Ernie Banks Home Run Slugger

A biography of the star batter for the Chicago Cubs, elected by the fans as "Greatest Cub Player of All Time."

* Captivating portraits that will appeal to baseball lovers of all ages * Contains thrilling accounts of pivotal games * Filled with action photographs & statistics

Ernie Banks is perhaps the most popular ballplayer in the history of the Chicago Cubs--a man as famous for his personality and trademark phrases as for his accomplishments on the field. Nicknamed "Mr. Cub," Banks won two National League Most Valuable Player awards and slugged 512 home runs, all while battling discrimination and poverty. His conduct away from the field was so exemplary he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Based on extensive research and personal interviews conducted by the author, this biography details the life of the Texas-born shortstop and first baseman, from his childhood playing softball to his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame to his death in 2015.

Respected by his baseball peers, beloved by Chicago fans and teammates, Ernie Banks did everything there was to do in the game he loved. Everything, that is, except play in a World Series. How and why that experience eluded him during one season of particular promise—1969—is a key storyline of this fresh look at one of baseball's legendary players. Banks, who had picked cotton outside Dallas as a youth, ascended from a barnstorming semipro team to the major leagues after Kansas City Monarchs manager Buck O'Neil placed him with the Cubs. During his time in Chicago, Banks won two MVPs and received an education far better than the one he received in the segregated schools he'd attended, gaining important life skills while playing the game he was born to play.

A unique and timely exploration of the cultural impact of sport on American society, including lifestyles, language, and thinking. Sport in American Culture is the first and only reference work to provide an in-depth and up-to-date exploration of sport and its impact on American culture. Essays from more than 200 scholars, professionals, and sports enthusiasts address how sport has changed our lifestyles, language, and thinking. Arranged alphabetically, the work introduces key sport figures and national icons, with a focus on their cultural impact, examines individual sports and how they have influenced society, and discusses such phenomena as the billion-dollar athletic apparel industry, sport as big business, and the effect of sport on gender, racial views, pride, and nationalism. In addition to expected topics, the work also includes less studied areas such as myths, audience rituals, Wheaties, comic books, the hula hoop, and religion.

When Ernie Banks passed away in 2015, he was regarded as one of the most beloved men in baseball history. Making his start as a shortstop with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues as a teenager, Banks went on to become the first African American to play for the Chicago Cubs. Known affectionately as “Mr. Cub,” he brought exceptional talent and boundless optimism to the game of baseball, earning him a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a place in the Hall of Fame. In Let’s Play Two: The Life and Times of Ernie Banks, Doug Wilson explores the life of one of baseball’s most immortal figures, from his humble beginnings as a young boy living in the segregated South to his last few years and the public battles over his remains and will. Drawing on interviews of those close to Banks from all stages of his life, Wilson presents a portrait of the baseball player not just as an athlete, but also as a complex man with ambitious goals and hidden pains. Ernie Banks’s enthusiasm and skill transcended issues of race and helped him to become one of the most highly-regarded men in baseball. Offering details that have never before been printed, this book discusses Banks’s athletic prowess as well as the legacy he left behind. Let’s Play Two is the essential Ernie Banks biography for sports fans and historians alike.