Ryne Sandberg

Well, I began to want to figure out, well, how do those games work? This, again, was the physics part of me, I think, coming back into play.

Um, how do those games work? And how do I know that this is, g- getting back to your concern that you expressed earlier in this discussion, how do I know that when I roll a 10 that that's what, quote-unquote, "would've really happened" with Cedeño at the plate? How do I know if this fielder had a great range or an average range or a poor range, for example, or a strong arm or a weak arm as an outfielder? Um, so wanting to quantify a player so that I could relax when I played those games and believe that what I was seeing was as likely as an actual historic, you know, a game that actually occurred in history, that was the other part that drove me to really want to dig into the play-by-play of a game because it's, it's when those events happen and you see what happens when the ball is hit towards Ryne Sandberg in second base, um- You know he's likely to reach the ball or he's likely to be able to make the play and, and put the batter out at first because you've studied the games that he played in, you've done the probability, you've run the statistics, and you can create a card that accurately represents Sandberg in that game, for example.

I think those two aspects of what you can gather from a large amount of play-by-play is what really drives me still, um, an ache to know and a desire for accuracy, uh, in our understanding of even the most obscure players, uh, from baseball's past.

So how much volunteering would you say you've done for Retrosheet?

... and the greatest athlete.

'Cause, like, the greatest Cub of all time, or of recent time, might be M- Ryne Sandberg.

But Anthony Rizzo walks on water in that town.

What about Sosa?

So when I was a young boy, I was born in Chicago, so I kind of grew up a Cubs fan.

Um, I loved Ryne Sandberg and, um, you know, Shawon Dunston.

Um, you know, I, I was, I was a big Cubs fan.

Um, but I was a huge '86 Mets fan.

And to be very fair, at the time, my list included Girardi.

My list included Ryne Sandberg.

Um, it included a couple of other names or whatever.

But honestly, even back to those Tampa Bay days, just Joe Maddon was one of my favorite listens, like, one-

He can cover a lot of ground, great throwing arm, beginning to hit.

Sandberg, who plays it all around like he does.

Durham, much improved at first base.

Keith Morton, very steady, although he's got a little shoulder problem at third base.

And that's an automatic.

Could be two, though it slowly hits.

Sandberg gets one to Dunstan, and that's all.

Awfully tough ballpark to get a double play on, and those two guys in the middle of the diamond can really turn it, but it is such tall grass that the ball just dies once it hits the grass.