Ryne Sandberg on not getting the Cubs job in 2010: “There’s no bitterness”

There was a strong sense that Ryne Sandberg was stepped over for the Cubs managerial job when Lou Piniella stepped down in 2010 and Mike Quade was installed for his ill-fated run as the Chicago skipper. But if Sandberg was upset about it at the time, he’s over it now. He sat down with Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com and waxed reflective on life in Chicago, life in Philly and how that all went down a couple of years ago:

“Initially it looked like I might have been working toward that, managing for them and doing it up from Triple A and having success in the minor leagues, but I’ve been around baseball long enough to know there’s no guarantees in this game ... “There’s no bitterness,” he said. “I have great memories of being a Cub and I’m happy building new ones with the Phillies.”

Sandberg, of course, left Chicago for the Phillies organization, spent two years managing their Triple-A team and is now the third base coach/heir apparent to Charlie Manual. It’s not often you see a Hall of Famer put in the kind of years to work his way up the coaching/managing ladder the way Sandberg has done, but his diplomacy here is probably evidence of a character that is well-suited to the often difficult demands of a big league manager.