![Let's Play Two](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
![Let's Play Two](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
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Let's Play Two
The Life and Times of Ernie Banks
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- USD 23.99
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- USD 23.99
Descripción editorial
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this exuberant biography, Wilson (Pudge: The Biography of Carlton Fisk) takes an in-depth look at Ernie Banks (1931 2015), the beloved Chicago Cubs player whose trademark phrase "Let's play two" summed up his joy at playing the sport. Drawing from interviews with Banks's childhood friends and teammates, Wilson delivers a solid look at the Hall of Famer, who played his entire 19-season career for the Cubs and amassed 512 home runs. He takes readers from Banks's childhood in segregated Dallas of the 1940s through his early years as a member of the Negro League's Kansas City Monarchs ("Midwestern white fans had never before had cause to cheer for a black man"), and to Chicago, where Banks developed his genial "Mr. Cub" persona, which came out of his belief in the American Dream and in "hard work and patience, and being a good role model." In workmanlike prose, Wilson expertly chronicles Banks's development as a player, presenting a detailed look at how he was "one of the two best shortstops the game has even known," until a 1961 injury forced him to play first base for the rest of his career. This is an insightful look at the truth and the legend of the man forever known as "Mr. Cub."