No one could have guessed 40 years ago the impact a game would have.
But the “Ryne Sandberg Game” on June 23, 1984, at Wrigley Field changed the game in the player’s life, the trajectory of the Chicago Cubs franchise and the evolution of the Lakeview neighborhood and the North Side.
When Sandberg hit two late-inning game-tying home runs off St. Louis Cardinals closer Bruce Sutter in the Cubs’ 12-11 victory in 11 innings before a crowd of 38,079 at Wrigley, it signaled his rise to stardom – setting the second baseman on a course that would earn him the National League Most Valuable Player award.
The wild, comeback victory let the rest of America know that the 1984 Cubs were real despite a 39-year World Series drought and not a single championship since 1908. That game sparked an unforgettable summer run that s ended with a playoff collapse in San. Diego, just one game away from the World Series.
The 1984 Cubs changed the perception of a neighborhood that was once considered sketchy, leading local real estate agents to start calling the neighborhood Wrigleyville, a much trendier name than Lakeview East.
A part. A man. A million memories packed into nearly four hours of baseball on a hot summer day on the corner of Clark and Addison.
“So very few games have a name,” broadcaster Bob Costas told the Tribune. “There’s the Pine Tar game, which was the year before. It was an iconic play in what turned out to be a Hall of Fame career.
Where did the time go?
Forty years later, the Cubs will honor Sandberg with a statue Sunday on Gallagher Way, just outside Wrigley Field. Costas, who wrote the famous “Do you believe it?” on NBC’s “Game of the Week” in 1984, will introduce Sandberg at the ceremony, which is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.
“Forty years, for fans to come up to me and talk about this match like it happened just a few years ago,” Sandberg told the Tribune. “And of course, everyone’s 40 years older, so that’s a pretty remarkable thing and it’s something that’s kind of developed throughout this season.
“I think it took effect as we went down the stretch and we were going to clinch the division and then even with the offseason coming, I think the fans looked at this game as something very special and it was nicknamed the ‘Ryne Sandberg Game.’ It just happened.
There was no reason to believe that Saturday morning, the second game of a Cubs-Cardinals series, would be unforgettable for generations to come. I was working for the Tribune’s city bureau at the time and arrived in Wrigley around 8 a.m. after a long night of drinking with a dozen friends from the University of Missouri. Back then, tickets for the stands were first come, first served.
The Cubs looked like they were in their typical June swoon. After starting 30-21, they lost 10 of their next 15 games heading into the three-game series, falling from first to third place in the National League East, 2½ games behind the New York Mets. Sandberg was hitting .316 with seven homers and 38 RBIs before the Series after hitting .261 with eight homers in 1983.
His offensive improvement was promising but not mind-blowing. No one thought of Sandberg as a possible MVP candidate in late June on a team with only a handful of games above .500.
While the game was the “Game of the Week,” heavy rain provided Costas and analyst Tony Kubek with a national television audience.
“‘Game of the Week’ means something different than it does now,” Costas said. “’Game of the Week’ often got ratings on a Saturday afternoon that prime-time shows considered hits would be happy to get now.
“Plus, you also had the perfect setting of Wrigley Field and no lights for another four years. A wonderful Saturday afternoon. And I also think it’s important that it’s the Cardinals because you would see a lot of red in the stands, just like you would see a lot of blue from the Cubs at Busch Stadium.
“The cast of characters also mattered. Whitey Herzog had a presence. Willie McGee hit for the cycle. Ozzie Smith made some typical Ozzie Smith plays. And it was the game that announced the Cubs no longer as lovable losers but as contenders.
“And they came within one game of making the World Series. This isn’t just what Sandberg did. The game itself was crazy. It was a wild play, but it was also his signature play.
After the Cubs’ Rick Reuschel won Game 1 on Friday, starter Steve Trout was knocked out in the second inning of Saturday’s game, and the Cubs trailed 7-1 after two. In the right field bleachers, Cardinals fans celebrated and jeered while Cubs fans simply drank, shrugged their shoulders and soaked up the sun.
There were no beer snakes back then. Just beer. We drank a lot of beer. And a lot of beer was thrown into the air.
