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Phillies great Bowa — now managing in Futures Game — reflects on deal to Cubs that included Sandberg, setting stage for 1984 team

PHILADELPHIA – With Larry Bowa there’s always a story and he didn’t disappoint on Sunday prior to the annual Future’s Game during All-Star weekend, this year at Citizens Bank Park. Bowa managed the American League’s 6-1 winners and Shane Victorino the National League. The two represented the 1980 and 2008 Phillies teams, the only ones in Philadelphia history to win the World Series. Bowa played his entire 16-year career as a shortstop in the NL, the first 12 with the Philles and virtually the last four with the Cubs. White Sox Double-A minor leaguer Caleb Bonemer started at third base for Bowa and went 0-for-2. “When you have good players, you win,” said Bowa, who should know. He managed the Phillies and Padres for parts of six seasons ending in 2004 and amassed a 418-435 record. Sunday’s win was his first as a manager since then. The story, conveyed in a one-on-one conversation with the Sun-Times, was about how Bowa engineered his own trade from the Phillies to the Cubs in late 1982, bringing along a little known second baseman named Ryne Sandberg with him. Bowa, now a spry 80, still hits infield fungoes and tosses some batting practice. He seemingly goes back to Connie Mack, he was told, drawing a loud reaction from Victorino. “He means Connie Mack Stadium,” said Bowa, about a ballpark that closed in 1970 to make way for the Vet. The Bowa-Sandberg trade, which sent second baseman Ivan DeJesus to Philadelphia on Jan. 27, 1982, might have been the most significant in Cubs history. “I always said that joke. Every time I saw Ryno I told him, ‘Don’t forget, you were the throw-in in that trade,’” Bowa said. “He laughed all the time.” Bowa wasn’t kidding. “That’s the way it came down,” Bowa said. By 1984, the two were the keystone of a Cubs team that went to the playoffs for the first time since 1945, but lost to the Padres in the last of the five-game NL Championship Series after taking a 2-0 lead at Wrigley Field. That season, Sandberg was the NL MVP, and he ultimately went on to election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005. In 2025, Sandberg, then only 65, passed away succumbing to advanced prostate cancer. Bowa hung with him his entire life and attended the emotional funeral on Aug. 22, 2025, at Chicago’s Old St. Patrick’s Catholic Church. “I talked to him two weeks before he died and he said he played nine holes of golf,” Bowa recalled. "He never quit." Sandberg had a life well-lived and a 16-year baseball career well-played. “But sitting here talking to you right now I’d have never said he was going to be a Hall of Famer,” Bowa said. “He was a right-handed hitter who hit base hits to right field. Great athlete. He could run, throw, catch the ball. And the Phillies just threw him in.” The Phillies won the World Series in 1980 in six games over the Royals with one of the greatest teams assembled in modern history managed by Dallas Green. Aside from Bowa, it included Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose, Hall of Famers, save for Rose, who’s the all-time leader with 4,256 hits, but has been excluded because he was suspended for betting on baseball as manager of the Reds. That Phillies club came apart pretty quickly. They lost in the expanded playoffs after the 1981 player’s strike cost 713 games during the middle of that season. At the time the key franchises quickly changed ownership hands. The Tribune Co. bought the Cubs from Phil Wrigley and Ruly Carpenter sold the Phillies to a group headed by Bill Giles. Green bolted the Phillies to take over as general manager of the Cubs. Meanwhile, Sandberg, who’d been picked by the Phillies in the 20th round of the 1978 First-Year Player Draft, was meandering his way up through the Phillies system. He played 13 games for the Phils in 1981 and had one hit. Bowa, then 35, wanted to finish his career with the Phillies and said he thought he had a three-year deal with Carpenter, but it was never put on paper. Giles wouldn’t honor it, Bowa said. “I went in to see him and he said, ‘Bow, I’ve been thinking, we’re not going to give you three years, we’re going to give one year,’” Bowa recalled. “I said, ‘Wait a minute Bill, I’d already shaken hands with Ruly, so you better go about trading me. I’m not playing here for one year.’” Bowa was a five and 10-year player – 10 years in the Majors and five years with same team – and had right of refusal on any trade. “Dallas called me and asked if I’d come to Chicago,” Bowa said. "I agreed. He offered me a four-year deal, came up with the money (a total of $2 million) and blew me out of the water.” And then came the clincher. “Who else in your opinion would you bring over here?” Green asked Bowa. “Well, that Sandberg is pretty impressive, man,” Bowa responded. The deal took five weeks to consummate as Green held firm for Sandberg. And that’s the story about how he became a Cub, and Bowa's part in it. The rest is history.

