Annual Tribute To Ernie Banks (January 31, 1931-January 23, 2015)

Gary Livacari

4 days ago

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Ernie Banks Photo Gallery

Ernie Banks Hall-of-Fame induction, August 1977
Hank Sauer with Ernie Banks and Monte Irvin
Yosh Kawano with Ernie Banks, Warren Hacker, Jim Davis, and Bob Rush, 1956
Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks
Ernie at home in front of some of his awards
Ernie Banks with his sons and parents, 1960
Fergie Jenkins with teammate, Ernie Banks
Chicago baseball icons; Ernie Banks and Minnie Minoso
Ernie Banks fifth from right and Buck O'Neill, far right
Ernie receives the Metal of Freedom, 2013
Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks
Chicago Cubs Ernie Banks and HOFer Frank Baker at the 1960 Hall of Fame game
Ernie Banks, 2528 games without ejection
Eddie Mathews (left) and Del Crandall (right), with Cubs star shortstop Ernie Banks
Cub players Ernie Banks, George Altman, and Billy Wiliams
Two great shortstops; Ernie and Derek Jeter
The powerful swing of Ernie Banks that produced 512 home runs
Three Cub Hall-of-Famers, Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Billy Williams
The wonderful Ernie Banks statue being returned to it's place.
Ernie Banks and Lou Brock
Manager Phil Cavaretta with Gene Baker and Ernie Banks
Nice picture of Ernie with Rachel Robinson
The powerful swing of Ernie Banks that produced 512 home runs
Ernie throws out first pitch at Wrigley Field
Ernie Banks with parents Eddie and Essie
Ernie Banks with manager Stan hack
A young Ernie Banks, in the early days of his career with the Cubs

My Annual Tribute To Ernie Banks

(January 31, 1931-January 23, 2015)

Today marks the ten-year anniversary of the death of the great Hall of Famer, Ernie Banks, who happens to be my favorite player from my youth. As is now my annual custom, I’d like to re-post my tribute to Ernie which I wrote at the time of his death. -GL

Ernie Banks, RIP

Our world has lost a bit of its sunshine…

It’s a sad, sad day on the north side of Chicago. Ernie Banks is gone…

As a long-time Cub fan (since 1955), I always knew I would eventually wake up to hear the sad news that Ernie Banks had passed away. That day finally came today.

It’s hard to put into words the impact Ernie Banks had on the life of a five-year-old kid growing up on the north side of Chicago back in the 1950s just starting out on a life-long love affair with baseball. One of my earliest – and fondest – recollections in life is sitting on my grandfather’s lap on lazy summer Sunday afternoons watching the Cubs play a double-header on the old “black and white” with Jack Brickhouse calling the game. I can still remember my grandfather saying, “That’s Ernie Banks, he’s real good…while you’d have to go all the way back to Honus Wagner…”

I fell in love with baseball back then, mostly because of that “wonderful old man,” as Brickhouse came to call him in later years. My story is no different from that of many of my friends and many other Cub fans from my generation. That’s why we’re Cub fans today. That’s the kind of impact Ernie Banks had on our lives. And for that, we’re forever grateful to him.

I can still hear the exuberant cheers that erupted from the stands whenever the old field announcer from the 50s, raspy-voiced Pat Pieper, announced Ernie’s name for the day’s game. Old-time Cub fans will know what I mean when I write:

“A-ten-chin’!…A-ten-chin’ please!… Have your pencils and scorecards ready, and I’ll give you the correct line-up for today’s game…”.

Those cheers for Ernie always dwarfed the cheers for any other Cub player. It was always worth watching a Cub game just to see Ernie play. Those Cub teams in the 50s were pretty miserable, so Brickhouse had little to get excited about, except for this young power-hitting shortstop, just up from the Kansas City Monarchs, whoever they were. I can still remember how excited Brickhouse got whenever Ernie hit one into the bleachers:

Back!…Back!…Back!…Hey Hey!! Atta’ boy, Ernie!

We all have fond memories of Ernie standing at the plate, bent slightly forward at the waist, bat held erect, and fingers wiggling nervously along the shaft of the bat. Ernie was known for his incredibly strong wrists. I remember shaking hands with Ernie once in the 1970s, shortly after he retired. The reason I remember it so vividly is because I felt like I had put my hand in a vise! Yes, I can attest that Ernie had strong hands and wrists!

Ernie personified everything that is good about this game we grew to love in our childhood: his sunny disposition, his love of the game, and the way he interacted with the fans. Everybody loved Ernie. Even White Sox fans had a grudging admiration for him. I don’t think I ever heard a Sox fan say a bad word about him. He was a living personification of Martin Luther King’s ideal of judging a man by the content of his character rather than the color of his skin. He lived this in the way he treated others – and the way others treated him.

That’s because Ernie Banks had a rare but wonderful God-given gift of being able to bring out the very best in everyone he met. What a wonderful legacy! Who among us would not be proud to have the same said about us when our days are over?

Little did I know that 65 years later, the love affair he inspired in a five-year-old kid would still be going strong. Ernie Banks was a great ball player for sure, but what is much more important is that he was an even greater human being. We’ve endured a great loss today and we’re all very sad to hear the news. No doubt a part of all of us goes with him. And yet our lives have been enriched because we have had Ernie Banks in our midst…

May he rest in peace.

Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: All from Google search

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