The Ryne Sandberg - Bruce Sutter Game At Wrigley Field On June 23, 1984

The Ryne Sandberg - Bruce Sutter Game At Wrigley Field On June 23, 1984

From the Chicago Cubs website:

Chicago Cubs fans call it the Sandberg Game. Ryne Sandberg prefers to call it the Sutter Game.

On June 23, 1984, at Wrigley Field, Sandberg, then a second baseman for the Cubs, hit a pair of late-inning home runs off Bruce Sutter in an 11-inning, 12-11 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Sandberg connected off Sutter in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game at 9. He homered again off Sutter in the bottom of the 10th to tie the game at 11. Sandberg's performance overshadowed that of Willie McGee, who hit for the cycle in the game for the Cardinals.

"I've been saying all along that he's a Hall of Famer and that's what makes the Sandberg Game -- or the Sutter Game, which I call it -- so special, because he was so dominant at the time," Sandberg said Wednesday, happy to welcome Sutter as the newest member to Cooperstown.

And from the central Illinois Pantagraph.com:

"I've told everybody all along that hitting those two home runs wasn't that easy," Sandberg said Thursday during the Cubs Caravan stop in Bloomington-Normal. "He had a tremendous pitch that was almost unhittable. (Hitting) two home runs in the one game speaks more for itself now."

As of Tuesday, that is, when Sutter was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The former Cub and Cardinal relief ace received the call to Cooperstown a year after Sandberg. Thus, two players forever linked by a sunny 1984 afternoon will have plaques hanging in the same Hall.

"I think it's great," Sandberg said, smiling. "It makes my story even better. I hit two home runs off a Hall of Famer. I've always said he was the best closer in the game at the time.

"People come up to me and say, 'Do you remember the Bruce Sutter game?' I'm like, 'No, I don't remember that at all. What are you talking about?' I just start kidding about it because I hear it on a daily basis."

Sutter will be the lone inductee in late July, giving him six months to prepare his induction speech.

And the odd thing about all this? That showing the clips of the Sandberg-Sutter game may been just the thing to push Sutter into the Hall of Fame. From Wikipedia:

"You never think that giving up two home runs to the same guy helped you get in the Hall of Fame. But ... that's what might have happened." - Sutter commenting on how TV replays just prior to the 2005 Hall of Fame induction of Ryne Sandberg showed the two national-televised Wrigley Field home runs he gave up on June 23, 1984. That was the year that Sutter created a new single-season save record while Sandberg was voted National League MVP.

Just another little reminder that Life can be very, very funny at times.

Comments

[GM Roper]

Dang Tom, and here I've always thought that if it wasn't the Red Sox vs. Yankee's, it wasn't baseball.

[Dean Franks]

I was at the sandberg game.It was a hot Saturday and it was the game of the week. Cubs went down early 7-1. We were heckeled by Cardinal fans all day. We were in the center field bleachers and when the game ended in cub victory the loudest of the cardinal fans behind us came flying over my head. Obviously thrown by cub fans. I'll never forget that day.

[tera gold]

never forget that day.