Jan. 19: Important Date In Cubs History
by Cubbie-Tim on Jan 19, 2012 7:19 AM CST
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interesting note I saw a friend mention about January 19 in Cubs history.
On This Day In 1977, Ernie Banks was elected into the Hall of Fame.
Now i was only 1 years old when Ernie was elected, so I do not remember how the reaction was, for those who are more seasoned than I am, was there an excitement and buzz like when Dawson or Santo was announced, or was it a lot more mellow of a reaction?
On This Day In 1983, The Cubs made one of their best moves when Ron Cey was acquired from the Dodgers for 2 prospects that never did a thing Dan Cataline & Vance Lovelace.
This trade I vaguely remember, seeing as i was 7 years old, but could not tell you how it was looked at initially, but it is always interesting to think about how BCB might have reacted at the time based on advanced metrics used today. Cantaline never made it out of the minors, where Lovelace did have a 0.00 ERA for his 1.1 in 1989. Neither really accomplished anything and the Cubs for sure won this trade.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation or Al Yellon, managing editor (unless it's a FanPost posted by Al). FanPost opinions are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.
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To answer concerning Banks' election to the HOF: No, there was not as much hype.
There couldn’t be. No 24 hour sports news cycle on TV and radio, no internet etc. Just the newspapers and local news. People were happy because Banks is beloved, but not as big a deal. Maybe WGN threw together one of their little sports specials but I don’t remember it if they did.
i was more interested in the fans reaction than the media hype
but i can also see how the two go hand-n-hand too often
Q: Why did Theo Epstein cross the road?
A: To Dump Garza
There was a fair amount of sports hype going around in '77...
…which of course was only the tip of the iceberg in what would become an avalanche of over-the-top reporting only a few years later with the advent of ESPN, sports talk radio, and new media.
Reports of Ernie’s election were blessedly in human scale, like the man himself. That 1970 photo of Banks crossing the plate with his 500th home run that Al posted a couple of years ago speaks volumes, not only of Banks, but of the way baseball and other sports were treated in America before the deluge.
Ernie perhaps held greater standing with casual sports fans in ’77, as the acknowledged equal of Mays, Aaron, Clemente, and F. Robby – black athletes and all-time greats who made the National League far superior to the American for more than 20 years.
Of course, Banks today is a much greater legend than he was in ‘77 – known nationally as Mr. Cub and as the greatest player never to appear in a World Series. Unfortunately, this image seems to have diminished his status as an all-time great, and it’s now recognized that Ernie had two careers as a player: the first from 1954 to mid-1961 as an all-time great shortstop comparable to Honus Wagner, and the second from 1962-71 as a run-of-the-mill first baseman comparable to Jim Gentile.
"Elder White! Look at the talent on those Cubs!" Harry Caray, KMOX Radio, 4/22/62
"And you have to wonder – What's the matter with Broglio?" Harry, KMOX, 5/24/64
There's no question
… that if Banks had not suffered two serious knee injuries, he could have been a first-tier Hall of Famer and had numbers close to or equal to Mays. He was clearly on track to have a 3000-hit, 600 HR career by 1960. He hit 40 HR in five of six seasons from 1955-60. Neither Mays nor Aaron ever did that. He was the first NL player to win back-to-back MVP awards, and did it for bad teams. He nearly singlehandedly kept the 1959 Cubs in contention until late July. If the ’59 Cubs had had any decent pitching, they might have won the NL pennant in a weak year (the Braves and Dodgers tied for first with 86 wins).
Can you imagine Banks’ legend if the ’59 Cubs had played the ’59 White Sox in the World Series?
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Banks may have been the best player in baseball from 1955-60...
…the heart of baseball’s so-called “last Golden Age.”
His ’59 season probably is the best-ever by a shortstop. Beyond the incredible batting and fielding stats Ernie achieved that year was perhaps his signature moment as a Cub, which took place in a mid-August series against the Giants.
As Ernie tore through the league batting third or fourth, his sub-par backups in the fourth or fifth slot were the pick ’em choices of Moose Moryn, Lee Walls, Dale Long, and an ancient Bobby Thomson. But even as the league tried to pitch around him, Ernie kept putting up incredible numbers characterized by clutch hitting. His play kept the surprising Cubs in contention until late July in an NL season which no team could dominate.
