Cubs’ Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg returns to club as ambassador
Ryne Sandberg is back where Cubs fans believe he belongs seven months after resigning as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Cubs announced Friday that Sandberg is returning to the club as an ambassador. He participated in a Hall of Fame seminar on Saturday at the Cubs Convention in Chicago and received a standing ovation. 
His new role will include representing the organization at some corporate and public functions as well as interacting with fans. He will consult with players during spring training, but he won’t be in uniform or a part of the coaching staff during the season and Sandberg said he really isn’t looking to get back into coaching or managing right now.
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“As we speak it’ll be nothing in uniform,” Sandberg told the Chicago Sun-Times. “It’ll be off the field, and I’m very satisfied with that.”
Sandberg first began talking with chairman Tom Ricketts and team president Theo Epstein about a role with the organization in August. he returned to Wrigley Field in October to throw out the first pitch in Game 3 of the ALDS against St. Louis.
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Sandberg played 15 seasons with the Cubs and won the 1984 National League MVP Award along with nine Gold Gloves. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2005. He began his managing career in the Cubs’ minor league system and eventually earned an opportunity to jump from the Cubs to the Phillies as a AAA manager and then a coach and manager in Philadephia in the big leagues.
Sandberg has five grandchildren living in the Chicago area and that was part of the lure in returning to the Cubs in the ambassador role. He will have more time to spend with family than he would have as a coach or manager elsewhere.
“The best part of the whole thing was the Cubs allowed me to go elsewhere and fulfill a dream of managing at the major league level,” Sandberg told the Sun-Times. “The other thing that they did was they left in place a personal services contract I could come back to any time that I wanted to with open arms. That allowed me to leave and have a chance to manage at the major-league level with some security and knowledge that I’d be welcomed back in some capacity if that ever came about.”
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Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer to Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo
