Philadelphia Phillies promote Ryne Sandberg to Major League staff

Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel named Ryne Sandberg the organization's new third base coach Thursday, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Ryan Lawrence is reporting. Sandberg's promotion from Triple-A, where he was serving as the manager of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, comes less than 24 hours after the organization fired three coaches: first base coach Sam Perlozzo, bench coach Pete Mackanin and hitting coach Greg Gross.

Sandberg, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame (Class of 2005), was the manager of the IronPigs for two seasons. Before that he was a minor-league manager in the Chicago Cubs organization. He left there after the Cubs' decided to not hire him as their manager in the 2010-11 offseason. Last season, Sandberg was a candidate to manager the St. Louis Cardinals.

As a player, Sandberg began his career in the Phillies organization as he made his debut at shortstop in 1981. However, Sandberg will also be remembered as a Cub, a franchise he spent 15 seasons with.