Sam Donnellon: Sandberg still paying his dues

AT HIS Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2005, Ryne Sandberg gravitated toward his people. Ozzie Smith, Cal Ripken, Joe Morgan, Robin Yount. Second baseman, shortstops, guys who could play their position well and hit for average and hit it out of the park.

Two summers later, Sandberg naturally gravitated toward his people again at the annual ceremony. Only this time the names were guys like Tommy Lasorda and Earl Weaver - ham-and-eggers as players, world champions as managers.

"They're all so different but all the same in one fashion," Sandberg was saying. "The common thread is they talk so adamantly and they so admire the players from their former teams. I think they all motivated and got the most out of their players. And I think that's what each one of their players will say about those managers, that they got the most out of us.

"That's the bottom line about being a good manager.''

After an offseason in which he was passed over for some prime big-league managing jobs, Sandberg, 52, will return to manage the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Phillies' Triple A affiliate this spring. It is his second year in Allentown, but his sixth as a minor league manager overall.

When the Cubs fired both their manager and general manager following a disappointing season, Sandberg's return home seemed a foregone conclusion. But one of Theo Epstein's first phone calls as new Cubs GM was to tell the beloved Chicago icon that he was not a candidate. Across town, White Sox GM Kenny Williams was hiring his own icon, Robin Ventura.

Only the St. Louis Cardinals interviewed Sandberg, a process that lasted 2 hours. They then hired Mike Matheny, a former catcher who had played with them in the first part of the last decade. Neither Ventura nor Matheny have any professional managing experience. Only Epstein's choice, Dale Sveum, had paid any dues, first as a Double A manager and later as coach for Boston and Milwaukee.

"To think that there have been managers hired this winter who have no coaching or managing experience whatsoever," Sandberg said. "I think that could be very tough on them. They may not know what they would be getting into."