Today is a great birthday. Today is Ernie Banks’ birthday. Part of the desegregation of the game when he made his debut in 1953, he is known as one of the nicest men in baseball. His career batting average was .274 and he hit a career high of .313 in 1958. His last season was in 1971 and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1977.

Ernie Banks is my favorite player in baseball and is where Banks in Barkeater Lake got his name. His enthusiasm and love for game, coupled with his ability to persevere through adversity made him the player’s player. Ernie is why I love baseball and why I think baseball will continue to thrive, even in these troubled times.

We could all learn a lot from Ernie Banks, I think.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Cub.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 5:30 am and is filed under Blogisms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.