Ernie Banks Debuts 63 Years Ago Today!
As Cub fans celebrate the team clinching the Central Division title, it’s a nice coincidence to discover that today, September 17, is the 63rd anniversary of a skinny shortstop from the Negro Leagues named Banks making his Cub and Wrigley Field debut. Ernie thus became the first black player to appear in a game for the Cubs.
In the featured photo above, we see Ernie in his rookie year, 1953. It’s a classic from the Charles Conlon collection.
The game was played in front of a spare, late-September Wrigley Field crowd of only 2, 793 fans. Phil Cavarretta’s Cubs were well out of the National League race and were on their way to a 65-89, customary seventh-place finish. The Phillies were about to complete a rare above-.500 year, finishing third at 83-71, behind the second-place Braves and the pennant-winning Dodgers. The Phillies won the game, 16-4 with winner Curt Simmons throwing a complete game. Long-time Cub fans like myself will remember reliever Don Elston, who took the loss for the Cubs.
Ernie, the former Negro League Kansas City Monarch star, committed an error and went 0-3 with a walk. As we know, Ernie went on to hit 512 home runs and won the MVP award twice during his 19-year Hall of Fame career.
Also below, here’s a tribute I wrote to Ernie at the time of his passing last year.
Tribute To Ernie Banks (January 31, 1931- January 23, 2015)
As a long-time Cub fan (since 1955), I always knew the day would eventually come when I would wake up and have to hear the sad news that Ernie Banks had passed away. That day finally came today.
It’s hard to put to words the impact Ernie Banks had on the life of a little five-year-old kid growing up on the north side of Chicago back in the 1950’s 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!” Even as a little kid, I could see he was good, better than anybody else on the Cubs. Not only did he play shortstop – and play it well – he hit home runs…lots of them! What kid doesn’t like to see home runs?? That was unheard of for a shortstop! Why, you’d have to go all the way back to Honus Wagner, according to my grandfather….
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 from 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 50’s, raspy-voiced Pat Piper, 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 to see Ernie play. Those Cub teams in the 50’s 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 how Ernie stood 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 back in the 1970’s shortly after he had retired. The reason I remember it so vividly is that I felt like I had put my hand in a vise! Yes…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, 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 the Martin Luther King 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 60 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 much more important than 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 enrich
-Gary Livacari
Photo Credits: All from Google search
Information: from Baseball-Refrence.com, boxscore of September 17, 1953.
