September 26, 1971: Let’s play no more: Ernie Banks appears in final game for Chicago Cubs

Much like the clouds on what the Philadelphia Inquirer called a “foggy and chilly”1 Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field, uncertainty hung over Ernie Banks’ retirement status on September 26, 1971. While the media speculated on the possibility, with headlines leading up to the game such as “Has Ernie’s Sun Set at Last?” in the Chicago Sun-Times,2 the 40-year-old Banks was sounding a different tone.

“I’m ready to play next season,” Banks said. “[Cubs general manager] John Holland told me he’d like to see me play 20 years. That’s my objective too.”3

Sensing this might be the end, though, the crowd was lovingly hyperfocused on its longtime hero, as “every move by Mr. Cub brought an ovation,” reported the Philadelphia Inquirer.4  Cubs fans had turned out in droves over the course of the season, a byproduct of both the exciting 1969 season, in which the team held a nine-game lead in the NL East Division on August 16, only to eventually finish out of the playoffs and eight games behind the eventual World Series winners the New York Mets, and the club nearly bookending its fifth of what would eventually be six consecutive finishes above .500. The 18,505 present to see Banks’ possible finale had pushed the season attendance to 1,653,007, which at the time was the second-most fans in the club’s history.5

Banks, famous for his catchphrase of “Let’s play two,” had integrated the Cubs when he debuted on September 17, 1953. He went on to win two MVPs (1958 and 1959) and a Gold Glove and make 14 All-Star Game appearances with Chicago. Both his 512 home runs and 2,528 games played are the most (as of 2025) for a player who never appeared in a postseason game. 

The franchise’s all-time leader in games played, at-bats, and home runs, Banks had been named a player-coach prior to the 1967 season and had seen his playing time diminish greatly, playing in 72 and 39 games respectively during his final two seasons of 1970 and 1971.

The team announced that not only would Banks start each game of the three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies, but that he also would miss the team’s final three games in Montréal due to foot surgery scheduled for his wife, Eloyce.6 Batting just .188 in his part-time role, Banks had two hits, including a double, in eight at-bats as Chicago and Philadelphia split the series’ first two games.

Coming into Sunday’s finale, the Cubs were in third place in the NL East Division at 82-76, 13½ games behind the eventual division champion Pittsburgh Pirates. The Phillies were mired in last place in the same division, 31 games back, at 65-94. 

Before the game, Banks was his usual relaxed self and not giving any extra weight to the moment. He signed autographs for children on the field before saying, “Let’s go. Let’s go. Sunday in America,” while settling into the batting cage.7 During warm-ups Banks added, “They’ll be no nostalgia. … Let’s just play this one to win.”8

Right before the game, the crowd got a jolt when public-address announcer Pat Pieper announced that the day’s game would be the end of a long and prominent baseball career … for umpire Al Barlick.9 Barlick had begun calling NL games in 1940, debuting in a Phillies-Boston Braves doubleheader on September 8, and this would be the last of his Hall of Fame career.

Banks was playing first base that afternoon but had started his career at shortstop, where he had set single-season records for the fewest errors at that position (12 in 154 games) and highest fielding percentage (.985), both in 1959. But 25-year-old Larry Bowa,10 closing out his second season as Philadelphia’s shortstop that afternoon, was on his way to surpassing both of those marks, finishing 1971 with 11 errors and a .987 fielding percentage.

Starting for the Cubs was right-hander Joe Decker, who was already 2-0 against the Phillies for the season and had not allowed a run to them in 13 innings. In his previous appearance against Philadelphia, on September 17, he got the win by pitching eight shutout innings. Decker would finish the season 3-2 with a 4.73 earned-run average.

Leading off the game, Bowa singled, one of his three hits in the game, and was caught stealing. Decker put the Phillies down in order after that.

Against Phillies lefty Ken Reynolds (4-9, 4.70), Cleo James hit a leadoff single for the Cubs and remained there with two outs. Banks strode to the plate to the sound of a standing ovation11 and squibbed a 2-and-2 groundball to third baseman Deron Johnson. Attempting to field it behind the bag, Johnson booted the ball, then uncorked an off-target throw to first. 

Giving Banks a little home cooking, the official scorer judged that it was a hit, number 2,583 and the last in his career. “It turned out the official scorer was nostalgic,” said the Chicago Sun-Times.12 A subsequent two-out single by future Hall of Famer Ron Santo plated James for the Cubs’ only run of the day. 

A pair of relative newcomers carried the day for the Phillies. Left fielder Roger Freed, who the Philadelphia Inquirer said up to that point was “one of the major disappointments this season,” produced the largest offensive output of his rookie season as he “erupted from a five-month slump.”13

Freed, who was named 1970 International League Player of the Year by Topps and Minor League Player of the Year by The Sporting News, came into the game hitting .217 with 5 home runs and 33 RBI in 115 games.  The 25-year-old’s first hit was an RBI double in the third, scoring Denny Doyle. 