<p>PHILADELPHIA – With Larry Bowa there’s always a story and he didn’t disappoint on Sunday prior to the annual Future’s Game during All-Star weekend, this year at Citizens Bank Park.</p><p>Bowa managed the American League’s 6-1 winners and Shane Victorino the National League. The two represented the 1980 and 2008 Phillies teams, the only ones in Philadelphia history to win the World Series.</p><p>Bowa played his entire 16-year career as a shortstop in the NL, the first 12 with the Philles and virtually the last four with the Cubs.</p><p>White Sox Double-A minor leaguer Caleb Bonemer started at third base for Bowa and went 0-for-2.</p><p>“When you have good players, you win,” said Bowa, who should know. He managed the Phillies and Padres for parts of six seasons ending in 2004 and amassed a 418-435 record. Sunday’s win was his first as a manager since then.</p><p>The story, conveyed in a one-on-one conversation with the <i>Sun-Times</i>, was about how Bowa engineered his own trade from the Phillies to the Cubs in late 1982, bringing along a little known second baseman named Ryne Sandberg with him.</p><p>Bowa, now a spry 80, still hits infield fungoes and tosses some batting practice. He seemingly goes back to Connie Mack, he was told, drawing a loud reaction from Victorino.</p><p>“He means Connie Mack Stadium,” said Bowa, about a ballpark that closed in 1970 to make way for the Vet.</p><p>The Bowa-Sandberg trade, which sent second baseman Ivan DeJesus to Philadelphia on Jan. 27, 1982, might have been the most significant in Cubs history.</p><p>“I always said that joke. Every time I saw Ryno I told him, ‘Don’t forget, you were the throw-in in that trade,’” Bowa said. “He laughed all the time.”</p><p>Bowa wasn’t kidding.</p><p>“That’s the way it came down,” Bowa said.</p><p>By 1984, the two were the keystone of a Cubs team that went to the playoffs for the first time since 1945, but lost to the Padres in the last of the five-game NL Championship Series after taking a 2-0 lead at Wrigley Field.</p><p>That season, Sandberg was the NL MVP, and he ultimately went on to election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005. In 2025, Sandberg, then only 65, passed away succumbing to advanced prostate cancer.</p><p>Bowa hung with him his entire life and attended the emotional funeral on Aug. 22, 2025, at Chicago’s Old St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.</p><p>“I talked to him two weeks before he died and he said he played nine holes of golf,” Bowa recalled. "He never quit."</p><p>Sandberg had a life well-lived and a 16-year baseball career well-played.</p><p>“But sitting here talking to you right now I’d have never said he was going to be a Hall of Famer,” Bowa said. “He was a right-handed hitter who hit base hits to right field. Great athlete. He could run, throw, catch the ball. And the Phillies just threw him in.”</p><p>The Phillies won the World Series in 1980 in six games over the Royals with one of the greatest teams assembled in modern history managed by Dallas Green. Aside from Bowa, it included Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose, Hall of Famers, save for Rose, who’s the all-time leader with 4,256 hits, but has been excluded because he was suspended for betting on baseball as manager of the Reds.</p><p>That Phillies club came apart pretty quickly. They lost in the expanded playoffs after the 1981 player’s strike cost 713 games during the middle of that season.</p><p>At the time the key franchises quickly changed ownership hands. The Tribune Co. bought the Cubs from Phil Wrigley and Ruly Carpenter sold the Phillies to a group headed by Bill Giles. Green bolted the Phillies to take over as general manager of the Cubs.</p><p>Meanwhile, Sandberg, who’d been picked by the Phillies in the 20th round of the 1978 First-Year Player Draft, was meandering his way up through the Phillies system. He played 13 games for the Phils in 1981 and had one hit. Bowa, then 35, wanted to finish his career with the Phillies and said he thought he had a three-year deal with Carpenter, but it was never put on paper.</p><p>Giles wouldn’t honor it, Bowa said.</p><p>“I went in to see him and he said, ‘Bow, I’ve been thinking, we’re not going to give you three years, we’re going to give one year,’” Bowa recalled.</p><p>“I said, ‘Wait a minute Bill, I’d already shaken hands with Ruly, so you better go about trading me. I’m not playing here for one year.’”</p><p>Bowa was a five and 10-year player – 10 years in the Majors and five years with same team – and had right of refusal on any trade.</p><p>“Dallas called me and asked if I’d come to Chicago,” Bowa said. "I agreed. He offered me a four-year deal, came up with the money (a total of $2 million) and blew me out of the water.”</p><p>And then came the clincher.</p><p>“Who else in your opinion would you bring over here?” Green asked Bowa.</p><p>“Well, that Sandberg is pretty impressive, man,” Bowa responded.</p><p>The deal took five weeks to consummate as Green held firm for Sandberg.</p><p>And that’s the story about how he became a Cub, and Bowa's part in it. The rest is history.</p><p></p>

YouTube video by Richard Bacuna

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