Ernest "Ernie" Banks

Born

Died

Height

Weight

Jan. 21, 1931

                        N/A                         6'1"                         180

 

Threw Batted Position(s)
Right Right ss

Ernie Banks

An all-around athlete, he started in football, basketball, and track in high school and at age seventeen signed to play semipro baseball with a barnstorming black team for $15 a game. Cool Papa Bell saw him and signed him for the Kansas City Monarchs. Playing shortstop for the Monarchs under manager Buck O'Neil, he hit .255 in 1950 but, after two years in the Army, improved to .347 in 1953.

An all-around athlete, he started in football, basketball, and track in high school and at age seventeen signed to play semipro baseball with a barnstorming black team for $15 a game. Cool Papa Bell saw him and signed him for the Kansas City Monarchs.  Playing shortstop for the Monarchs under manager Buck O'Neil, he hit .255 in 1950 but, after two years in the Army, improved to .347 in 1953.

His best major-league seasons came in 1957-60, when he hit more than 40 homers each season (winning two home-run titles and two RBI titles) and hitting for averages of .285, .31, .304, and .271. The back-to-back National League MVP awards.

He also played in eleven All-Star games and picked up a Golden Glove award in 1960. In the early 60s', while beginning to slow in the field, Banks moved to first base for the remainder of his career. The right-handed slugger, who became known as Mr. Cub, spent his entire nineteen-year major-league career with the franchise, and ended with a .274 batting average and 512 home runs. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977, in his first year of eligibility.

Courtesy of  "The Biographical Encyclopedia of The Negro Baseball Leagues" by James A. Riley

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