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Motivation Quote by Ryne Sandberg

"There was Shawon Dunston and Mark Grace, and together we were a double play combination for ten years"

About this Quote

It lands like a quiet flex, the kind athletes only earn after the noise has died down. Ryne Sandberg isn’t selling a single highlight; he’s bottling a decade of muscle memory and mutual trust into one clean sentence. The name-checking matters: Shawon Dunston and Mark Grace aren’t ornamental. They’re proof. Sandberg frames himself not as a lone star but as the hinge between two other guys who showed up every day, took the feed, made the turn, stretched at first. In baseball, that’s a love language.

The specific intent is legacy-building, but not the chest-thumping kind. “Together” does the heavy lifting. A double play is the sport’s most satisfying act of collaboration: one out becomes two through timing, proximity, and faith that the other person will be exactly where the play demands. Sandberg is pointing to something bigger than talent: continuity. Ten years is an eternity in roster churn terms, and he knows it. He’s not saying “we were great.” He’s saying “we lasted,” which implies professionalism, durability, and a shared standard.

The subtext is also gently corrective to how fans remember teams: through bats, not gloves. The Cubs of that era weren’t defined by championships, so Sandberg leans into what can’t be taken away - competence, chemistry, a daily craft performed in plain sight. It’s an athlete’s version of romance, minus the sentimentality: two men on either side, one in the middle, turning routine into identity.

Quote Details

TopicTeamwork
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Sandberg, Ryne. (2026, January 15). There was Shawon Dunston and Mark Grace, and together we were a double play combination for ten years. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-was-shawon-dunston-and-mark-grace-and-154774/

Chicago Style
Sandberg, Ryne. "There was Shawon Dunston and Mark Grace, and together we were a double play combination for ten years." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-was-shawon-dunston-and-mark-grace-and-154774/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There was Shawon Dunston and Mark Grace, and together we were a double play combination for ten years." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-was-shawon-dunston-and-mark-grace-and-154774/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.

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There was Shawon Dunston and Mark Grace and we were a double play
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About the Author

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Ryne Sandberg (born September 18, 1959) is a Athlete from USA.

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