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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.

Isn't it interesting how the universe tends to correct itself? The natural order of things goes something like this: An old tree dies in the forest, and the forces of nature conspire to use the seeds of that tree to plant a new one while the decaying matter of one helps the other grow.

So it is with a pair of Chicago athletes who have made headlines recently in the local media: Milton Bradley and Johnny Knox.

As we bid farewell as a sports community to the Cubs' Bradley, one of the worst free agent signings in Chicago sports history, we welcome with open arms (and a back-page blowout in the Sun-Times) Bears wide receiver Johnny Knox.

He's everything this city loves in an athlete: a hard-working underdog who outperforms his on-paper abilities. He's humble, he's excited to be here and, most importantly, he helped our team win a big game.

Bradley, meanwhile, represents the me-against-the-world mindset that will sink any athlete who signs with a Chicago team.

Bradley accused Cubs fans of being racist, said he felt hatred in the outfield and blamed the collective negativity at Clark and Addison for keeping the Cubs championship-less for 101 years.

Knox, meanwhile, gets nervous before games and was in awe playing at Soldier Field Sunday in front of more fans than he played in front of his entire senior season at Abilene Christian College.

Brad Biggs spoke with Knox's college coach Chris Thomsen. "I guess it's all about getting your opportunity," Thomsen said when asked about Knox's early NFL success. "Maybe it surprised me his opportunity has come this early. It doesn't surprise me he is doing well. He is a tremendous worker. he has a tremendously positive attitude."

Every athlete who puts on a uniform for a Chicago sports franchise has an opportunity. Johnny Knox has the same opportunity Milton Bradley was afforded when he signed with the Cubs last summer: to play professional sports in one of the greatest sports cities on Earth. So far, it would seem Knox is doing everything right.

Sure, it's early. He could fizzle, wake the Soldier Field boo birds and draw our ire. But for now, he's a hard-working rookie who can do no wrong. Not to mention his "tremendously positive attitude," which makes him The Anti-Milton. 

Johnny Knox is the break Chicago sports fans needed to cure their Bradley-era hangover. He and future athletes fortunate enough to play in this market would do well to follow suit.

The Cubs "7th inning stretch"  officially jumped the shark last night.

Ironically, it took Richard Dreyfuss--he of "Jaws" fame--to send it overboard.

The guy admitted he had not watched a game since 1988. He had no idea Bill Murray was a Cubs fan. And, he rambled on about how screwed up our country is. Just what we want to hear while watching America's Pastime.

If you missed it, here's some of the  transcript:

A seemingly routine fly ball off the bat of White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski in the eighth inning of Thursday's game ended with an opportunity for Steve Stone to rip Alfonso Soriano and the Cubs.

As Soriano moved into position to catch the pop-up, he misjudged it, dropped it and allowed Pierzynski to reach third base and Gordon Beckham to score.  

Stone, the former Cubs broadcaster and Current White Sox color analyst, took the opportunity to point out, "That's what you get when you put a designated hitter in left field."

Stone also criticized Soriano for his lack of enthusiasm in retrieving the ball after he dropped it.

The play marked Soriano's 11th error of the season in left field.

Stone refused a contract extension with the Cubs in 2004 amid controversy fueled by his sharp criticism of the team.  

With the Cubs' lackluster 2009 campaign spiraling into absurdity, it's fair to wonder why 39,907 people still showed up to watch the coldest August Cubs game in team history. I wondered it myself as I sat shivering in the press box.

There was nothing to celebrate on the field. No one got to sing "Go Cubs Go" at the end of the game. The team's only run came in the first inning and they lost, pathetically, to one of the most miserable teams in professional sports, the Mets.

But in the moments after the fans had cleared the stadium, I was reminded exactly why the fans still insist upon showing up in droves. 

