Ernie Banks at the Ballpark

It was Ernie Banks #14 hat day at the ballpark last night, and he sang during the 7th inning stretch. You can see it here. Instead of wearing the hat that they were giving away in his honor, he wore this hat. Let's hope he got paid well for that, because it looked shabby.

He was his typical self during the interview, somewhat charming, but also showing a distinct lack of knowledge about the current team, or the talents of its players. He thought Cliff Floyd was 22. He called Ryne Sandberg "firey" when Len and Bob's point was that it was out of character for Ryno to be ejected 3 times already as a Class A manager.

In that conversation, he did refer to Dusty Baker as "always bitching..." about the trevails of a big league manager. Strong words from Mr. Cub, but he said them so nonchalantly, that you have to believe he was not looking to shame Dusty, just describing his tone. Dusty "bitching" to Ernie. Pathetic.

The other highlight of last night was the benching of Michael Barrett and Koyie Hill's two hits. And, of course, Sean Marshall pitched great.