Ernie Banks: Mr. Cub and the Summer of '69

by Phil Rogers

Overview

Respected by his baseball peers and beloved by Chicago fans and teammates, Ernie Banks did everything there was to do in the game he loved. Everything, that is, except play in a World Series. How and why that experience eluded him during one season of particular promise—1969—is a key storyline of this fresh look at one of baseball's legendary players. The life of Banks, who had picked cotton outside Dallas as a youth, ascended from a barnstorming semipro team to the major leagues after Kansas City Monarchs manager Buck O'Neil placed him with the Cubs, is detailed in this biography of Mr. Cub. During his time in Chicago, Banks won two MVPs and received an education far better than the one he received in the segregated schools he'd attended, gaining important life skills while playing the game he was born to play.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781600785191
Publisher:	Triumph Books
Publication date:	04/01/2011
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Phil Rogers is the national baseball columnist for the Chicago Tribune. As a beat reporter he has covered the Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers. His work has appeared on ESPN.com and in Baseball America, Inside Sports, and Sports Illustrated. He is the author of three books, including Say It's So, a look at the 2005 champion White Sox. He lives in Naperville, Illinois.

Table of Contents

Foreword Thomas Boswell vii

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xv

1 Killing With Kindness 1

2 February 17

3 Two Different Americas 25

4 March 45

5 A Friend for Life 57

6 April 77

7 Open Doors into a White World 83

8 May 113

9 A Hitter and a Bullshitter 121

10 June 139

11 It's Okay to Be Black If You're Willie Mays 149

12 July 167

13 Step for Step with the Hammer and the Say Hey Kid 179

14 August 197

15 John Boccabella, John Herrnstein, and Other Trespassers 205

16 September 217

17 Everything But the Ring 229

Notes 235

Bibliography 245

Index 249