February 2, 2015 CSNChicago.com Chicago says goodbye to Mr. Cub Ernie Banks By Patrick Mooney Mr. Cub is gone, leaving this franchise and this city without one of its greatest ambassadors. An A-list crowd turned out at Fourth Presbyterian Church on Saturday morning, memorializing Ernie Banks on what would have been his 84th birthday, remembering his excellence on the field and grace off the field. Sunshine beamed into the stained-glass windows during a ceremony that lasted more than 90 minutes and aired live on multiple TV channels. It almost felt like a Cooperstown exhibit had come to downtown Chicago with Hall of Famers Billy Williams, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Reggie Jackson, Joe Torre, Lou Brock, Andre Dawson and Fergie Jenkins. Banks, who died last week after suffering a heart attack, probably would have wondered what all the fuss was about. He didn’t want to talk about his game — 512 career home runs, a Gold Glove at shortstop and a spot on Major League Baseball’s All-Century Team — or what it was like when he played. “Ernie was unassuming,” Jenkins said. “He didn’t want the title of being a star. He wanted to be a teammate.” Banks would have loved to listen to the laughter and the upbeat music. Calvin Bridges’ Chicago Praise Ensemble sung “This Little Light of Mine” and “Oh Happy Day,” clapping from the balcony. Williams remembered going to spring training as the next big prospect in the late 1950s and can still see that smiling face welcoming him to the organization. “I had the opportunity to room with Ernie for about two and a half months,” Williams said. “After that, I had to get out of that room.” Their families would grow close and take vacations together in Arizona during the winter. Williams saw Banks’ twin boys, Jerry and Joey, and apologized: “I’m sorry I had to beat your butt that one day.” “(Ernie) never did have a mean streak in his body,” Williams said. “The guys would ask me: Is he always like this? You know, when he goes on the baseball field: Yabber, yabber, yabber. “I’d say: From the moment he gets up in the morning (until) late at night.” That spirit cut across generations of Cubs players who paid their respects: Anthony Rizzo, Kerry Wood, Sean Marshall, Glenn Beckert and Randy Hundley. The list went on and on: Ron Santo Jr.; Dutchie Caray; Cubs broadcasters Len Kasper, Jim Deshaies, Pat Hughes and Ron Coomer; Cubs executives Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer, Randy Bush and so many other names up and down the organizational chart. “Ernie Banks is not Mr. Cub because we loved him,” Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said. “Ernie Banks is Mr. Cub because he loved us back. “Ernie became Mr. Cub through no more magic than just being himself.” The old regime came back, too, with New York Yankees special assistant Jim Hendry and Blackhawks executives John McDonough and Jay Blunk in attendance. Kenny Williams and Minnie Minoso represented the White Sox. Bulls great Bob Love sat near the Banks family. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Bruce Rauner — “I’m psychologically damaged” by the 1969 Cubs — took turns at the lectern. Opal Staples sang “One Moment in Time” and “Stand by Me.” A military honor guard played “Taps” to recognize Banks’ service in the U.S. Army. “Ernie Banks was truly living proof that you don’t have to wear a championship ring on your finger in order to be a pillar of baseball and a champion of life,” Torre said. “Ernie Banks made the confines of Wrigley Field friendly. He made the Cubs lovable. And he was one of the pivotal people during a vital time in our history who made our great game worthy of being our national pastime.” Saturday also would have marked Jackie Robinson’s 96th birthday, and Banks goes down as a trailblazer, coming out of the same Kansas City Monarchs organization and moving to Chicago as the first African-American player in franchise history. “He was a Chicago Cub experiment that worked,” Rev. Jesse Jackson said. “A bridge-builder, healer, odds-buster, dream-maker, disarmed adversaries with optimism. He branded goodwill. He absorbed his pain and rejection, but he did not internalize it. He had a higher vision.” As Jackson said, Banks wasn’t born on third base. He grew up in deeply segregated Dallas as the second of 12 children, attending Sunday school at St. Paul’s Methodist Church and going to Booker T. Washington High School. The funeral program said his mother, Essie, hoped he would follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and become a minister. “We rode on Ernie’s shoulders,” Jackson said. “He carried the weight of a social transformer, seemingly effortlessly. “He was convinced