Trailing 9-3, the Cubs gained five runs in the sixth, pulling within one on Sandberg’s two-run single off Neil Allen. It was a 9-8 game in the ninth when Herzog called on Sutter, the former Cubs pitcher and best closer in the National League. In 45 1/3 innings in 27 outings, he had a 1.19 ERA and allowed three home runs.
Sandberg, leading off, hit a home run to left field on a 1-1 pitch to tie the game and turn Wrigley Field into a mosh pit of flying beer. Cubs closer Lee Smith, famous for his snail’s walk from the bullpen to the mound, entered the 10th and served up a single to Ozzie Smith and a double to McGee, who completed his cycle. The Cardinals added an insurance run to take a two-run lead late in the inning.
With two outs in the bottom of the 10th, Costas announced McGee as the “Player of the Game” and began reading the credits. Uh-oh.
“They all think we were giving up on the Cubs,” Costas said. “But this game lasted a long time, even by 1980s standards, time-wise. NBC had “SportsWorld” waiting to air behind us, and Marv Albert and the “Fight Doctor” (Ferdie Pacheco) were calling the fight from Panama. They held the opening bell. The fighters were in the locker room waiting for the game to end, with the Cubs at bat.
“The ‘Player of the Match’ was sponsored, so we had to name one before the end of the 10th. Willie had hit for a cycle, the Cardinals were winning, so we named Willie McGee “Player of the Game.” They also wanted me to read the credits because if Sandberg or the next guy makes it, boom, we’re out of there – a hot “Let’s leave it to Marv Albert in Panama.”
Bob Dernier got two outs on a close call from home plate umpire Doug Harvey. Sandberg stepped in to tie the Cubs.
“So I get the credits right before launch,” Costas said.
Sandberg hit the pitch 1-1. Sutter immediately reacted with dismay, knowing he was missing. The ball sailed deep into the left field bleachers to tie it again as pandemonium was unleashed.
“The 1-1 field… left center… can you believe it? Here we go,” Costas told viewers.
Even Sandberg himself couldn’t believe it.
“Hitting two game-tying home runs against Bruce Sutter, that was a feat that I know has never happened in his career, being the dominant pitcher on the ground with a pitch (the splitter) that would go down 3 feet at the plate “, he remembers. . “It just didn’t feel natural to hit, let alone elevate two balls to left field for game-tying home runs in those moments.
“Those are really the only two swings that I believe in my entire career that I aimed half a foot under the baseball, the reason being we were down and there was nothing to lose in that situation and everything to gain. And that’s the plan I followed. It turned out to be something totally different that I had never done before.
Coincidentally, the baseball-themed film “The Natural” had just been released on May 11, starring Robert Redford as the tragic hero, slugger Roy Hobbs.
“I think I may have said something like, ‘Maybe this is the real Roy Hobbs with Sandberg,'” Costas recalled.
Smith retired the Cardinals in order in the 11th, and the Cubs won in the bottom of the inning on bases-loaded Davey Owen’s hit with an RBI single against reliever Jeff Lahti.
“That’s Baby Ruth,” Herzog said of Sandberg in his office postgame.
The game lasted 3 hours and 53 minutes. Cubs and Cardinals fans then flocked to Lakeview bars to celebrate or drown their sorrows after an exhausting afternoon. The next day, the Tribune’s headline on writer Fred Mitchell’s story read: “It’s Entertainment.”
Even though McGee had the game of his life, he realized he wasn’t really the “player of the game.”
“It was Ryne Sandberg’s day,” McGee said last week at Wrigley. “You hit two homers against Bruce Sutter, you deserve it.”
To this day, Costas says people still tell him they were upset that NBC named McGee the “Player of the Game” and that he read the credits before Sandberg’s second home run.
“To think any broadcaster would think the game is over with the tying run at home plate…” he said with a sigh. “And it’s already as crazy a game as anything. But people think what they want to think.
Forty years later, the “Sandberg Game” still resonates in the heart of Wrigleyville.
The celebration continues on Sunday.
Do you believe it?
Tribune reporter Meghan Montemurro contributed.