Goodbye Ernie Banks

I woke this morning to reports that Mr. Cub Ernie Banks died yesterday at 83.  Even though I’m a Braves guy now it felt like I’d lost a a friend.

It’s not like I ever met Mr. Cub personally but I grew up is a Cub household in south eastern Illinois so baseball season meant listening to the Cubs on the radio every day; yes children day baseball was once the norm not an oddity.  Listening to the Cubs was a lesson in life. They were awful most years and it seemed every trade they made was designed to help the other team.  Through it all however there was Ernie Banks.

Ernie Banks was THE Man

For Cub fans like my dad and I back when each league had just eight teams anyway.  When Banks came to the plate you could hear a change in the crowd, even Cub broadcasters who had to be among the worst radio voices ever sounded different.  When the Cubs played the Cardinals at night we had to listen to the the Cards broadcast on KMOX with Harry Caray, Jack Buck and later Joe Garagiola.

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No kiddies that’s not a mistake, Harry was the voice of the Cardinals in my youth and nothing made my dad happier than hearing Harry’s voice when the game turned against the Cards. Even if you didn’t know the score, when Ernie came to the plate in a game changing situation the apprehension in Harry’s voice told you the situation.

Banks earned the respect of the old enemy and bitter rival – make no mistake Cubs / Cards was once as intense as any rivalry you can name with his bat, his glove and his personality; but mostly his bat. From 1954 through 1968 the way Banks beat up the Cards was surpassed by only three pretty good players.

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It wasn’t just the Cardinals he terrorized, he had his way with the Braves of that era too posting a .284/.335/.545/.880 line including 64 homers, 38 doubles, 15 triples and 179 RBI. Only Willie Mays had better numbers against the Braves in a similar number of games.

The Braves were the rising power in the NL when Banks began playing. After finishing one game back of the Dodgers in 1956, the Braves rotation led by Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette and Bob Buhl and an offense powered by Mathews, Aaron and Joe Adcock carried the Braves to two World Series and one world championship in 1957 and 1958. They followed that with another second place finish in 1959. During that run Banks slashed .288/.350/.579/.929 with 25 homers and 62.4 RC in 88 games against the Braves.

He played short from 1954 through 1960 and at 6’1”, 180lbs really with apologies to Cal Ripken fans, Banks was the first big, power hitting shortstop. Retrospective WAR calculations show just how exception he was. In that seven season span he posted an rWAR of 49.7, the only other shortstops with an rWAR above 20 with at least 700 games played were the Braves Johnny Logan at 26.9 and Harvey Kuenn with  21.1 for Detroit and Cleveland.

Among all players with 700 games played only Mathews (50.2), Mickey Mantle (60.2) and Mays (63.0) posted a higher rWAR than Banks, his friend Hank Aaron posted a 46.5. These retrospective stats confirmed what the those who watched knew when they named him NL MVP in 1958 and 195; he was something special.

Banks played through 1971 though the last two years he was a player coach. The 1970 season that saw him move to a the player coach role was the first since 1954 that he played less than 130 games.  In his last full season (1969) he was an All Star for the eleventh time and finished twelfth in MVP voting.

That’s a Wrap

Banks finished his career with 2528 big league games under his belt, a record for a player who never got to post season play. He never got to try the free agent market earning just $680,500 in his career. In today’s game barring extension he would have hit the market with a slash of .295/.355/.558/.913 having hit 40 home runs in four of his last five years and posting an average rWAR of 6+. That’s easily a 7 year $140M contract – and probably more.

Banks never complained about not making a lot of money; he never publicly complained about anything that I’m aware of. All he wanted was to be able to come to Wrigley on a bright summer’s day, with the wing blowing out just a little and play two.

I’m sure my dad was waiting at the Gates to greet Banks when he arrived.  He’ll likely try to get an invite to play on Banks’ team during their daily double headers too; I hope he gets that chance.  I hope as well that baseball fans who don’t know it already take the time to learn the story of the young Negro League ball player making $7 a day that went on to become the most famous Cub of them all and a member of MLB’s All Century Team.

Goodbye Ernie, the game will miss you and so will I.