that hatred and racism were absolutely wrong. He used excellence and his smile as weapons.” Banks went to Washington with that sense of joy in 2013 to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom and give President Barack Obama a bat that had once belonged to Robinson. “It almost didn’t happen,” said John Rogers, a personal friend, Chicago business leader and the head of Ariel Investments. “We were all gathered early in the East Room of the White House. We’re looking around, and we couldn’t find Ernie. No one knew where he was. “We come to find out he had forgotten his photo ID, so he was still stuck outside the gate. In general, unless you are a fence-jumper or a drone, you do not get into the White House without an ID. “But I’m sure no one here is surprised that our Ernie would be that rare exception. The guards at the gate recognized him, were charmed by him, and they decided to kick it up to the highest levels of the Secret Service to get him in. “Once he was in ... he swept everyone into his orbit ... as only Ernie could.” The pallbearers grabbed the casket with the white BANKS No. 14 flag draped over it and marched up the aisle and into a blast of cold Chicago air. The motorcade turned right and inched onto Michigan Avenue by 11:58 a.m., a police escort for the SUVs and black stretch limos heading south toward Daley Plaza, where the Banks statue would be on display, and then back up north for a drive past Wrigley Field, where Mr. Cub will never be forgotten. -- CSNChicago.com ESPN releases Top 10 Cubs prospects for 2015 By Tony Andracki Prospect Week continues as ESPN Insider Keith Law released his Top 10 Cubs prospects Friday morning. Law released his Top 100 list Thursday, with Kris Bryant No. 1 followed by Addison Russell (No. 4), Jorge Soler (14) and Kyle Schwarber (90). They are obviously the top four names on Law's team rankings and rest of the Cubs' Top 10 list is as follows: 5. Gleyber Torres - SS 6. Billy McKinney - OF 7. Albert Almora - OF 8. Duane Underwood - RHP 9. C.J. Edwards - RHP 10. Jen-Ho Tseng - RHP It's interesting to see some of those names on there. Noticeably absent is Pierce Johnson, considered one of the best - and most advanced - pitching prospects in the Cubs system. But in Johnson's stead is Underwood - who is shooting up prospect rankings after going 6-4 with a 2.50 ERA and 1.20 WHIP with Kane County in 2014 - and Tseng, a 20-year-old pitcher from Taiwan who sported a 2.40 ERA and 0.867 WHIP in his first year of American professional ball. Johnson was ranked No. 7 on Law's list last year, followed by Jeimer Candelario (3B), Corey Black (RHP) and Arodys Vizcaino (RHP), all of whom are now off the list. Vizcaino has also been traded back to the Atlanta Braves. Javier Baez (No. 1 in 2014) and Arismendy Alcantara (6) also graduated from the list, meaning the only holdovers from 2014 to '15 on Law's rankings are Bryant, Soler, Almora and Edwards. Law also pointed to Eloy Jimenez and Victor Caratini as two guys in the Cubs system who are on the verge of moving into his Top 10 rankings. -- Chicago Tribune Cubs legend Ernie Banks remembered as a man who loved life, people By Paul Sullivan Of all the talents Ernie Banks exhibited over his Hall of Fame career, perhaps the most impressive skill was his ability to relate to everyday people from all walks of life. "He could make you feel like you were the most important person in the universe," longtime friend John Rogers said during Saturday's memorial service at Fourth Presbyterian Church. That was the thematic motif on Saturday as family, friends and fans congregated to celebrate the life of the legendary ballplayer, who died last week at 83. Almost every speaker drove the point home that Banks was not just a great athlete who was good with the media and loved the game. He was simply a man who enjoyed meeting and talking to people, leaving a little piece of himself with hundreds and hundreds of those fortunate enough to run into him, whether it was at the ballpark, walking down the street or in the aisle of a grocery store. "Ernie walked up to you as if he had known you for years," Billy Williams said. "He branded goodwill," added Rev. Jesse Jackson. It's a lesson that should be taught to every athlete, especially the ones who feel "smothered" by the fame that comes with the territory. How many times have I seen ballplayers whip out their cellphones and pretend to make a call as they leave a ballpark, giving them cover from fans who may want an autograph or just a chance to say hello? Or put on their headphones to drown out the noise of someone shouting out their name to try and get their attention? Perhaps there are some fans whom Banks ignored.