After consecutive singles by rookie Greg Luzinski and Doyle in the fourth inning, Decker was relieved by Jim Colborn, whom Freed welcomed with a three-run home run to left-center. Freed added a single in the sixth to finish 3-for-4 with four RBIs. Mike Anderson, a 20-year-old September call-up, also hit an RBI double in the third inning to round out Philadelphia’s scoring.            

Reynolds, wrapping up his first full major-league season, threw a complete game. After a rough first inning in which he allowed three hits and one run, he held the Cubs scoreless the rest of the game. 

The only jam Reynolds faced was in the bottom of the fifth inning, when he walked leadoff pinch-hitter Chris Cannizzaro and gave up a single to James, which moved pinch-runner Gene Hiser to second base. Reynolds then coaxed a 6-3 double-play grounder out of Paul Popovich. Though this moved Hiser to third, Reynolds retired Carmen Fanzone on a lineout to Freed in left to escape the jam.

Reynolds contributed offensively as well, going 2-for-4 and scoring the go-ahead run in the third on Anderson’s double.

While Banks had a quiet day at the plate the rest of the game, the crowd was not so quiet during those at-bats. As future Banks biographer Ron Rapoport later wrote, they “stood and shouted”14 each time he came to the plate, with Banks drawing a walk and being stranded in the third before grounding out to Bowa in the sixth. 

Adding a touch of drama as the game progressed, the Wrigley Field organist began choosing songs befitting a man playing out the last innings of his career. The theme from Midnight Cowboy played in the sixth inning and from Love Story in the seventh. When Banks took the field in the top of the eighth, the organist conjured the passing of the great career with the sentimental “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof, while first-base umpire Paul Pryor removed his hat and held it over his heart as a tribute to Banks.15

Throughout Banks’ final at-bat, in the bottom of the eighth, the crowd stood and cheered.16 He took a called strike and then lifted an easy pop foul to third baseman John Vukovich, who had run for Johnson in the seventh.  

There was one more loud cheer toward the end of this game, but not for Banks. This came when the hundreds of transistor radios17 being listened to in the stands announced that the NFL’s Chicago Bears, playing that day in Minnesota, had just defeated the Vikings.18 This was the first season in half a century that the Bears were not playing their home games at Wrigley Field.19 

When asked after the 5-1 Cubs loss if he was retiring, Banks said, “[O]nly 162 days until spring training. I feel young as a boy.”20 But this was Banks’ last game as a player, as the Cubs released him early in the subsequent offseason. 

The Cubs finished in third place after losing two of their final three games in Montréal for a final tally of 83-79, while the Phillies split their final two games at home against the Pirates to complete a 67-95 last-place season. 

Banks stayed with the Cubs as a coach for the next two seasons and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1977. Six years later, he became the first Cubs player to have his number retired. He continued to be connected to the franchise as a team ambassador21 until his death on January 23, 2015.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Harrison Golden and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Ernie Banks, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN197109260.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1971/B09260CHN1971.htm

Notes

1 Bill Conlin, “Bowa Benching One for the Books,” Philadelphia Daily News, September 27, 1971: 55.

2 Tom Fitzpatrick, “Has Ernie’s Sun Set at Last?” Chicago Sun-Times, September 27, 1971: 5.

3 Ron Rapoport, Let’s Play Two: The Legend of Mr. Cub, The Life of Ernie Banks (New York, Boston: Hachette Books), 351.

4 Conlin, “Bowa Benching One for the Books.”

5 Richard Dozer, “Cubs Leave Home Losers,” Chicago Tribune, September 27, 1971: 66. As of the end of the 2025 season the Cubs’ single-season attendance record was set in 2008, when 3,300,200 fans came to Wrigley Field.

6 Edgar Munzel, “Farewell! Cubs Lose,” Chicago Sun-Times, September 27, 1971: 105.

7 Rapoport, Let’s Play Two, 352.

8 Fitzpatrick, “Has Ernie’s Sun Set at Last?”

9 Rapoport, Let’s Play Two, 352.

10 Bowa went on to play for the Cubs from 1982 to 1985, and as shortstop for the 1984 NL East Division champions, he played in the postseason with the Cubs – a feat Banks was never able to enjoy.

11 Dozer, “Cubs Leave Home Losers.”

12 Fitzpatrick, “Has Ernie’s Sun Set at Last?”

13 Allen Lewis, “Freed Drives In 4 As Phils Beat Cubs,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 27, 1971: 18.

14 Rapoport, Let’s Play Two, 353.

15 Fitzpatrick, “Has Ernie’s Sun Set at Last?”

16 Rapoport, Let’s Play Two, 353.

17 Dozer, “Cubs Leave Home Losers.”

18 The Bears scored 17 straight points in the fourth quarter for a 20-17 win over the Vikings at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota. “Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings – September 26, 1971,” Pro-Football-Reference.com,

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/197109260min.htm. Accessed August 2025.

19 The Bears had moved to Soldier Field for the 1971 season.

20 Conlin, “Bowa Benching One for the Books.”

21 Banks and the Cubs briefly parted ways in 1983. Ira Berkow, “The ‘Cub Family’ Bids Goodbye to Banks,” New York Times, June 14, 1983: D,9, https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/14/sports/cubs-family-minus-banks.html.