Chicago Cubs icon Ernie Banks dead at 83
'Mr. Cub' — a Hall of Famer — was a 14-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove Award winner.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Friday, January 23, 2015, 10:49 PM
Updated: Saturday, January 24, 2015, 1:38 AM
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CHARLES REX ARBOGAST/APIn 2008, Cubs Hall of Fame baseball player Ernie Banks poses in front of his newly unveiled statue in front of Wrigley Field.
Chicago Cubs icon Ernie Banks, baseball’s eternal “Mr. Sunshine” who coined the phrase “Let’s play two!” has died.
Banks, author of 512 homers, 22nd on the all-time list, died Friday night, according to a family attorney. He was 83, and the cause of death was not immediately known, although according to a source he had suffered a fall at home a couple of months ago and was in deteriorating health ever since.
“Mr. Cub” was unquestionably the greatest of all Cubs players, having played his entire career with them, amassing 2,583 hits, 1,636 RBI along with a .274 career average and back-to-back Most Valuable Player awards in 1958 and ’59 as a durable and rare power-hitting shortstop.
Along with second baseman Gene Baker, Banks broke the Cubs’ color line in 1953 after being signed out of the Negro Leagues for $20,000 from the Kansas City Monarchs. In a 2013 interview, Banks revealed that he really didn’t want to go to the big leagues.
“I wanted to stay with the Monarchs,” he said, “because I had been raised in Dallas in a time of segregation. This was a whole different world for me. I had no fear — I learned that from the Bible — but I had lived in a black community, went to an all-black school, played sports at a black YMCA, played baseball for a black team with a black manager and that was all I’d ever known.”
APErnie Banks spends his entire MLB career with the Cubs.
Banks played for the Monarchs from 1950-53 under legendary Negro Leagues manager Buck O’Neil and was an instant success in the majors, playing all 154 games in his first two full seasons, 1954 and ’55.
In ’54, he hit .275 with 19 homers and 79 RBI and followed that up by hitting .295 with 44 homers and 117 RBI in ’55.
WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGESPresident Barack Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Hall of Famer Ernie Banks.
From Aug. 26, 1956 through June 23, 1961, Banks played in 717 consecutive games, which, at the time, was the third-longest streak in baseball history. (it ranks 15th today). Unfortunately, the Cubs teams he played on were mostly losers, and his biggest regret was that he never came close to going to a World Series.
The closest he came to doing so was in 1969, when the Cubs blew a huge lead to the “Miracle Mets” down the stretch and Banks was nearing the end of his career. But rival manager Jimmy Dykes said years earlier: “Without Banks, the Cubs would finish in Albuquerque.”
In both 1958 and ’59, the Cubs finished fifth, with losing records, even though Banks had his greatest seasons, winning the MVP award both years.
In ’58 he hit .313 and led the league in slugging (.614), homers (47) and RBI (129), while in ’59 he hit .304 with 45 homers, 97 runs and a league-leading 143 RBI.
TANNEN MAURY/EPAIn 2014, Derek Jeter (l.) and Ernie Banks pose together following an interview.
In 1961, however, the Cubs determined that Banks, who was experiencing knee problems, had outgrown the shortstop position, prompting his move to first base. Then, in 1966, Leo Durocher took over as Cubs manager and immediately decided that Banks was more a liability than an asset.
“Unfortunately, his time wasn’t my time. He couldn’t run. He couldn’t field and in the end he couldn’t even hit,” Durocher wrote in his 1975 memoir, “Nice Guys Finish Last.”
THE TOPPS COMPANY INC./APReplica of a 1958 Ernie Banks baseball card.
He wasn’t wrong, but by then Banks was beloved at Wrigley Field, and Cubs fans didn’t want to hear it.
A 14-time All-Star, Banks retired after the 1971 season and soon thereafter was voted “the greatest Cub of all time.”
In 1977 he was voted into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. In 1982, the Cubs retired his No. 14 — the first time in the history of the franchise they had done that, and in 2008 they erected a statue of him outside Wrigley Field.
Banks will be forever remembered for his love and undying fervor for playing the game. In an interview with the Houston Chronicle in 1969, he explained the origin of his famous “Let’s play two!” quote.
“It was 105 degrees in Chicago and that’s a time when everybody gets tired. I came into the clubhouse and everybody was sitting around and I said: ‘Beautiful day, let’s play two’ and everybody looked at me like I was crazy.”
“Words cannot express how important Ernie Banks will always be to the Chicago Cubs, the city of Chicago and Major League Baseball,” Cubs owner Tom Ricketts said in a statement Friday night. “He was one of the greatest players of all time. He was a pioneer in the major leagues and more importantly he was the warmest, most sincere person I have ever known.”
