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I am now the trustee of Samuel Zawada’s baseball cards. This was not my plan, nor did I realize that they were still around.

One of my visits to Bob and Ann’s house in April included this surprise. Bob excused himself to visit the “inner sanctum” (some people would call this a shed full of Volkswagen parts), from whence he produced two dusty old boxes full of cards.

Some of them had been meticulously organized by Sam. He’d created boxes for the American League and National League, which he’d labeled in his best handwriting and plastered with Topps stickers. Team names such as the Montreal Expos were handwritten in his more casual childhood style on colored index cards.

Some cards had “All Star” handwritten in the bottom front white margin; others had an ichthus symbol, signifying that the player was a known Christian. These seemed to be his oldest and exhibited a youthful commitment to the sport and the hobby.

In later years, Sam graduated to binders and pages of nine cards each. Again, he organized them by team and by sport into three binders. At this stage, he had expanded to collecting basketball and football cards as well.

At some point though, the collecting continued, but the organization gave way. Cards were stacked into shoeboxes — some in protective sleeves, most not. But there was one special box, no longer appearing organized, though it clearly once was. This box had held his treasures.

His favorite cards were those of the Bears’ young running back Rashaan Salaam and the Cubbies legend, Ryne Sandberg. Sam had stacks of Sandbergs from each year of his career, including one rookie card and one autographed card in thick acrylic cases. I didn’t realize he had the autographed card, and I began to wonder if he was at the Spring Training game where I got Ryno and Sammy Sosa to sign my ball.

Over the summer, I decided to move the Sandberg collection from the jumbled box into a cool old ’90s binder he had filled with common cards, adorned with Cubs and White Sox stickers on the front. In honor of the organizational style of his younger years, I combined my childhood Sandberg cards with his and placed them in order by year and card brand — Bowman, Donruss, Flair, Fleer, Leaf, Pinnacle, Score, Stadium Club, Studio, Topps, Upper Deck. I sorted out the doubles.

What to do with the doubles? Well, I decided that I’d send a few Ryno’s way. I’d heard that he is responsive to fan mail and autograph requests, so I decided to send some of Sam’s cards and write him a note about Sam being his fan and our friendship quest — to see if I could get a response. I thanked him for signing for both of us when we were kids.

The last I’d heard, he was cancer-free or maybe resuming a little treatment, and I hoped the note and its best wishes would find him well. I had no idea how near we were to the end of his life, which began on 9/18/59 — meaning that we share a birthday. (I’ve been aware of this since I was a kid.) It ended far too early, in his 65th year, on July 28, 2025 — exactly a month before our journey to explore friendship will begin.

It feels very important to me, the whole scenario. I’m so grateful that Bob decided to entrust me with the cards, and for the subtle invitation to remember the greatness of Ryne Sandberg through all the images and scenes on those little rectangles of cardboard.

I now have a treasure book, full of my best friend’s cards of his favorite player mingled with the ones I kept. I also had the prompt and opportunity to express our gratitude to Ryno in my little note — and be on the front end of the chorus of gratitude now pouring out to him for being not only a great ballplayer, but the kind of player a kid could be proud to emulate in their life on and off the field.

I find it quite fitting that the patch the Cubs will wear to pay tribute to the great Ryne Sandberg bears his signature — for he gave it, and his attention, to so many adoring fans. I’m so glad that Sam and I both got to get a real one when we were young!

(Sidenote: I am making a sticker of the uniform patch for the VW and the trip. If you’re interested in one reply back to this article. I’ll come up with a recommended donation and all proceeds will go toward feeding the guys as we drive to-and-from Wrigley.)

www.andylittleton.com

Ryno Cards and Memories was originally published in 2,000 Miles to Wrigley on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.