RIP Ernie Banks

GrayTide · Jan 24, 2015

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/ernie-banks-legacy-extends-far-beyond-mr-cub-status/ar-AA8wWk8

I know this is not football, but it is sports and about one of the greatest to ever play the game. A lot of us on here grew up following #14 and the hapless Cubs. Another childhood hero is gone, but not forgotten. A classier player never stepped between the white lines. RIP Ernie.

Mods please feel free to move.

CB4 · Jan 24, 2015

I wasn't a Cubs fan, but I always loved Ernie Banks. Rest in peace, Ernie. The world was a better place for having you in it.

GrayTide · Jan 24, 2015

CB4 said:
I wasn't a Cubs fan, but I always loved Ernie Banks. Rest in peace, Ernie. The world was a better place for having you in it.

I grew up a Dodger fan, but agree with you about what he meant as a human being.

Moro Creek · Jan 24, 2015

We need more role models like Ernie Banks. A class man and a great player. RIP Ernie.

im4datide · Jan 24, 2015

Let's play two! RIP Ernie Banks you were class personified

theballguy · Jan 24, 2015

If I could have a tenth of his enthusiasm in daily life. Great sportsman. Everybody should try to emulate him.

BamaFanInHamilton · Jan 24, 2015

I posted this on my Facebook timeline:

Life goes on, but my boyhood sports hero and idol, Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, passed away over night. He gave me a baseball and autographed it back in 1959, a ball that I still proudly have. He was a great ball player and an even greater person. Rest in peace, Ernie.

TerryR · Jan 24, 2015

BamaFanInHamilton said:
I posted this on my Facebook timeline:

Life goes on, but my boyhood sports hero and idol, Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, passed away over night. He gave me a baseball and autographed it back in 1959, a ball that I still proudly have. He was a great ball player and an even greater person. Rest in peace, Ernie.

Where have all our heroes gone? I remember Mays, Mantle, Clemente - even Dom DiMaggio in Boston. Banks was right there with the all-time greats. What an ambassador for the national pasttime sport! Rest in the arms of the Almighty, "Mr. Cub".

alabama mike1 · Jan 24, 2015

A great ambassador for the game of baseball, a classy player and individual. RIP Mr. Cub

Catfish · Jan 24, 2015

GrayTide said:
I know this is not football, but it is sports and about one of the greatest to ever play the game. A lot of is on here grew up following #14 and the hapless Cubs. Another childhood hero is gone, but not forgotten. A classier player never stepped between the white lines. RIP Ernie.

Couldn't have said it better. One of my all-time favorites and an all-time great in every way. Godspeed, Ernie. I hope you get to play two up there.

CrimsonTheory · Jan 24, 2015

As a Cub fan this greatly saddens me. There was only one other player who loved baseball and specifically Cubs baseball (ie took joy and pride of being a Cub) and that was good ole #10 Ron Santo. It saddens me that Banks NEVER played in the postseason and there was a few great Cub teams he played on.

I hope the Cubs win soon, so they can dedicate to those not around to see it (Carey, Brickhouse, Santo, Banks).

RIP Mr. Cub, you will always be "The Greatest Cub."

TrueCrimson7 · Jan 24, 2015

Banks represented the best of baseball. RIP.

Alasippi · Jan 24, 2015

GrayTide said:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/ernie-banks-legacy-extends-far-beyond-mr-cub-status/ar-AA8wWk8

I know this is not football, but it is sports and about one of the greatest to ever play the game. A lot of us on here grew up following #14 and the hapless Cubs. Another childhood hero is gone, but not forgotten. A classier player never stepped between the white lines. RIP Ernie.

Mods please feel free to move.

My personalized truck tag is "Say Hey", in honor of Willie Mays, who I consider to be the greatest baseball player of all time.
(Baseball was my best sport). Ernie, I loved dearly. He loved the game more than any player ever. His, "Let's play two"..is just incredible.
Some folks simply shouldn't go away. He was one of them.
sip

Padreruf · Jan 24, 2015

TerryR said:
Where have all our heroes gone? I remember Mays, Mantle, Clemente - even Dom DiMaggio in Boston. Banks was right there with the all-time greats. What an ambassador for the national pasttime sport! Rest in the arms of the Almighty, "Mr. Cub".

We're getting old....EB was smooth! Classy as far as I know.

selmaborntidefan · Jan 24, 2015

I never saw him play (I was born in 1969 and didn't get into baseball until 1977).

But I know about him and my Dad, who grew up a Cardinals fan, loved Banks. Ernie was a class act and reminds me of a joke I read about thirty years ago talking about how things have changed with all the money the guys make and all the prima donna acts:

What would a modern-day Ernie Banks say?

Let's SIT OUT two!!!

Banks was the first NL player to win consecutive MVP awards (1958-59) and for a long time (pre-Barry Bonds) that was a very rare feat. Banks did it when the talent per team was better because there were only 16 teams and the talent was more concentrated. And he did it on a mediocre (most of his time) team.

RIP Mr Cub

GrayTide · Jan 24, 2015

Like so many things in life, if you were not there and did not live through those times, it is hard to understand how things were. The black players were a minority and in the minority in those years. It is hard to understand living in the south in those years how things were, but discrimination was alive and well in Chicago, Boston, New York not just Birmingham. The black MLB player was discriminated against, maybe not overtly. The courage of these players is almost unbelievable in what they had to endure.

Ernie Banks represented tolerance in the face of discrimination, he exhibited class in every thing he did unlike the Hank Aaron's of the world who made it a point to cry discrimination at every opportunity.

Gr8hope · Jan 24, 2015

Read this earlier today and wanted to share it here. He really was a class act and good role model. We could certainly use more like him now.
"When fans wrote to ask for Ernie Banks autograph, they not only got it back, they often got a separate letter too."

califbamafan · Jan 25, 2015

One of my boyhood idols when I followed baseball. Will never be another one like him RIP Ernie

TDBama78 · Jan 25, 2015

Ernie Banks was the franchise when it came to the cubs. He had good hr power.

RIP Ernie Banks

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