Glad I got to see Ernie Banks play

by G. Romero Wendorf

Sometimes you get lucky in life. One bit of luck I had was spending part of my youth growing up in the Chicago suburbs in the 1960s and early ‘70s. By the time I was about 13, I could take the Chicago L (elevated trains) with my friends and attend the Cubs baseball games. Back then, parents didn’t have to worry so much about their kids like they do today. Forty-plus years later, the names of most of the starting Cubs players are still committed to memory: Ron Santo at third, Don Kessinger at short, Glenn Beckert at second, Ernie Banks at first, Randy Hundley behind the plate, Ferguson Jenkins on the mound along with Joe Niekro and Ken Holtzman, with Billy Williams the team’s outfield star.