The Most Amazing Thing About the Sandberg Game

There are many amazing things about the “Sandberg Game,” which was 33 years ago tomorrow.  (Also here.)  Ryne Sandberg hit home runs to tie the game off Cardinals closer, and future Hall of Famer, Bruce Sutter in consecutive innings (the ninth and the tenth).  Willie McGee drove in six runs and hit for the cycle, and nobody remembers (except for people within a 60-mile radius of Busch Stadium).

The most amazing thing, however, was not Willie McGee’s cycle and six RBIs, or Ryne Sandberg’s two game-tying home runs, or even that both home runs were off Bruce Sutter.  (Did anybody else ever hit two home runs off Bruce Sutter in the same game?  I don’t know.)

What was the most amazing thing, at least in terms of the way baseball is played today, is that Bruce Sutter, the Cardinals closer was in the game long enough to actually face Ryne Sandberg twice.  In fact, when Sutter faced Sandberg in the ninth inning, that wasn’t even his first inning of relief.  The eighth wasn’t even Sutter’s first inning of relief.  Sutter entered the game with two out and a runner on first in the bottom of the seventh.

After getting the last out in the seventh and pitching the eighth, Sutter still stayed in the game long enough to face Ryne Sandberg twice.  People were amazed when Aroldis Chapman faced twelve batters to get eight outs in the game five of the World Series last year.  But Bruce Sutter pitched 3-1/3 innings and faced sixteen batters.  And this wasn’t a World Series game in October.  It was a regular season game in June.  That’s amazing!