* One fine day in the Polo Grounds, Marvelous Marv Throneberry ripped one to the back of the outfield and gunned it for all he was worth, pulling into third with a stand-up triple. Or so he thought. Banks called for the ball and told the first base ump, "Didn't touch first, you know." Banks took the ball and stepped on the pad. The ump jerked his thumb for the out sign. Mets manager Casey Stengel barreled out of the dugout intent on murder until first base coach Cookie Lavagetto stopped him. "Forget it, Case," Lavagetto said. "He didn't touch second, either."
The next Met batter, Charley Neal, hit one off the facade above the upper deck in left center field for a homer. Neal wasn't three steps running up the line when Stengel stopped him dead. Then, Stengel pointed to first base and stomped his foot. He did it with every stop until Neal crossed the plate without incident or mishap. The joint went nuts.
* In the same series, young Cub outfielder Lou Brock was jittery before a game. Banks remembered it to Sports Illustrated's Rich Cohen last year:
I roomed with Lou. We were in New York, and he asked, “Ernie, what does it take to play major league baseball?” I said, “Lou, all you need is one thing: You gotta relax.” He said, “I can’t relax! I don’t want to go back to Louisiana, picking no cotton.” That night he hit the longest home run he ever hit, in the Polo Grounds. You can look it up.The home run in question actually cleared the Polo Grounds' center field fence, on the right side of the old clubhouse and office structure that bisected the bleachers, and the fence was 468 feet from home plate. (Now do you understand what was so stupefying about Willie Mays's famous catch in the 1954 World Series?)
The thing of it was, when Brock hit the ball and gunned it out of the batter's box, he rounded first, headed for second full speed, and---still inexperienced as he was---took the second base umpire's home run sign to mean he had a shot at an inside the park job. Brock had no idea what he'd actually done until he crossed the plate, plunged into a mob of cheering teammates near the dugout, then heard Ron Santo hollering into his face, "Did you see where that ball went? Man, I needed binoculars!"
Brock became only the second major league player since the Polo Grounds was reconstructed in 1923 to hit one that distance in the big park. The Braves' Joe Adcock did it in 1953. (Luke Easter, in a Negro Leagues game, did it, too, in 1948.)
The day after Brock's shot, the Braves came in to play the Mets and Hank Aaron hit one to almost the same spot as Brock's!
When baseball was a game. Sigh ...
A genuinely good man, a stellar representative of the game... and one hell of a great ballplayer.
Not a bad list to join. There were a some players who had more skill, but few who had more class.
Ernie Banks
A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request - Steve Goodman
By the shore’s of old Lake Michigan
Where the “hawk wind” blows so cold
An old Cub fan lay dying
In his midnight hour that tolled
Round his bed, his friends had all gathered
They knew his time was short
And on his head they put this bright blue cap
From his all-time favorite sport
He told them, “Its late and its getting dark in here”
And I know its time to go
But before I leave the line-up
Boys, there’s just one thing I’d like to know
Do they still play the blues in Chicago
When baseball season rolls around
When the snow melts away,
Do the Cubbies still play
In their ivy-covered burial ground
When I was a boy they were my pride and joy
But now they only bring fatigue
To the home of the brave
The land of the free
And the doormat of the National League
Told his friends “You know the law of averages says:
Anything will happen that can”
That’s what it says
“But the last time the Cubs won a National League pennant
Was the year we dropped the bomb on Japan”
The Cubs made me a criminal
Sent me down a wayward path
They stole my youth from me
(that’s the truth)
I’d forsake my teachers
To go sit in the bleachers
In flagrant truancy
and then one thing led to another
and soon I’d discovered alcohol, gambling, dope
football, hockey, lacrosse, tennis
But what do you expect,
When you raise up a young boy’s hopes
And then just crush ‘em like so many paper beer cups.
Year after year after year
after year, after year, after year, after year, after year
‘Til those hopes are just so much popcorn
for the pigeons beneath the ‘L’ tracks to eat
He said, “You know I’ll never see Wrigley Field, anymore before my eternal rest
So if you have your pencils and your score cards ready,
and I’ll read you my last request
He said, “Give me a double header funeral in Wrigley Field
On some sunny weekend day (no lights)
Have the organ play the “National Anthem”
and then a little ‘na, na, na, na, hey hey, hey, Goodbye’
Make six bullpen pitchers, carry my coffin
and six ground keepers clear my path
Have the umpires bark me out at every base
In all their holy wrath
Its a beautiful day for a funeral, Hey Ernie lets play two!
Somebody go get Jack Brickhouse to come back,
and conduct just one more interview
Have the Cubbies run right out into the middle of the field,
Have Keith Moreland drop a routine fly
Give everybody two bags of peanuts and a frosty malt
And I’ll be ready to die
Build a big fire on home plate out of your Louisville Sluggers baseball bats,
And toss my coffin in
Let my ashes blow in a beautiful snow
From the prevailing 30 mile an hour southwest wind
When my last remains go flying over the left-field wall
Will bid the bleacher bums ad?eu
And I will come to my final resting place, out on Waveland Avenue
The dying man’s friends told him to cut it out
They said stop it that’s an awful shame
He whispered, “Don’t Cry, we’ll meet by and by near the Heavenly Hall of Fame
He said, “I’ve got season’s tickets to watch the Angels now,
So its just what I’m going to do
He said, “but you the living, you’re stuck here with the Cubs,
So its me that feels sorry for you!”
And he said, “Ahh Play, play that lonesome losers tune,
That’s the one I like the best”
And he closed his eyes, and slipped away
What we got is the Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request
And here it is
Do they still play the blues in Chicago
When baseball season rolls around
When the snow melts away,
Do the Cubbies still play
In their ivy-covered burial ground
When I was a boy they were my pride and joy
But now they only bring fatigue
To the home of the brave
The land of the free
And the doormat of the National League
He was a true Hall of Fame level player and, from what I hear, a very nice guy.
However, I'd like to quibble with the author of the posted article on a couple of statistical points:
Lest you think Banks was just another swatter aided and abetted by the park he first dubbed the Friendly Confines, be advised that he hit a mere 68 more home runs at home than on the road during his major league career. He also defied the traditional platoon splits: he retired with 2,584 hits, and two thirds of those came at the expense of right-handed pitchers, including about two thirds of his home runs.
A "mere" 68 more home runs more at home than on the road? Well, 68 is more HRs than Banks or anyone else ever hit in a single season without the aid of steroids, so it is a significant number.
Two thirds of his hits came against right-handed pitchers? Nothing strange about that, since I'd venture a guess that MORE THAN two thirds of his at-bats came against right-handed pitchers, simply because there are that many more right handers than left-handers and Banks played every day.
BTW, I didn't realize that Banks was the first black player ever to play for the Cubs. I was under the impression that Gene Baker held that honor, but I looked it up and Banks in fact made his first appearance three days before Baker. Banks and Baker went on to become the Cubs' "double play combination" for several years.
Let’s play two!
Kind of doubt that Negro League baseball was on the same level as the major leagues by 1953, because the best Negro League players had already gone to the majors by then. It was six years, almost seven, after Jackie Robinson came to the Dodgers when Banks arrived with the Cubs in September 1953. The Negro Leagues would soon fade into history because their best players were swallowed up by "organized baseball."
Also, the other black player with the Cubs at the time was GENE Baker, NOT Glen Baker. Gene Baker, though he did not have a Hall of Fame career by any standard, did one thing Banks never did: he played on a world championship team (1960 Pirates).