So, I found myself thinking about old-time baseball players the other day. Ernie Banks came up in my mind, mostly because I remembered hearing his name associated with the Chicago Cubs for ages. It got me curious – what did folks actually call him? You know, his nicknames.
Naturally, the first thing I did was just hop onto my computer. Opened up a search and typed in something basic, like “Ernie Banks nickname” or “what was Ernie Banks called”. Pretty simple stuff.
Didn’t take long at all for the results to start showing up. Almost every single hit right at the top mentioned the same two names. It was pretty clear these were the main ones.
The Big Ones I Found
Here’s what kept popping up:
- Mr. Cub
- Mr. Sunshine
Now, Mr. Cub made immediate sense. The guy played his entire career, like, over 19 seasons, just for the Chicago Cubs. That’s loyalty you don’t see much anymore. So yeah, calling him Mr. Cub? Totally fits. He basically was the Cubs for a whole generation.
Then there was Mr. Sunshine. I had to read a bit more about that one. Turns out, Banks was famous for just being incredibly optimistic and cheerful. Always had a positive attitude, even when the team wasn’t doing great. He had that famous saying, “It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame… Let’s play two!” That really explains the ‘Sunshine’ nickname, doesn’t it? Just sounds like a guy who genuinely loved what he did, brightened things up.
I poked around a few more articles and forum posts, just scrolling through, you know, to see if there were any other less common ones people used. But honestly, those two seemed to be the ones that really stuck, the ones everyone knew him by. It wasn’t like some players who collect a dozen different nicknames.
So, that was that. A pretty quick search, really. Found out his main handles were Mr. Cub and Mr. Sunshine. Simple, direct, and they tell you a whole lot about the man himself – his team loyalty and his bright personality. It’s kinda neat how nicknames work like that sometimes.