Ernie Banks
‘Let’s play two’............RIP Mr Banks. The diamond won’t see class like you for a good long time.
"It's a great day for a ball game"
Ernie Banks
Ernie's wrists go all the way up to his armpits.
---Unidentified Cubs teammate.
He swings his bat as if it were a buggy whip, striking at the ball with the reflexive swiftness of a serpent's tongue.
---William Furlong, sportswriter.
There were mornings when I'd come dragging into the clubhouse, hung over, still half asleep. Ernie would be sitting there and he'd burst into a loud announcer's voice, "Here comes Pepi! What's happening, man? Oh, look at those eyes! Open those eyes, Pepi, and see what a beautiful day it is to play baseball in beautiful, ivy-covered Wrigley Field. It's a great day to win two, Pepi! And we're gonna win two with you, Pepi! Two for the Cubs! We're gonna win two because we love baseball, don't we, Pepi? Now isn't this a great day to win two for the Cubs, Pepi?"
"Ernie," I'd say, it's a great day for two more hours f@cking sleep!"
"Oh, Pepi's got his eyes open. He is ready!"
---Joe Pepitone, a Banks teammate on the 1970-71 Cubs, in his memoir Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud.
People ask me a lot about the values I got from playing for the Cubs for so many years. The value I got out of it was patience. A lot of people these days are not very patient.
---Ernie Banks, after his playing days ended.