We lost a dear friend last weekend. Cub fans, White Sox fans, Cardinals fans – all of us lost a dear friend. When news began to filter out that Ernie Banks had passed away Friday at the age of 83, it set up a waterfall of emotions in me, in my fellow citizens of Cub Nation and in sports fans around the country. With that news came the social media posts from friends – his and mine – who all had a take on the life of the man known as “Mr. Cub.” Mine goes back to a rainy, dreary day in 1971. The Mets were paying a visit to Wrigley Field on a weekday afternoon for one of those famous 1:20 starts, because they didn't have lights at Wrigley then (yep kids, I am THAT old). My dad took me to my first Cubs game that day and Banks hit one of his 512 career home runs to help the Cubs win 3-2. When he hit the ball, he ran at full speed to first base. I was 3 at the time, but while everyone else watched the ball sail toward the ivy-blanketed bricks, something made my eye follow Banks down the first baseline. What I saw was him running ... hard. Only when he heard the roar of the roughly 15,000 fans on hand did he slow into his home run pace. If you are a Cubs fan, I'll bet you have a memory like that too. The thing about Banks that will ultimately be his legacy, however, is the fact that for all he did in his 19 seasons with the Cubs, he did 100 times more in the 43 years after that. Banks never wavered in his love for the Chicago Cubs National League Ball Club and the fans who loved him and the team. He loved his life and he loved sharing it with all of us. He was the first black player to wear a Cubs uniform, but Cubs fans never gave that a second thought. He was just Ernie! Our Ernie. He was what we all thought we would be if WE were big league ball players. He talked about sunshine and having his team behind him, and playing more than one game in a day under the bright sun of Chicago's north shoreline. He came back to Wrigley often and his optimism about the Cubs and his own life were infectious. He smiled and it made us smile too. If we were having a bad day, Banks was that light switch we could flip and make our dark days bright. Banks taught us something about love. He showed us in human form what it is to love no matter what, and Cubs fans gladly followed his lead. For most of the four decades since Banks retired, the Cubs had NO hope of putting a winning team on the field. It didn't matter to him. His approach to the team and to his life was unshaken. He proved that winning championships is not what defines true winners and losers. Ernie Banks was a winner. So as Chicagoans gathered in Daily Plaza this week at the transplanted statue of the Cubs legend, two things are true: Ernie Banks has left us, but he left a bit of what made him “Mr. Cub” with us. And we will gladly carry it for as long as we live.
