Congratulations to one of my all-time favorite baseball players.
Ryne Sandberg, the slick-fielding second baseman who holds the all-time record for homers at the position, was elected Tuesday to the Baseball Hall of Fame, making the cutoff by just six votes.
In his third year on the ballot, Sandberg was picked by 393 voters. He appeared on 76.2 percent of ballots, just above the 75 percent cutoff (387). Sandberg received 49.2 percent of votes in 2003 and got 61.1 percent last year, falling 71 votes short.
"There's been some tremendous, tremendous players who waited longer than I had to wait to get into the Hall of Fame," Sandberg said. "I think defense had everything to do with me getting into the Hall of Fame."
Third baseman Wade Boggs was the only other player elected. Boggs, a five-time American League batting champion for the Boston Red Sox, was selected by 474 of the record 516 voters who are 10-year members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
My interest in baseball has dropped precipitously in the last five years. But once upon a time (and likely, once again sometime in the future) I was a huge fan. I grew up on the Chicago Cubs in the late 1970s and 1980s. The 1984 and 1989 seasons, the Cubs' first division titles and playoff appearances since the 1940s, and Sandberg's prodigious contributions to them, will live forever in my memory.
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