ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

He was a St. Louis rival, but never an enemy. He would kill the Cardinals, yet there wasn’t ill will from Cardinals fans. He was classy. He was classic. And he was just always there — for years and years and years, Cards-Cubs meant Ryne Sandberg at second as much as it meant Ozzie Smith at short.

The great Sandberg is now gone. The Hall of Fame second baseman died Monday, the Cubs announced, from metastatic prostate cancer. “Ryno� was only 65.

“Sandberg was a fantastic competitor,� former Cardinals pitcher Ricky Horton said Monday. “His game in 1984 is one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen.�

Indeed, Ryno’s resplendent résumé featured many accomplishments against the Cardinals — including a particular afternoon forever remembered as “The Sandberg Game.� Pretty impressive, especially considering one of the Cardinals, Willie McGee, hit for the cycle.

On June 23, 1984 — a season Chicago made the postseason — Sandberg tied the game in the bottom of the ninth with a homer off Bruce Sutter.

But in the bottom of the 10th, the visitors in red led 11-9.

There were two outs.

Bobby Dernier walked. Sandberg came to the plate and ... homered again to tie the game — and again against Sutter.

The Cubs won it in the 11th.

Bob Ramsey, the longtime St. Louis broadcaster, said on X on Monday night: “I was at the Sandberg game. A game so good that even though my team lost, you had to respect the greatness.�

Sandberg finished 5 for 6 with seven RBIs.

That season, he’d win the MVP. And make one of his 10 All-Star Games. And win one of his nine Gold Gloves.

“He was a five-tool player who excelled in every facet of the game,� MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.

Sandberg first joined the Cubs two years prior in 1982, a big year around these parts. And he couldn’t have begun his Cubs career worse than he did. In his first six games, he went 0 for 19.

But on April 13, 1982, the Cardinals arrived at Wrigley — and Sandberg got his first Cubs hit (a single off Joaquín Andujar).

Sandberg at Wrigley against the Cards. That mix was more potent that anything served at Wrigleyville watering holes. I mean, check this out: Sandberg played 108 career games against St. Louis at Wrigley Field and hit .310 with a bonkers .930 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). This included 22 homers and 63 RBIs in the 422 at-bats.

For his career, his OPS was .795. But his career OPS against the Cardinals, including all the at-bats at cavernous Busch II, was .822.

Sandberg’s last season was 1997. So yeah, for basically 15 years, he was immersed in baseball’s greatest rivalry. And so it was fitting that the schedule had Chicago face St. Louis for the final game of his Hall of Fame career.

Sept. 28, 1997. The season finale. Before the game at Busch Stadium II, the Cardinals and their red-clad fans honored Sandberg with a plaque and a standing ovation. They stood again when he batted and again when he was replaced in the field in the third inning — and they kept standing and until he popped back out of the dugout.

Ryne Sandberg. For baby boomers and Generation X alike, he was a bona fide, big league star — a part of sports culture. And because Chicago’s WGN aired on TVs in much of the country, Sandberg was the best ballplayer some baseball fans got to watch routinely.

Sandberg had retired by the time I became a sportswriter. But I crossed paths with him once. It was Oct. 30, 2016. I was in the Wrigley press box for Game 5 of the World Series. The Cubs won, 3-2. Chicago still had hope. The Cubs just needed to win Games 6 and 7 in Cleveland.

As I walked past one of the announcer’s booths, there was Ryno.

He was recording the postgame celebration on his phone.

And then, suddenly, he pumped his left fist in the air.