Written By ESPN 99.1's Andrew Brown

Recently Major League Baseball saw Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg resign as the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies.

No longer will the 2005 hall of fame inductee step on a major league field, at least for the foreseeable future.

After a lustrous playing career highlighted by nine consecutive gold glove awards, 2,386 hits, and the highest fielding percentage ever as a second baseman with .989, Sandberg tried his hand at managing with an unfortunate ending.

As a player, he also led the Cubs to their first world series in thirty-nine years while hitting .314 in the 1984 World Series.

Sandberg shouldn’t beat himself up too much, after all, he’s not the only player to try and fail at managing. Even current L.A Dodgers manager Don Mattingly came close to the pink slip before Yasiel Puig came riding out of Cuba to save the day and the roster that was assembled finally started playing like they are paid to do.

There’s a fine line between managers and players. While both share the successes and failures of the team, their paths to such are different.

Managers are the brains and the players are the “bronze”. Managers use their baseball knowledge and expertise to scheme their way to a win while the players use their elite skill to execute a winning plan.

While Ryne Sandberg may have ended on a sour note, his managing career is merely a smudge on a wondrous and hall of fame playing career which will never be forgotten.

 

 

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