Before the Loop area boomed, I lived at 200 N Dearborn, one of the very first residential development in the loop.

Where the Blue Cross building is today, there is still some land left there, there was a 9 hole Par 3 golf course and a driving range. We went there alot and Ernie was there all the time. You ould sit down with Ernie and he would tell you stories for 3 hours...as long as you kept ordering him a red wine.

Met Ernie as a youth at a bank opening he was paid to be at and at a Cubs open field field thing, but nothing better than after a Jurko, Camr and Harry show, the guy who owned the Club 162...and the former Hi Tops....says they have a speed dating event going on and they need guys....so I end up with with Carm, Jurko and Harry sitting down at the tables and who is sitting at the table next to me...ERNIE! "How ya doing"

RIP

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

i thought he was great in that field of dreams movie

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

Used to play golf every weekend at Pine Meadow in Mundelein. It was two of us from Wisconsin and
we played two guys from Illinois. I bought a big cheesy cup style trophy and we called it the Border Cup.
When we would run into celebs golfing we would have them sign the trophy with a Sharpie. I got Bill
Cartwright and a few others. One day at the turn I went in and saw Ernie having lunch. I asked him to
sign and he said he would after he was done with lunch. I sat with him for 10 minutes as he ate and
talked to him about golf and the Cubs. He was a hell of a guy. Great ambassador for the Cubs and
baseball.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I met him at Harry Carray's about 4 years ago. They sat him and 2 ladies outside at a table next to us. Very nice guy. He would stop and chat with everyone that passed by on the street. And yes, was throwing back the red wine like Biggie described.

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Yeah I met him at the Community Savings over by Belmont & Cicero in like 76. You probably heard me explaining to him that even though his numbers fell way off fairly early in his career, he would probably still make the Hall of Fame because of his personality, but then I had to ask him the tough question to his face, because that's what I do -- how did having a charming personality get you closer to a championship? -- and like all the rest of them, he didn't have an answer for me.

P.S. Adam Dunn Career OPS: .854
Ernie Banks: .830. Good Riddance. *drops microphone*

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Soccer 1,2,3
Spanish Honor Society 1,2,3,4
Forensics 1,2,3,4

"Smiles with Nostrils"

"...no Hmong, go find some blacks"

Big thumbs up on the Spidey shirt.

Morton Grove Bank...gonna say 1977 I met him. Asked him if he knew Jose cardenal!

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

From that photo I'd say Mr. Cub and Spiegel must be related, no?

I've seen these numbers juxtaposed a few times since Ernie's death, as if to suggest SABRmetrics are stupid, I suppose. In fact, this is the entire point of SABRmetrics. To take subjectivity out of the examination of players.

We all know Ernie is the great Cub hero. And we know Dunn is the incompetent oaf. But the numbers put lie to those ideas to at least some degree. Dunn got on base a lot more than Ernie. That's simply an incontrovertible fact. Short of railing against the numbers (and reality) there's no way to escape it.

I'm certainly not going to sit here and tell you that Dunn was anywhere near as good a ballplayer as Ernie Banks, but I'm not going to cite their respective OPS numbers as proof of Ernie's superiority either.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

Banks also played good defense at SS for half his career. Dunn, well, sucked at that aspect of baseball.

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"Now comes good sailing. Moose. Indian."

bumped into Samuel L. Jackson at the same driving range

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Well, Ernie's SS numbers alone are staggering and probably would have got him in if he retired in like 63. Aside from a couple of early Ripken years and the Juicers, they have never been eclipsed, and may never be. It's very Bernstein to take a single number do a whole lazy, boring shtick about it. Plus, I doubt Bob Scheffing was telling old Ernie to take a few more pitches in 1957.

_________________
Soccer 1,2,3
Spanish Honor Society 1,2,3,4
Forensics 1,2,3,4

"Smiles with Nostrils"

"...no Hmong, go find some blacks"