[Cusick]

Ben Banks was the younger brother of Ernie Banks. Since he was two years younger, I believe that Ben was born in the final months of 1932. He died in 1969 at the age of 37. He was a second baseman.

The Cubs signed Ben to a minor league contract. In the spring of 1956, they brought him to their major league camp as a non-roster invitee. After that, they assigned him to the Lafayette (LA) Oilers in the Evangeline League. According to the biography of Ernie Banks, LET'S PLAY TWO, by Ron Rapoport, once Ben arrived in Lafayette, "he met a woman who went with him to California." The book contains a quote from Ernie that says that Ben simply left the team and said he didn't like baseball. Ernie was also quoted as saying that Ben had more talent than he did.

Before arriving with the Cubs, Ben had played for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues.

The photo on the left appeared on a website called scoopnest.com in 2016. The photo on the right is from the Chicago Tribune of Feb. 10, 1956.


There is no record for this Ben Banks in baseball-reference.com. The Ben Banks on that website is a different player.

P.S. A little more reading brought me a clearer explanation of why Ben Banks never played for the Lafayette Oilers. A 2013 article called "A League of Their Own," by Ryan Whitney, covered some history of the Evangeline League. The article said that in early 1956, the East Baton Rouge Parish, where the League's Baton Rouge Rebels team was located, promulgated a rule that prohibited visiting League teams from playing black players in the city-owned ballpark there. That put pressure on the League, and a few weeks later instead of supporting its players, the League itself required all its teams to transfer their black ball players off their rosters. According to another book, LET'S PLAY TWO: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ERNIE BANKS, by Doug Wilson, Ben Banks was reassigned to Twins Falls, ID where the Cubs' Magic Valley Cowboys of the Class C Pioneer League played. That must have been when he left for California.