As a family was getting a tour of the press box, a little girl -- couldn't have been older than six -- found herself in Bob Brenly and Len Kasper's broadcast booth. She did what came naturally: She belted "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" with all her might. It was delightfully off-key and more yelled than sung, like kids are wont to do in those situations. Few, if any, heard her; but she didn't care. She knew -- probably from watching the broadcasts -- that when you're in the booth, you sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

It's what any logical Cubs fan would do, and arguably the best thing that happened on this day at the corner of Clark and Addison.

The first time my father brought me to Wrigley Field I was four years old. We sat in the left field bleachers. Gary Matthews was mere feet from me and he was huge. Coincidentally, the Mets beat the Cubs that day 4-1. Dwight Gooden pitched. Jim Frey was ejected. Jody Davis, my favorite player at the time, hit a homer for the Cubs' only run. I was hooked.

Since 2003, the mentality of Cub fandom has shifted somehow. Having come so close to the World Series that year, fans now expect a winner, and management has shelled out the money to make it happen. For the last two years, the regular season has ended with the streets blocked off and hordes of people wandering Wrigleyville drunk on a mixture of beer, and hope. But mostly beer.

Barring a minor miracle, it's not gonna happen this year.

In the subsequent seasons after my first game at Wrigley, the Cubs weren't exactly putting together winning teams. With the exception of 1989 and 1998, my childhood and adolescence was spent cheering for a group of lovable losers. I didn't mind. I was always amazed and proud of the fact that even though the team's bats were empty, the seats were full.

Despite a few chunks of empty seats that played like pock marks on the Friendly Confines Sunday, the stadium was still more than 95 percent full. Fans were still into it. After Saturday's 11-run outburst, there was a sense that maybe if the team could get hot the wild card wasn't too far out of reach. Those hopes were dashed with each of the 11 hits Carlos Zambrano gave  up in his 3 1/3 innings of work. 

It's time for Cub fans to return to their roots. It's time for them to embrace the losing and do what we do best: have a damn good time doing it.
 
It's time to stop bemoaning the fact that the team failed to live up to some lofty expectations. It's time to forget the fact that as a group they haven't earned their payroll -- the third highest in the league.

It's time to appreciate baseball for what it is on the North Side. Soon, it'll be gone and the old mantra, "Wait 'til next year," will creep into our collective consciousness.

If you live in Chicago, there will be a day in January or February -- as freezing rain becomes an icy sidewalk and we haven't seen the sun in weeks -- that a Cubs loss on an unseasonably cool day in August doesn't seem all that bad. In fact, it'll seem like paradise.

Something, perhaps, that only a six-year-old songstress could truly appreciate in the moment.

We now know the identity of the man suspected to have tossed a cup of beer on Shane Victorino's head during the fifth inning of Wednesday's Cubs-Phillies game.

Our colleague here at the Sun-Times, Mark Konkol, reports that Johnny Macchione of Bartlett turned himself in to police today. Chicago Police charged the 21-year-old Macchione Thursday night with one count each of battery and illegal conduct within a sports facility. Both are misdemeanor charges.

Police say Macchione threw a beer on Shane Victorino's head during the fifth inning of Wednesday night's blowout. A fan was immediately hauled away -- but it was the wrong fan. News sites and blogs splashed Macchione's photo up all day, and he turned himself in to Belmont area detectives this afternoon.

Deadspin shares with us this photo of the now-infamous Cub fan:  

Another night game at Wrigley Field, another idiot fan throwing stuff on the field. This time, though, taking it the extra mile, dumping a beer on the Philadelphia Phillies' centerfielder Shane Victorino in the fifth inning of a 12-5 drubbing Wednesday night.

Of course, this is hardly the first time - and, sadly, probably not the last - that a Cubs night game has turned into a farce because of an idiot fan, too boozed up to class up the joint. Of course security intervened, though whether they got the right guy is in question, but that's not the point. This stuff shouldn't be happening.

There have been charges of racist taunts from the bleachers. We've seen trash dumped on the field. There's the general raucous frat boy atmosphere that permeates night games, particularly in the bleachers.

