sandberg) Palmeiro, the 4-year-old son of Rafael and Lynne Palmeiro.This was at 4 p.m., and the park was empty except for the three members of the Palmeiro family, gathered at the home plate end of the Orioles dugout."Don't forget your helmet," Rafael advised his son.Patrick, wearing T-shirt, shorts and tennis shoes, ran to the Orioles helmet rack and immediately picked out his father's.

From 700 miles away, members of the Orioles reacted to the retirement of Ryne Sandberg as if a guy in the clubhouse had called it quits.Sandberg, a 10-time All-Star second baseman for the Chicago Cubs, announced his immediate retirement from the game yesterday, citing unhappiness with his performance.Some of Sandberg's former Chicago teammates, who now wear Orioles uniforms, drew quick comparisons between the man who followed Ernie Banks as the most popular Cub and Cal Ripken."He reminded me quite a bit of Cal. That's one of the first things I thought when I came here," said Rafael Palmeiro, a Cub from 1986 to '88. "He's a guy who comes out to play.

This week's Burning Question, posed by your friendly Winners and Losers staff is: Which active major leaguers have a legitimate shot to join the Hall of Fame? For guys like Dave Winfield and Eddie Murray, the question is not if they'll get to Cooperstown, but which hat will make their plaque. Here's a look at the current output of six players who could be enshrined in the Hall.Tony Gwynn .. .. .. .. .. .. ..Winner Off and running for his fifth National League batting title with average over .400 as of Friday.