Second to Home

Among the biggest baseball news of 1994 was the retirement in midseason of Sandberg, who had been the Chicago Cubs second baseman since 1982. In his exceptional career, he was named the league's MVP in 1984, played in 10 All-Star games and won nine Gold Gloves. A star on the field, he was also admired as an individual. Movie-star handsome, shy and self-effacing, he stresses in his memoir that he concentrated on becoming a better player, with the goal of contributing to his team's success rather than compiling impressive personal statistics or squeezing more money out of management, although he made lots. He is a kindly judge of all with whom he came in contact-except Larry Himes, the management figure who, in his view, wrecked the Cubs in the early 1990s with injudicious firings and trades. With Rozner, a reporter for the Arlington Heights, Ill., Daily Herald, he explains that he quit-and passed up $15 million-because he no longer had any competitive fire. An interesting look at an admirable player of a major sport. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)