Mr. Cub passes away at 83

Unless you have been living underneath a rock the past 24 hours, you must have heard or read that Earnie Banks has passed away at the age of 83 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Earnie Banks carried the nickname Mr. Cub, for he spent all of his career with the Cubs. Not a rare thing in his days because you could only change clubs when you were traded. Otherwise you stayed with the club that signed you for the rest of your career. Free agency wasn’t “invented” until December 1975.

Banks was born as Ernest Banks on January 31, 1931 in Dallas Texas. He started his professional career in organized baseball in 1950 with the Kansas Ciy Monarchs of the Negro Leagues. After two years in the military he started his MLB career in  September 1953. He started as a shortstop with the Cubs but was moved to left field before ending up at first base.

From 1967 through 1971 he was player coach for the the North siders. I never realized that he was also responsible for the demise of the Cubs in the 1969 season. On August 19 the Cubs had a 9.5 game lead over the third place Mets. The Cubs could not hold this lead and  were taken over by the Miracle Mets who won the NL pennant and eventually the World Series. After the 1971 season he hung up his spikes and joined the Cubs’ coaching staff. During his career and after his career he was very active in the Chicago community, and founded a charitable organization.

In his first year of eligibility (1977), he was voted into the Hall of Fame. It took the Cubs another five years to retire his number (14) in 1982. He was the first Cub to have his number retired. Later five others followed (Ron Santo, Ryne Sandberg, Billy Williams, Ferguson Jenkins and Greg Maddux).

Banks entered the history books as the first black player in Cubs’ history. He stands as the franchise’s all-time leader in games and extra-base hits and as the runner-up — to Sammy Sosa — in home runs. Forty-four years after his retirement, Banks holds franchise records for hits, intentional walks and sacrifice flies and in RBIs since 1900. He ended his Hall of Fame career with a liftetime .274 batting average, with 2,583 hits, 1,636 RBI and 512 homeruns.  He was chosen to the National League All Star team 14 times (1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 (2x), 1960 (2x), 1961, 1962 (2x), 1965, 1967 and 1969). From 1959 through 1962 there were two All Star Games played annually; one in an American League Stadium and one in a National League Stadium. This reason for this was an attempt to boost the players’ pension fund.

Imagine what he would have done if he hadn’t chosen to play baseball. His legend tells that he had to be bribed by his father to play catch. He was know for the following phrase:”It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame … so let’s play two!”

As a Dutch guy, I never had the opportunity to meet him, but I heard and read that those who did meet him all said that he was a class act. Basesball loses another legend in him.