"Growing up, every kid I knew wanted to be Ernie Banks, Chicago's
'Mr. Cub.' But there was much more to Ernie than his MVP seasons or
his famously sunny outward demeanor. Let's Play Two captures the best
of Banks' playing moments, but also delves deeply into a man who did
not seem to want you to know more than you could see. Rapoport, a
legendary Chicago sportswriter, has written a fascinating, readable,
and impeccably researched book about a man who was a Hall of Famer,
but also a decided creature of his times." ―Scott Turow
"This is a wonderful book worthy of all the energy and vitality Ernie Banks brought to his remarkable career. But it is also a revealing portrait of the often difficult life of a black ballplayer in America and the often lonely man imprisoned and isolated by his exuberant outer image." ―Ken Burns
"Hooray! Ernie Banks now has the Hall-of-Fame biography he deserves thanks to Ron Rapoport. This well-researched, beautifully written book is everything a baseball fan could want. Cubs fans, of course, will want to buy two." ―Jonathan Eig, author of Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig and Ali: A Life
"Ernie Banks crossed the bridge from a segregated nation and national pastime to a better place, smiling all the way. Although his smile was real, so were the scarring experiences he smiled through. He was more complicated and interesting than the human sunbeam he chose to resemble. With a reporter's diligence and a historian's sensibility, Ron Rapoport tells Banks' story, and that of the different nations at the two ends of the bridge." ―George F. Will
"This is the definitive biography of baseball's Mr. Sunshine, and Ron Rapoport is the one writer who knew him best and could tell it like it was -- including the 'other side of sunshine.'" ―Bill Madden, author of Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball
Ernie Banks, the first-ballot Hall of Famer and All-Century Team shortstop, played in fourteen All-Star Games, won two MVPs and a Gold Glove Award, and twice led the Major Leagues in home runs and runs batted in. His signature phrase, "Let's play two," has entered the American lexicon and exemplifies an enthusiasm and optimism that endeared him to fans everywhere.
But Banks's public display of good cheer was also a mask that hid a deeply conflicted and complex man. He spent his entire career with the Chicago Cubs, who fielded some of baseball's worst teams, and became one of the greatest players never to reach the World Series. He endured poverty and racism as a young man, and the scorn of Cubs manager Leo Durocher as an aging superstar. Yet Banks smiled through it all, never complaining and never saying a negative word about his circumstances or the people around him.
Based on numerous conversations with Banks, and on more than a hundred interviews with family, teammates, friends, and associates--as well as oral histories, court records, and thousands of other documents and sources--Let's Play Two tells Banks's story along with that of the woebegone Cubs teams he played for. This fascinating chronicle features Buck O'Neil, Philip K. Wrigley, the Bleacher Bums, the doomed pennant race of 1969, and much more from a long lost baseball era.