The Giants, Dodgers, and Braves were the top contenders that year, with San Francisco perhaps on paper the best team in baseball, but as the season wound down the Giants were unable to pull away, especially when dealing with the fifth-place Cubs.
Jack Sanford, the notorious head-hunter who would become the Giants ace decided to be proactive early in the Saturday game http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN195908150.shtml by throwing behind Ernie, who reflexively backed into the ball and would up in an ambulance headed for Wesley Memorial Hospital.
At the time, Banks was in the midst of one of his consecutive games-played streaks, but the big question to anyone who saw the beaning wasn’t whether he could keep the streak alive. Instead, fans wondered if he could come back at all that season.
Ernie, who was one of the last players to wear a foam insert in his cap instead of a helmet, beat all the odds by returning the following day to cap a first-inning rally with a 3-run homer against Giants ace Johnny Antonelli: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN195908160.shtml
Then, in the final week of ‘59, Banks and the Cubs put the final nail in the Giants’ season in front of 4,940 fans at Wrigley Field, only a day after the Go-Go White Sox won Chicago’s first postwar pennan: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN195909230.shtml
Like the 1970 game with HR #500, few were there to witness the moment which had to be almost as satisfying to Ernie as any in his career.
"Elder White! Look at the talent on those Cubs!" Harry Caray, KMOX Radio, 4/22/62
"And you have to wonder – What's the matter with Broglio?" Harry, KMOX, 5/24/64
little Banks trivia
On May 8, 1973, Cubs manager Whitey Lockman was ejected, and Banks filled in as manager for the remainder of the game, which the Cubs won 3–2. It could be argued, he technically was the first black manager in MLB, even if it was only for a few innings..
Q: Why did Theo Epstein cross the road?
A: To Dump Garza
Ernie certainly deserved a chance to manage when Lockman was fired in '74...
…In the early ’70’s, Banks made no secret of his desire to manage the Cubs, and I imagine Phil Wrigley would have been happy to have him in that job if not for one small fact: namely, Ernie’s status as the most beloved Chicago athlete of his time, perhaps of all time.
It seems likely that Wrigley would have been glad to make Banks MLB’s first black manager for the publicity alone. Although it’s well-known Phil liked and respected Ernie, he probably envisioned a scenario where he gave Banks the job, then watched the Cubs fai – a story that invevitably would play out with Wrigley spending his twilight years known nationwide as the guy who fired Ernie Banks.
Wrigley always had enormous business considerations outside of baseball, and in 1974 he wasn’t exactly the fans’ choice as owner. Also, he had spent the previous 20 years trying to live down his sudden firing of the previous Mr. Cub – Phil Cavarretta.
Come to think of it, Banks didn’t get the job for some of the same reasons Sandberg was denied. Although both likely would have done OK managing the Cubs, neither man would have been easy to fire.
"Elder White! Look at the talent on those Cubs!" Harry Caray, KMOX Radio, 4/22/62
"And you have to wonder – What's the matter with Broglio?" Harry, KMOX, 5/24/64
Beyond that
… I don’t think Ernie had the temperament to be a manager in the 1970s. Look at some of the men who were successful managers in that era — Sparky Anderson, Billy Martin, Earl Weaver.
Ernie would have been crushed by those men and their teams.
He wasn’t right for the times.
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True, although we've certainly had more than a few managers who weren't right for the times.
But even in ’74 if the Cubs had been contending, I imagine Banks might have done well as an emergency late season fill-in – like Harvey Kuenn with the 1982 Brewers or, going way back, Gabby Hartnett here in ’38.
Obviously, the Cubs were bad in ’74, but Ernie might have been the right choice to give the ’73 Cubs a late season boost to a division title had he been hired in July or August of that year.
"Elder White! Look at the talent on those Cubs!" Harry Caray, KMOX Radio, 4/22/62
"And you have to wonder – What's the matter with Broglio?" Harry, KMOX, 5/24/64
Kuenn was more than an "emergency replacement".
He had been a Brewers coach for a decade and served as interim manager one other time (in 1975) before getting the fulltime job replacing Buck Rodgers in 1982.
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Dale Sveum
Dale Sveum had a 7-5 record as manager of the Brewers to close out the 2008 regular season. Milwaukee went 1-3 in the playoffs against Philadelphia.
Good things come to those who wait... and wait....and wait.
