A Tribute to Ryne Sandberg and a Recap of our 7/19 Visit to FCI Pekin

This update is coming out a little later than I would have liked.  

I began writing this post up last week and I had decided to start over and completely redo it.  

Last Monday (July 28th, 2025) Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame second baseman, Ryne Sandberg passed away at the age of 65.  I have written about my love for 80's and 90's baseball before, but Ryne Sandberg was my favorite player from my favorite team from that generation.  The news of his passing hit much harder than I thought it would.  I only had the opportunity to meet him one time in a rushed autograph line but the news of his passing hit like the passing of a family member.  

I was ten years old in 1989 and that was the year that I really fell in love with the game.  Andre Dawson was hitting home runs onto Waveland Ave, Greg Maddux won 19 games, Mark Grace was the best hitter in the world for five games against the Giants in October, and Mitch Williams routinely walked the bases load only to strike out the side.  The '89 boys of Zimmer was the group that helped me fall in love with the game, Wrigley Field, and the Cubs.  Whenever I have baseball dreams, it still looks like the grainy WGN day baseball Cubs games.  Sandberg was the soft spoken best player on the team.  He hit 30 home runs that year and I still can recall very clearly Harry Caray's home run call and how excited he was to see a Sandberg home run or a "Dunston to Sandberg to Grace" double play.  

I got to enjoy the playoff run, the 40 Homer season, and Hall of Fame defense which included the 123 game errorless streak.  I watched with unbelief as he retired from the game in 1994 but was ecstatic when he announced he was attempting a comeback in 1996 (Having Ryne Sandberg and Michael Jordan both do that in a short period of time takes a lot out of a kid, I'm just saying...)

When Kelly and I found out that we were expecting in 2002 we settled on the name Ryne only to see lots of other kids named Ryne pop up around the area.  

I regret not spending the money to fly to Cooperstown to see him inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005 but I got to see him make yet another attempt to come back to the game.  With aspirations to manage in the major leagues, he was assigned to manage my hometown Peoria Chiefs for two years.  While he never got to manage the Cubs, he eventually got his chance to manage in Philadelphia.  After leaving Philadelphia, he came back to the Cubs in an instructor/ambassador role just in time to see the Cubs win a World Series in 2016.  

With all of the accolades and achievements, the biggest praise I ever heard about him came from my dad who complemented him for being a good role model for his son.  Sandberg was a soft spoken man who played the game the right way, was a great teammate, and was a good family man.  While my dad is the best role model I've ever had, Sandberg was my sports hero.  

I'm always very reluctant to say that God has called me to anything.  I believe I could serve in the Saints Prison Ministry and 100% be in God's Will and I believe I could serve as a missionary in Europe, or a Sunday School teacher at my church and be 100% in God's Will.  But, I do believe God put baseball in my path and has graciously allowed me to use the game to tell others about Him.  

God worked sovereignly for me to be an 80's and 90's kid, who had the local sandlot in my backyard growing up, and summers full of Cubs baseball at 1:20 PM in the afternoons.  I'm not sure where Sandberg stood with the Lord.  I really hope that he came to know Jesus as Savior during his life.  I'm thankful that God allowed baseball to be something I got to enjoy and I'm thankful for the part that Sandberg played in that and the role that he may have played in the grand scheme of me being part of the Saints Prison Ministry.  

Our Saints team met up on 7/19 to go to FCI Pekin.  This was an odd visit because we didn't have to meet up until around 11 am for a half day visit.  We met up in the lobby of Excel Foundry and Machine which is where I work and is right down the road from the prison.  It was raining pretty hard and we all had serious doubts about whether or not we would play softball.  We were pretty convinced the game of the day would be wiffleball in the prison gym.  We prayed as a team and made the short drive up the road to FCI Pekin.  Once we got to the prison the rain had stopped, but it was still pretty wet.  When we arrived one of our team captains, Brent Gerber, and I walked in first to discuss what the plan for the day would be.  The officer in charge told us that they were still expecting to play softball so we got our gear and made our way out to the field.  The field actually absorbed the rain reasonably well and with the exception of a few slip and slide moments, we played a full game with no injuries!  We played decently but had trouble getting some consistent hits.  The FCI Pekin crowd was also into the game and the yard had a few hundred men out and about watching the game and doing other activities like basketball, walking, and handball.  

Unfortunately, the Pekin team outhit us and we took a 9-7 loss to a good team.  

After the first game, Hunter Stewart shared his testimony of how he came to know the Lord.  Hunter is one of our younger guys, and I appreciate his enthusiasm and love for the ministry.  After Hunter shared his testimony, Kris Mettelmann shared the Gospel with a large crowd watching on.  

I had the opportunity to walk out a little ways, hand out literature, and have some conversations with some guys in the yard.  One of the guys that I ran into saw us play our very first game in 2012 and has seen us play at least 6-7 times over the years.  He is an exceptional player who had a couple of home runs during the game.  I talked to him about where he stood with the Lord.  He was very hesitant to talk about that but did talk about how his mom had been encouraging him to get things right with Jesus.  I had the opportunity to share the Gospel with him and encourage him to stop putting off repenting and following the Lord.  I told him that I couldn't think of that many other guys who have seen us as much as he has and that we only have so much time to repent and follow Jesus.  Please pray for this man and pray that God works in his heart and that he repents and follows Christ.  Please pray that God brings other groups after us that will faithfully share the Gospel with this man and the other men in the prison in Pekin.  This was something that made me realize how much prayer we need to put into our visits.  Over the 6-7 times he has seen us play, he has heard some solid Gospel presentations, received God's Word, and received our birthday cards but is still not following Jesus.  Only God can change his heart.  Once again, please pray that God works in his heart so that he realizes he needs to be saved from his sins.  

After our ministry time, we started our second game.  We played much better in that one and pulled out a win.  After our game, we huddled up on the pitcher's mound and gave out some MVP awards and recognized our umpires.  After that, I had an opportunity to challenge the men one last time with the Gospel and pray with them.  

Overall on the day, we handed out 198 Gospels of John and saw 7 men make professions of faith.  

Our next outing is this coming Saturday as we visit Centralia CC and Vandalia CC.  This is one of our longest trips of the year with a really early start time.  Please pray for our team as we prepare to share the Gospel in both of those prisons.  

Thank you again for all of the support so far this summer!