Cindy Sandberg has heard the rumors, read the innuendos and winced at the gossip.
The recent ex-wife of retired Cubs star Ryne Sandberg says she wants to set the record straight.
Sandberg has written a book discussing, to a degree, his reasons for leaving the game that was paying him $7 million a year and he has touched on the breakup of his marriage.
But no one has approached Cindy to ask her about the damaging published statements and whispers about her private life.
“Actually, you are the first person to ask me,” she said Wednesday from her home in suburban Phoenix. “I find the rumors amusing. These people don’t know me, don’t know what I am doing and never have.”
For starters, Cindy addressed published and broadcast reports about her and two of her former husband’s teammates.
“It was just friends,” she said of those relationships with the players and their wives. “. . . . At that point I would be considered the veteran wife on the team.”
The Sandberg’s divorce became official July 5. They live in separate houses down the street from each other.
Cindy and Ryne have joint custody of their children, Justin (11) and Lindsey (12). Cindy is most concerned about the effect the reports about her might have on her children.
“I showed my kids the article that was written in the Tribune Magazine,” she said. “I showed it to my daughter and she started reading it. Then she just put it away.”
Cindy says she wishes Ryne and his fiance, whom he is expected to marry next month, the best in the future.
Cindy said she and Ryne divorced as amicably as possible under the circumstances and she will always cherish the good times in their 16-year marriage.
“Especially the 1984 season. But right now, Ryne and I are statistics.”
Not the first time: Cindy also revealed Wednesday that she first filed for divorce in December 1993. The couple reconciled between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, but she filed again right after Sandberg announced his retirement in June of ’94.
“I have a very strong sense of family and I like families to be together,” she said. “It is very hard not being able to have my children with me every day. Now that we are not together, the kids go back and forth.”
Asked if their failed marriage was the determining factor in her husband’s retirement, Cindy said: “Ryne retired because he was ready to retire. Ryne did what Ryne wanted to do. And I stood behind his decision.”
Can we talk?: Bears negotiator Ted Phillips hopes for a major breakthrough in contract talks with the agent of top draft pick Rashaan Salaam on Thursday with perhaps a three-year proposal. The Bears say they have offered Salaam more than two of the running backs drafted ahead of him–James Stewart (Jacksonville) and Napoleon Kaufman (Raiders).
“I think it is accurate to say that he has been offered more than Stewart. But I think that Kaufmann is really a matter of how you view the contract. That is sort of a matter of conjecture,” said Salaam’s agent, Marvin Demoff.
A real classic: Where else can you see teams such as the “Incredible Bulks” and “Forest Dunk” besides the seventh annual Shoot-the-Bull 3-on-3 Classic?
More than 2,000 street basketball teams from around the country are expected to compete this Saturday and Sunday in Grant Park. The showdown will be conducted on 200 courts lining Columbus Drive from Monroe Street to Lake Shore Drive.
Local doings: The Lake Shore Athletic Club will host an international professional squash tournament next week (Aug. 1-5). An amateur tournament also will be held next Thursday through Sunday. . . . The finals of the United States Polo Association Governor’s Cup Polo tournament will be played this Sunday at the Oak Brook Polo Grounds, 31st Street and York Road, in Oak Brook. . . . Former University of Illinois and Simeon High School basketball star Deon Thomas is Chet Coppock’s guest on “The Back Table” Thursday (4 p.m.), Friday (6 p.m.) and Saturday (10 a.m.) on SportsChannel.
