A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred by George Will Page A
Authors: George Will
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Santo atbat to break up the possible double play. From the bench, you could see his whole body just rear back and he’d look at the coach as if he were saying, “You got to be kidding.” Your little boy knows that it’s percentage baseball to get a runner moving on a 3–1 count under those conditions. But not Mister Cub.
Both of Banks’s knees were shot by the end of his career, which came after the 1971 season. Durocher says, “He’d come up with men on the bases and if he hit a ground ball they could walk through the double play.” In the field, “if the ball wasn’t hit right at him, forget it. He’d wave at it. Two feet away from him—whoops—right under his glove.”
That is the brief for the prosecution. Now for the defense.
Not that Ernie Banks needs any defense in the environs of Wrigley Field, where a statue of him stands on Clark Street, near the home plate entrance. He is the face of the Cubs franchise, as much as Stan Musial, Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Robin Yount, Tony Gwynn, and Cal Ripken are the iconic players of the Cardinals, Indians, Red Sox, Brewers, Padres, and Orioles, respectively. Just as Wrigley Field is, for better or worse, a summation of the Cubs’ experience,Banks embodies the post-1945 franchise, for two reasons. First, his disposition, win or lose—and it was mostly lose—was as sunny as the ballpark in which he never performed at night. Second, his play demonstrated that even in a team game, a player can achieve greatness with precious little support from his teammates.
It is odd that in the 1950s, a decade in which the Cubs’ record was 672 wins and 866 losses (.437), two Cubs players won a total of three National League Most Valuable Player awards. In 1952, left fielder Hank Sauer led the league with 37 home runs and 121 runs batted in. This was four years before the Cy Young Award was created for pitchers, so pitchers were as eligible as position players to be named MVPs. Indeed, Bobby Shantz of the Philadelphia Athletics was the 1952 American League MVP, with a record of 24–7 and a 2.48 ERA. The 1952 National League award should have gone to another pitcher from that city, Robin Roberts, who had a phenomenal 28–7 record and a 2.59 ERA for a mediocre fourth-place team with a 87–67 record. Sauer won the award even though Roberts was responsible for 32 percent of his team’s wins.
In 1958 and 1959, Ernie Banks won the MVP award even though in those two seasons the Cubs had a cumulative record sixteen games under .500 (72–82 and 74–80). The next player—and, as of this writing, the last NL player—to win the MVP award while playing on a team with a losing record was another Cub, right fielder Andre Dawson, who had 49 home runs and 137 RBIs with the1987 Cubs, who finished sixth, which was last place in what was then the National League’s East Division.
Banks could have been a Cardinal. In the spring of 1953, one of that team’s scouts saw him playing shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League and sent a favorable report to St. Louis.The Cardinals sent out another scout for a second opinion, which was: “I don’t think he is a major league prospect. He can’t hit, he can’t run, he has a pretty good arm but it’s a scatter arm. I don’t like him.” In the annals of misjudgments, that ranks with the report on the screen test of a young Fred Astaire:“Can’t act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little.”
On July 28, 1953, Hugh Wise, a scout for the Cubs, submitted the report reproduced here on this page . On the nineteenth line down, on the right, the question is how many years it will be before Banks can play in the major leagues. Wise said: “Can play now.” Forty-two days later, Banks came to the Cubs. Golenbock says that when Banks got to Wrigley Field he did not own a glove, so teammate Eddie Miksis lent him one.
The rise of the White Sox to temporary baseball supremacy in Chicago in the 1950s began in 1951, with the arrival on
Both of Banks’s knees were shot by the end of his career, which came after the 1971 season. Durocher says, “He’d come up with men on the bases and if he hit a ground ball they could walk through the double play.” In the field, “if the ball wasn’t hit right at him, forget it. He’d wave at it. Two feet away from him—whoops—right under his glove.”
That is the brief for the prosecution. Now for the defense.
Not that Ernie Banks needs any defense in the environs of Wrigley Field, where a statue of him stands on Clark Street, near the home plate entrance. He is the face of the Cubs franchise, as much as Stan Musial, Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Robin Yount, Tony Gwynn, and Cal Ripken are the iconic players of the Cardinals, Indians, Red Sox, Brewers, Padres, and Orioles, respectively. Just as Wrigley Field is, for better or worse, a summation of the Cubs’ experience,Banks embodies the post-1945 franchise, for two reasons. First, his disposition, win or lose—and it was mostly lose—was as sunny as the ballpark in which he never performed at night. Second, his play demonstrated that even in a team game, a player can achieve greatness with precious little support from his teammates.
It is odd that in the 1950s, a decade in which the Cubs’ record was 672 wins and 866 losses (.437), two Cubs players won a total of three National League Most Valuable Player awards. In 1952, left fielder Hank Sauer led the league with 37 home runs and 121 runs batted in. This was four years before the Cy Young Award was created for pitchers, so pitchers were as eligible as position players to be named MVPs. Indeed, Bobby Shantz of the Philadelphia Athletics was the 1952 American League MVP, with a record of 24–7 and a 2.48 ERA. The 1952 National League award should have gone to another pitcher from that city, Robin Roberts, who had a phenomenal 28–7 record and a 2.59 ERA for a mediocre fourth-place team with a 87–67 record. Sauer won the award even though Roberts was responsible for 32 percent of his team’s wins.
In 1958 and 1959, Ernie Banks won the MVP award even though in those two seasons the Cubs had a cumulative record sixteen games under .500 (72–82 and 74–80). The next player—and, as of this writing, the last NL player—to win the MVP award while playing on a team with a losing record was another Cub, right fielder Andre Dawson, who had 49 home runs and 137 RBIs with the1987 Cubs, who finished sixth, which was last place in what was then the National League’s East Division.
Banks could have been a Cardinal. In the spring of 1953, one of that team’s scouts saw him playing shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League and sent a favorable report to St. Louis.The Cardinals sent out another scout for a second opinion, which was: “I don’t think he is a major league prospect. He can’t hit, he can’t run, he has a pretty good arm but it’s a scatter arm. I don’t like him.” In the annals of misjudgments, that ranks with the report on the screen test of a young Fred Astaire:“Can’t act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little.”
On July 28, 1953, Hugh Wise, a scout for the Cubs, submitted the report reproduced here on this page . On the nineteenth line down, on the right, the question is how many years it will be before Banks can play in the major leagues. Wise said: “Can play now.” Forty-two days later, Banks came to the Cubs. Golenbock says that when Banks got to Wrigley Field he did not own a glove, so teammate Eddie Miksis lent him one.
The rise of the White Sox to temporary baseball supremacy in Chicago in the 1950s began in 1951, with the arrival on
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