MMeM, Vol. 11 Issue 4 – Let’s play 2!

…only wanted to talk about you.

All too often, we make note of the bad. Bad issues, bad people, whatever, I guess it’s human nature it’s what gets our attention or it’s how we get noticed. We talk about bad things that happen or bad people and bad times. But sometimes, good things happen or are discovered during the saddest of times. Today was one of those times for me.

It might be known and maybe not, but I’m a life long-suffering Die Hard Card Carrying Member of The Die Hard Cubs’ Fan Club. I suppose it comes with my self-deprecating sense of humor or something or other. Anyway, I have been a Cubs fan for as long as I can remember, in fact I know exactly when it started too. I was at a Cubs-Cardinals game in Busch Stadium with my dad and my cousin Missie and her dad Johnnie. Before this game, I was pretty much non-committed to anything beyond popcorn or Cracker Jack. But it happened when the Cubs had a big rally late in the game and Missie and I were pretty well done with the game. Until, I remember we started cheering for the Cubs through the Cardinals’ megaphones which had been the popcorn holders from which we had eaten.

I can still remember the look of disgust on my dad’s face as he peered over at me. I thought, “Well, you are a Cardinal’s fan and YOUR dad is a Cubs’ fan, SOoooo….what?” And, so it began. Needless to say it was a long drive home that night and that look of disgust on my dad’s face certainly wasn’t the last time I’d see that.

Flash forward to today. Ernie Banks, Chicago Cubs’ shortstop, “Mr. Cub”, #14, Hall of Fame, “Let’s play 2!, 19 seasons, 512 Career Homeruns, and those are just a few of the stats that EVERY Cubfan knows bar-none. But, today was his funeral and it was, as far as funerals go, one for the ages. Ernie was an even better person than he was a baseball player and that reverberated over and over again throughout the televised service.

chi-photos-chicago-mourns-ernie-banks-20150124-012Toward the end of the 3+ hour televised program the minister said something that almost slipped chi-banks31hearse-20150131past me. She said that Ernie Banks was the Cubs’ first African-American player. Everyone knows about Jackie Robinson and maybe most fans know who the first African-American player was for their favorite team, but how, HOW did this fact escape me all these years? Again, Jackie was MLB’s 1st, Ernie was their 8th, and the Cubs’ 1st. How, HOW could Mr. Cub also be our 1st? WoW.

I’ll tell you how. This escaped me because this amazing man, baseball player, and humble human being did such a great job at living life that the fact he was the Chicago Cubs’ first African-American player didn’t get “talked” about much because there was SO much other stuff to talk about with Ernie and because he only wanted to talk about YOU. Born and raised in Dallas, TX, Ernie called his mom everyday from the time he left to 1st play for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues until his death. She’d always tell him when things got hard, what with being Chicago’s 1st African-American player and all, to “Kill’em with kindness”. Oh, and the saddest thing maybe, is when parents’ have to bury their children…yeah, Ernie’s mother is still alive. Ernie was 83 when he died on January 23, 2015 and he’s being buried today on his birthday. Again, WoW.

Above all else, in this very flawed and very broken world in which we all live, today I learned something. Even though we have so far yet to go, we have made some progress to truly be proud of because of people like Ernie. Not long ago, Ernie accepted an award from our 1st black president. President Barrack Obama presented Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor and in return, on behalf of baseball, Ernie presented the president with a bat of Jackie Robinson’s. WoW.

Talk about full circle.

14pmof

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Blogger, in search of humor, always. Writer of MidwesternMeditations.com, formerly hosted on Blogger.