Before the 2026 MLB Futures Game at Citizens Bank Park, Larry Bowa looked back on one of the most important trades in Cubs history and the player it brought to Chicago: Ryne Sandberg.
Bowa, who managed the American League team on July 12 during All-Star weekend, said the deal that sent Ivan DeJesus to Philadelphia and brought Sandberg to the Cubs on Jan. 27, 1982, ended up changing a lot for both sides. It also became the kind of transaction that still comes up more than four decades later because of what Sandberg did after arriving in Chicago.
Sandberg went on to become an NL MVP in 1984, when the Cubs reached the playoffs for the first time since 1945. He was later elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005, cementing his place as one of the defining players in franchise history. That is why Bowa described the move as one of the most significant in Cubs history.
Bowa's joke with Sandberg
Bowa said he used to joke with Sandberg about the trade, telling him not to forget that he was the throw-in in the deal. Bowa said Sandberg always laughed and took it in stride.
The story carried extra weight because of Sandberg’s death in 2025. Bowa attended Sandberg’s funeral on Aug. 22, 2025, at Old St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Chicago, and he said he had talked to him two weeks before he died. Sandberg told him he had played nine holes of golf.
Bowa’s recollection was simple, but it fit the larger point of the day. Good players change teams, good teams are built through smart moves, and the Sandberg trade remains one of the clearest examples of how one transaction can shape a franchise for years. As Bowa put it, when you have good players, you win. And in Sandberg’s case, he never quit.
