A Sandberg error made at second base

Ryne Sandberg is positioned to be excluded from baseball's All-Century team.

The retired Cubs second baseman isn't even on the ballot todetermine the top 25 players. A panel of experts left him off invoting that ends Sept. 15. The panel will add five players tocorrect oversights before the team is announced at the first game ofthe World Series on Oct. 23.

But it won't add players not on the ballot.

"I did not vote for Sandberg," said Ken Shouler, a senior editorat Total Sports, member of the All-Century panel and whose book, TheReal 100 Best Ballplayers of All Time . . . And Why!, was used todetermine the list. "I think it came down to the wire with Sandberg,as it did with a few other players.

"Three books form the basis for the list: The Sporting News book(Baseball's 100 Greatest Players), Total Baseball and my book(available at (800) 997-2945 for $22.95). There are 127 differentplayers across those books. About 90 of my guys from the book are onthe All-Century team.

"Sandberg, if he had played those two years he took off, wouldhave made this list. He was a dominant player but maybe not dominantfor long enough."

If the top 110 players had been included, Shouler thinks thefollowing would have landed on the ballot: Dave Winfield, Wade Boggs,Ferguson Jenkins, Gaylord Perry, Sandberg, Kirby Puckett, AndreDawson, Hoyt Wilhelm, Frank Thomas and Jim Rice.

"The two players I'm most suspicious not being on: Winfield andBoggs. Boggs has the highest batting average ever at (third base):.328. He had four years in which he had 200 hits and 100 walks.Only Lou Gehrig did it more (seven times). Winfield has 465 homeruns, the most of anyone not on the list.

"I think the panelists got it right most of the time."