Today on the blog, we celebrate the great Ernie Banks and his time as a Negro League player before he took the Majors by storm, added to my 1972 sub-set featuring stars who had their start in the Negro Baseball Leagues:
Banks, whose father Eddie also played
in the Negro leagues right after World War I, began his professional
baseball career as a member of the Kansas City Monarchs in 1950, still a
teenager.
Military service interrupted his playing time in
1951 and 1952 before he rejoined the team in 1953, but only for a little
while, as he would be playing with the Chicago Cubs by September of
that year, where he would stay until 1971, becoming "Mr. Cub", becoming a
BASEBALL fan-favorite until his death in 2015.
I can't find any statistics for Banks' time in the NBL, but his time in MLB is certainly well-documented!
The most beloved baseball player in the North Side of Chicago,
Banks was a two-time Most Valuable Player (1958 and 1959), with 500+ home runs, 2500+
hits, 11-time all-star and all-around great guy.
Oh, I may as well throw in the 1300+ runs scored, 1600+ runs batted
in, 400+ doubles and 90 triples he chipped in as well, setting him on a
straight path to the Baseball Hall of Fame with his 1977 induction, a
no-brainer in anyone's book!
"Mr. Cub", wish there were more like him!
Banks, along with
others like Buck O'Neill and Yogi Berra, were truly treasures of the
sport and of life in general, who were lovable by all, and should be
cherished forever.