HELENA — Baseball hall of famer Ryne Sandberg died Monday after a battle with prostate cancer. While Sandberg is most known as a Chicago Cub, the second baseman got his pro ball start with the 1978 Helena Phillies of the formerly rookie-level Pioneer League.
Steve Jones served as the Phillies' business manager during the ‘78 season, giving him a front-row seat to the start of Sandberg’s career.
“Even though Ryne was just from Spokane, he flew in here,” Jones recalled. “And he flew in here as a very young person. And it was kind of interesting, my wife and I went to Great Falls to get him and picked him up at the airport. And he had never been to Helena, Montana. (He) had no concept of where to go and what to do. So, we got him back here, introduced him to the manager and got him to a host family.”
During Sandberg’s tenure in Helena, his teammates voted him MVP. After Helena, Sandberg went on to win nine Golden Gloves, seven Silver Slugger Awards and a National League MVP.
“As he succeeded and moved on and became great, well, that helped Helena baseball just in general,” Jones said. “Because everyone that’s a fan gets a little bit of ownership in that, right? Vicariously, you get the joy out of watching him like you had a part to do with it.”
