Includes bibliographical references and index (421-452).
Summary:
Ernie Banks was a first-ballot Hall of Famer who played in fourteen All-Star Games, won two MVPs, and outslugged Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Mickey Mantle when they were in their prime. But while they made repeated World Series appearances in the 1950s and '60s, Banks spent his entire career with the woebegone Chicago Cubs, who didn't win a pennant in his adult lifetime. Failing to make the World Series bothered Banks so much that he even consulted a psychiatrist to see if that would help. It didn't. Yet Banks smiled through it all, never uttering a single negative word or complaint. Today, Banks is remembered best for his signature phrase, "Let's play two," which exemplifies the enthusiasm that endeared him to fans everywhere. But Bank's public display of good cheer was a mask that hid a deeply conflicted, melancholy, and often quite lonely man. Drawing on exclusive conversations with Banks and interviews with more than a hundred family members, teammates, friends, and associates as well as oral histories, court records, and many other documents and sources, Rapoport tells the full story. Let's Play Two is a moving portrait of a long-lost baseball era and the man -- and the caricature he invented for himself -- who stood at its center.
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