Ernie Banks ─ Mr. Cub and the Summer of '69

Respected by his baseball peers and beloved by Chicago fans and teammates, Ernie Banks did everything there was to do in the game he loved. Everything, that is, except play in a World Series. How and why that experience eluded him during one season of particular promise—1969—is a key storyline of this fresh look at one of baseball's legendary players. The life of Banks, who had picked cotton outside Dallas as a youth, ascended from a barnstorming semipro team to the major leagues after Kansas City Monarchs manager Buck O'Neil placed him with the Cubs, is detailed in this biography of Mr. Cub. During his time in Chicago, Banks won two MVPs and received an education far better than the one he received in the segregated schools he'd attended, gaining important life skills while playing the game he was born to play.

Phil Rogers is the national baseball columnist for the Chicago Tribune. As a beat reporter he has covered the Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers. His work has appeared on ESPN.com and in Baseball America, Inside Sports, and Sports Illustrated. He is the author of three books, including Say It's So, a look at the 2005 champion White Sox. He lives in Naperville, Illinois.