Morning Coffee With The Right Side: Remembering Ryne Sandberg, my childhood hero

Remembering my hero, Ryne Sandberg.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 2 (00:33):
We all, as we get older, have to deal with loss,
and we cherish the moments we have with our loved ones.
But there are people that are a part of our
lives that many of us never get a chance to meet.
I'm talking about those heroes from your childhood, those celebrity

(00:58):
sports figures that made an impact on you and you
took for granted they'd always be here. I'm a huge
Chicago Cubs fan. I've talked about that on this show before,
and tonight I'm hurting because Ryan Samberg, the famed second

(01:21):
baseman for the Chicago Cubs, passed away today. Had a
long battle with prostate cancer, a cancer that went into remission,
only to return more aggressively spread to his other organs,
and Samberg unfortunately lost his battle with cancer today. It

(01:52):
was during a Cubs game that I was watching tonight
when the news broke. The game all of a sudden
didn't matter, even though it was a huge divisional matchup
in a tight pennant race, But I didn't care anymore

(02:14):
after I heard that my childhood hero Ryan Samberg was gone.
We take for granted that these legends, these heroes of
our youth, will live forever, and they don't. There was
another group of kids from the eighties last week that

(02:35):
were warning the loss of Holk Hogan. Samberg was my
childhood hero. He's the reason I'm a baseball fan today.
He's the reason I'm a Chicago Cubs fan watching him
play on WGN, remembering the Samberg game against the Saint

(02:57):
Louis Cardinals, seeing the joy of the nineteen eighty four
team and then again in nineteen eighty nine, only to
watch them both come up short. Samberg wasn't just a
good ballplayer. He was a great person on and off
the field. There are plenty of stories of people who

(03:19):
met him, who knew him that talk of his kindness,
and not just his former teammates, fans who had encountered him,
current players who talked about meeting him just this past
spring training because it was important to him, despite battling
this illness, to be at spring training camp, offer his wisdom,

(03:44):
his guidance to the next group of Cub greats. And
now there's an empty hole because again we are once
again slapped in the face with more mortality. Samberg had

(04:08):
nine consecutive Gold Clubs. He set a record for the
most consecutive games without an ERA at second base. He
wasn't the biggest guy. You didn't look at him go wow,
that's an impressive professional athlete. No, he looked like something

(04:31):
you could obtain. He achieved what he achieved through hard work.
When the Cubs traded for him in nineteen eighty two,
he wasn't supposed to be the franchise player he became.
He was a throw in piece as part of that

(04:51):
trade from the Philadelphia Phillies. But Sandsburg went on to
define baseball for an entire gy neration of Cubs fans.
He came to the Cubs in the same season that
Harry Carey did. He created a sense of excitement. He

(05:14):
wasn't flashy, he wasn't in your face type of player.
I could imagine if he was playing in today's era,
he'd cringe at the thought of a bat flip after
a home run. He was an old school player and

(05:37):
we loved him for it. You knew every game Ryan
Samberg was going to come out and give you one
hundred and ten percent. It's who he was. It was
what defined him as a ballplayer. Samberg was a once

(06:05):
in a lifetime type of player. Today all of us
Cubs fans are hurting, but especially those of us who
grew up with Samberg. Back in the eighties, the Cubs
didn't play night games. They didn't play their first night

(06:25):
game till nineteen eighty eight. So we'd get home from school,
Samberg be on the TV, and then into the summer
months while we were out of school, Samberg would be
there with us during the day, except for when the
Cubs were on the road. Thanks to WGN TV and

(06:47):
that superstation network, Rhino the Hero, as he was nicknamed,
Legends aren't supposed to die. Heroes aren't supposed to die,
but in life they do. We can't outrun our time.

(07:17):
The one thing about a legend is his legend will
never die. And Ryan Samberg is in fact a legend.
So yes, tonight, it's a heavy heart after learning of
the passing of Ryan Samberg. I was sitting at dinner

(07:39):
with friends when I saw the news, and the heartbreak
started immediately. And even though I didn't know the man,
I felt like I did. He was a part of
the family. I remember in nineteen ninety four when he

(07:59):
returned hired for the first time, retired because he was
going through a difficult time in his marriage and his
kids needed him, a marriage that ultimately did in divorce.
He came back to the Cubs in nineteen ninety six,
played two more seasons, and then finally called it a career.

(08:24):
Ryan Samberg, you meant a lot to a lot of us.
You are a legend, and that legend will never die.
We appreciate everything you did. We send thoughts and prayers
to your family. Ryan Samberg has passed away at age

(08:50):
sixty five. This has been Morning Coffee with the Right
Side and I'm your host, Jack Fairschewd and we're a
part of the Midnight Ride Network. This show has been
brought to you by Pearl River Casino and Resort,