The Ron Cey deal was a very good one for the Cubs.
Cey was clearly in his decline years — he was 35 when the Cubs got him. But he had two good years in 1983 and 1984 and was a key part of the 1984 division title team. Then he declined rapidly.
And Cey’s wife is named Fran.
Say it out loud.
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His name was Lovelace? Really?
"[The Cubs] have a very famous tradition in baseball, and it will be nice to be part of turning it around." ~ Jamie Quirk, Bench Coach
*D'oh -- didn't mean for this to be a reply.
"[The Cubs] have a very famous tradition in baseball, and it will be nice to be part of turning it around." ~ Jamie Quirk, Bench Coach
Cey was pretty bad by the time he got here defensively. I just remember his constantly diving
for balls that were already halfway to Sarge in left.
Yeah.
But for at least a couple of years, the man could still hit.
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Might have been the best 3rd baseman between Santo and Ramirez.
Nothing happens unless it's first a dream
by puckishcubsfan on Jan 19, 2012 6:42 PM CST up reply actions
Bill Madlock
He was only with the Cubs for three seasons, but he would have to get the nod over Cey. I remember Madlock with the Pirates and Dodgers. I thought of him as an ordinary third baseman defensively. I don’t know how he did defensively at third for the Cubs.
Good things come to those who wait... and wait....and wait.
Madlock was not a very good fielder but he made up for it with his hitting. I remember one series
against the Reds when he went something like 13-15. He could hit for average like no Cub since. Not afraid to go into second hard either. Given the choice between him and Cey I would go with the original Mad Dog every time.
30 lashes with a wet noodle on me for forgetting MAdlock. He was my favorite player for a time too!
Nothing happens unless it's first a dream
by puckishcubsfan on Jan 20, 2012 5:19 PM CST up reply actions
Banks was the first player who’s name I knew to make the HOF although I was too young to really have seen him play.
The first player I remember seeing play make the baseball HOF was Billy Williams.
The first player to make the HOF of any sport I saw his whole career was Payton. First Cub- Sandberg.
Nothing happens unless it's first a dream
I recall Vance Lovelace
was highly touted in an era that did not have such hype. Cey helped that 84 team, which was really a good Cub team that had no business losing to the freaking Padres.
Seriously, people...
…the guy’s name is “Lovelace” and no one is going to make a Deep Goat joke?!
"[The Cubs] have a very famous tradition in baseball, and it will be nice to be part of turning it around." ~ Jamie Quirk, Bench Coach
In this date in Cub history
The Cubs signed the great RoLo!
It was a big deal to me
Ernie is my all-time favorite Cub player, even though I only got to watch him during the tail end of his career. When Ernie made it into the Hall of Fame in 1977 on the first ballot, it was a big deal because there were not a lot of first ballot hall-of-famers up to that point. A lot of old time baseball writers refused to vote for a player in their first year of eligibility. Joe DiMaggio did not make it into Cooperstown until his third year of eligibility. At the time of Ernie’s induction, entering Cooperstown in your first year of eligibility was reserved for baseball royalty – Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle. Being a first ballot inductee in 1977 meant that Ernie was not just a great player, but one of the all-time greats.
by toppsmike on Jan 19, 2012 8:40 PM CST reply actions 1 recs
Ernie is also my all-time favorite Cub player. Ron is a close second.
If the Cubs still have a chance, no matter how small, it’s still Go Cubs, damn the math and pass the KoolAid. I'm a Sheeple and proud of it!
Spelling and grammar errors are included for creative and artistic reasons.
I edited the headline to this post
… to indicate the exact date, since it was no longer “this date”.
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Banks Stats: 1962-1971
.258/.306/.448
214 HR/778 RBI
OPS+ 106
Those aren’t bad numbers, but you can definitely tell that his numbers as a first baseman were down from what he did as a shortstop. Banks played more games at first base but is better remembered as a shortstop. He had a line of .290/.353./.552 from 1953-1961 primarily playing shortstop.
Good things come to those who wait... and wait....and wait.
Ernie was bad at first base too. He was good at scooping throws in the dirt but other
than that he was like a mannequin down there. By the late 60s his WAR was pretty brutal. With Williams and an on-base machine like Santo ahead of him, you wish Banks could have been born 10 years later and played with those guys in his prime.
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