The Chicago Cubs will be honoring former star and Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg throughout the rest of the season.
The Cubs will debut a special patch on their jerseys Tuesday, one day after Sandberg died following a battle with cancer. The blue patch on the left shoulder features Sandberg’s No. 23 and his signature, and it will remain on the team’s jerseys the rest of the season.
Also Tuesday, everyone in the Cubs’ clubhouse wore special shirts to honor Sandberg.
The Milwaukee Brewers also held a moment of silence for Sandberg ahead of their matchup with the Cubs on Tuesday at American Family Field.
Sandberg spent nearly his entire MLB career with the Cubs, save for a 13-game stint with the Philadelphia Phillies at the very beginning of his time in the league. The fan favorite and 1984 NL MVP made 10 straight All-Star appearances and won nine Gold Gloves and seven Silver Slugger awards before he retired after the 1997 campaign.
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Sandberg was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005, the same year the Cubs retired his No. 23. The team unveiled a Sandberg statue outside of Wrigley Field last year, and the statue was quickly covered in flowers, Cubs gear and other memorabilia after news of his death broke Monday.
After his playing career, Sandberg spent time coaching in both the Cubs and Phillies organizations, and he briefly served as the Phillies’ manager from 2013-15, though he completed only one full season in that post.
Sandberg died due to complications from cancer, with which he was diagnosed twice in 2024. He was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer in January 2024 and announced eight months later that he was cancer-free. Then in December, he revealed that the cancer had spread to other organs in his body.
“Ryne Sandberg was a hero to a generation of Chicago Cubs fans and will be remembered as one of the all-time greats in nearly 150 years of this historic franchise,” Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said in a statement.
“His dedication to and respect for the game, along with his unrelenting integrity, grit, hustle and competitive fire, were hallmarks of his career. He was immensely proud of his teammates and his role as a global ambassador of the game of baseball, but most of all, he was proud of Margaret, his children and his role as a husband, father and grandfather. Margaret and their children and grandchildren will always be a part of the Cubs family. ‘Ryno’ will never be forgotten by the Cubs community and baseball fans around the world.”
