Cubs, City Of Chicago Will Celebrate Ernie Banks' Life

If you want to help join in on the public celebration of the life and career of Ernie Banks, here's what is happening this week, and I figured it simply best to post the details as they were sent in a press release from the Cubs:

The Chicago Cubs and Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced today that Ernie Banks’ Wrigley Field statue will be placed in Daley Plaza this week from Wednesday morning through Saturday, allowing fans to honor and remember the Hall of Famer. Banks passed away Friday night after suffering cardiac arrest at the age of 83.

Banks became the first player in Cubs history to be honored with a statue at Wrigley Field in 2008. Mayor Emanuel and the City of Chicago will host the statue, which has been temporarily removed from its home at the corner of Clark and Addison during the current phase of the Wrigley Field restoration project. The statue is being transported from a facility outside of the city where it is being restored and will be placed in Daley Plaza upon arrival in Chicago.  

Mayor Emanuel called Banks a friend who was a great ambassador for the City.

“Ernie Banks’ legacy extends far beyond his Hall of Fame stats. He was beloved by generations of people for the way he played on the field and – more importantly – for the kind and warm person he was off the field,” said Mayor Emanuel. “We are bringing Ernie’s statue to Daley Plaza to honor not just one of the best ballplayers of all time, but a great man who made our city proud from the day we first met him in 1953.”

"Ernie Banks was a great player and an even better person,” said Tom Ricketts, Chairman of the Cubs.  “He was a kind, gentle man who loved his fans as much as they loved him.  We couldn't think of a better way to honor Ernie than to allow those fans a way to pay their final respects to this great man."

I'm sure there will be more announced soon; there were indications that there will be some sort of public memorial service for Ernie, and, of course, I would expect that the Cubs will have a ceremony on Opening Night for him as well as other celebrations of his life and baseball career throughout the 2015 baseball season.