What gives? Why can't fans cheer and boo, as they have every right to do, without resorting to drunken hooliganism? Is it time to simply ban booze from the Bud Light Bleachers altogether? Because there are clearly at least a handful of idiots who can't handle a couple $6 brews at the ballgame.

We've seen this behavior during national telecasts and in high-profile games, like this late-season contest against the World Series Champion Phillies, and unfortunately it's building a reputation for Cubs fans outside the Friendly Confines that's anything but what we want.

Classless.

Drunks.

Poor fans.

Is that what we want? Is that something you're happy with Cubs fans?

And if you're one of the types who insists this gives home-field advantage or makes us look like a tough sports city, you probably also think you're the funny one being a loudmouth at the bar with your buddies egging you on when all you really are is a loudmouth jerk making an ass of yourself.

Stay classy Bleacher Bums. And keep your trash - and your beer - to yourself.

(Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)

During the fifth inning of Wednesday night's Cubs-Phillies game, one Wrigley Field bleacher dweller took out his frustration with the Cubs' poor performance on Shane Victorino.

With the bases loaded, Jake Fox lofted a fly ball to the warning track. Just as the ball was about to fall in Victorino' glove, the contents of one fan's beverage was projected onto the center fielder's head. Victorino made the catch, and Sean Marshall tagged and scored on the play.

Sun-Times photographer Tom Cruze immortalized the moment -- for better or worse -- in the photo at the top of this post. 

Wrigley Field security moved in quickly to escort the fan from his seat, but upon further review, it's possible they targeted the wrong tosser. Deadspin has identified who they think are the beer thrower and the fall guy:

He just won't go away, no matter how much Cubs fans want him to.

Steve Bartman and his active hands will be the subject of an hour-long documentary on ESPN. The film will be directed by Alex Gibney, who drew rave reviews for his documentary on Enron.

The project will attempt to answer the question: Can Bartman ever forgive Chicago? Prepare to be made to feel bad about yourself.

The project does not yet have a title.

Astros relief pitcher Jeff Fulchino reveals a ground hit ball by Chicago Cubs' Kosuke Fukudome that went into his jersey during the fifth inning of Tuesday's game. (AP Photo)

The strangest play during Tuesday night's slug-fest at Wrigley Field came in the fifth inning when Cubs leadoff hitter Kosuke Fukudome bounced a ball up the middle to Astros reliever Jeff Fulchino. The ball took an awkward hop and ricocheted off Fulchino's glove and into his jersey.

That's right ... the ball inexplicably found its way into his jersey.

With Fukudome streaking toward first base, Fulchino dug his hand into his jersey, but was unable to fish it out because the ball had wound its way around to his side. Not quite sure how to react, he threw his hands in the air -- a move akin to the motion outfielders make at Wrigley when a ball is lost in the ivy.

Fukudome was awarded first base, notching a hit on the play, and a laugh from Fulchino.

"I thought I had knocked it down," Fulchino said after the game. "I looked down and I was like, 'Where is it?' Then I felt it right over here to my side and I was like, 'You gotta be kidding me.' At that point there was nothing I could do so it was more frustration -- this is how my outing's going to start?"

The blooper would prove beneficial in the Cubs' comeback attempt, and set up the only bit of excitement for the 40,814 Cub fans in attendance. Third baseman Aramis Ramirez drove in Fukudome  and Derrek Lee three batters later on a home run to left field to tie the game 6-6.

After the game, the right-handed UConn alum was still uncertain about what exactly happened.

"It cracked the button on my shirt and when it ricocheted off,"  Fulchino said, stopping mid-sentence. "I don't know how it got in there. What can you say?"

Cubs manager Lou Piniella was equally at a loss for words about the play.

"How about that one?" Piniella said. "Just when you think you've seen everything ..."

Incidentally, Fulchino notched his first career hit in the game -- a double to the left-field corner off Sean Marshall.

He was asked whether he thought he would always remember his first major league hit as the game where he got a ball stuck in his jersey.

"I think it'll be the other way around," Fulchino said. "I think I'll remember the game because the ball got stuck in my jersey and I happened to get a hit that game."