Sure, Mr. Cub has a statue at Wrigley Field, but that's not enough to make Ernie Banks happy. (AP)
Ernie Banks is the Cubs. As any fan knows, he's an icon of the team perhaps equaled only in popularity and legend by Ron Santo.
- "Let's play two!"
- Back-to-back MVP awards despite his team.
- 512 homeruns.
- The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
There's little the great slugger and ambassador of the game didn't accomplish. Yet in this interview with Boston Public Radio station WBUR, the face of one of the most-storied franchises in baseball says he hasn't accomplished anything as a person.
"I haven't done anything yet. ... Nothing."
While Banks fans may scoff at that notion coming from the beloved Cub, he makes it clear he's talking about his shortcomings as a member of the human race and his desire to achieve one more award for excellence - the Nobel Peace Prize. Sure, he got edged out this year by President Obama - maybe that was art of the controversy? - but it remains Banks' largest unfulfilled dream, he tells the interviewer.
"I always had a bigger goal when I was 15, and that was to win the Nobel Peace Prize. I see myself in Stockholm. That has been my journey. I've been chasing the footsteps of my life to do something worthwhile."
Maybe the 79-year-old Banks can get closer to his dream by brokering peace between the North and South Side baseball fans in a city fractured by cross-loathing?
For now, though, the 79-year-old legend is surely plenty busy raising the 1-year-old daughter, Alyna Olivia Banks, he adopted with his wife, Liz. And, of course, still waiting for that championship parade riot in Wrigleyville.
Unfortunately, Mr. Banks will be dead long before the Cubs win a World Series Championship. Sad,but true.
Like most Chicagoans, I love EB. I also loved my mother, but recognized the symptoms of dementia when they began invade her mind in later years.
Have to agree with mind games, great great guy, but c'mon!! Peace prize is bad enough but adopting a 1 yr old at 79?? Maybe they will both wear diapers and Ernie will say "Let's Change Two"
Ernie - you've done as much as the current Nobel prize winner...go for it!
Just looking at a picture of Ernie makes me happy.
You are the greatest, Mr. Cub.