This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. He died Friday without that Nobel Prize, but did receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013. I mean, I've been chasing the footsteps of my life to do something worthwhile. INSKEEP: Well, I think that record book would dispute you there.īANKS: No, but me personally, I mean, I always had a bigger goal when I was 15, and that was to win the Nobel Peace Prize. I got an award the other day at the Library of Congress and I said, gosh, I'm getting an award for doing nothing (laughter). Something happened to me, I do something pretty exciting, and I didn't want the spotlight on me. I mean, I don't even know how I got into baseball and I always felt bad about attention coming my way, for some reason. When I walk in the ballpark today, I mean, it's the same thing, just me and the ball. And I played the game as if nobody was there but me. You can lose your concentration real fast. And, you know, you can see people in the stands walking around, pretty girls and all of that. This is a park where you can easily lose your concentration because you're close to the fans and all of that. When I walked in that ballpark, my mind just, boom, on the game. They talked about it, but I didn't think about no trade at all. INSKEEP: Maybe to a team that had won the World Series within anybody's lifetime.īANKS: No, I did not. And he said, well, most things, Ernie, in your life you care about them, but not that much. INSKEEP: How did you come to learn how to deal with disappointment?īANKS: I guess I was with a writer at one time named Herb Cohen and he would give me little quotes and things to think about in my life. This is a place where you'll do all the things you need to do in the game, and I just fell in love with it. Like, it was talking to me, the park itself. It just grabbed me, said this is the place you need to be. I really did, I didn't want to leave the park. Wrigley had an apartment in left field and I went to look at it. I just said, gosh, this is the place I want to be. You know, I think I was the first one on the field. INSKEEP: How unusual to have the Cubs on a losing streak.īANKS: (Laughter) It was interesting, but I put on the uniform and I couldn't wait to get down and walk on the field, just to see the place. When I first stepped into Wrigley Field in 1953, the Cubs was on a losing streak, had 10-game losing streak and. INSKEEP: Could you name a point when you thought you'd fallen in love with baseball?īANKS: That's a good question. My family and my friends, my school and all of that comes back to my mind. And, you know, just thinking about my mother and father, my dad who trained me and had great interest in me playing baseball. The pitch, the time, the fans, and when I heard that tape, I felt how I felt that day and the spirit that I had and the feeling in my body and running around the bases. I remember those things as if they were yesterday. And across the hotel lunchroom, people applaud as if the home run is happening all over again.īANKS: (Laughter) Oh, boy. He throws his strong arms over his head in celebration. INSKEEP: All these years later, Ernie Banks rises to his feet. Ernie Banks got number 500.īRICKHOUSE: Everybody on your feet. And as he listens, he knows exactly what's about to happen.īRICKHOUSE: And that's a fly ball, deep to left, back, back, that's it. He remembers standing in the batter's box. INSKEEP: We played that tape for Ernie Banks and a smile spread across his face. JACK BRICKHOUSE: Well, here it is, Tuesday May the 12, 1970, and Ernie Banks comes to bat with two out and nobody in the top half of the second inning against Atlanta. In 2009, we met Banks in a hotel and brought an old recording of a baseball game. INSKEEP: Banks was famous for saying let's play two, so it's fitting we will now play our talk with Ernie Banks a second time. He was a great player on a losing baseball team, the Chicago Cubs.ĮRNIE BANKS: Every year I always looked at spring training as a brand-new year. Now let's listen to a man who always conserved hope - Ernie Banks died last week at 83.
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