Many years ago, a friend gifted me an Ernie Banks autographed baseball. It came in a protective plastic case but was never authenticated. I passed it along to my son, a bigger Cubs fan, along with a signed jersey, “W” blanket, and a Cubs leather jacket. He decided to put together a collage of “Mr. Cub” items, including the ball, jersey, and 1959 baseball card in a wood and glass showcase that was proudly mounted on his living room wall.

It remained intact in my son’s Florida home until recently when they moved to the Atlantic Coast, where his wife was completing her degree in ophthalmology. He asked me to keep it safe for him during the move, along with his baseball card and comic book collections. I mounted the glass case on my office wall, along with my other precious collectables. 

One night recently, I heard a crash and discovered that the wall anchors had failed to hold, so it fell several feet to the tile floor. The glass broke into a million pieces but everything else was fortunately intact. I intended to get it fixed but with my recent back surgery it was too cumbersome to deal with, so it stood upright on the floor. My mistake was that I didn’t think about how intriguing that unprotected ball was to our one-year-old puppy, Fosse. One day out of boredom she rolled the ball out of the case and proceeded to chew the cover off. Bad Dog!

The ball is now on my desk with not even a small sign that the Bank’s autograph ever existed, although I can still make out the Rawlings logo. President William B. White’s stamped autograph as part of the OFFICIAL BALL of the NATIONAL LEAGUE seal is still visible. There are no bit marks or damage to the red stitches, so obviously the tastiest part was Ernie’s autograph, that is now in a poop bag somewhere. I know that “the dog ate my homework” is a popular excuse, but in this case, Fosse ate my Ernie. 

Ernie Banks died in 2015, ten years ago, and was still alive when I received this special ball. He was #14 and was a Cub from 1953 to 1971, played in 2,526 games with 2,583 hits, 512 HRs, and 1636 RBI’s according to the stitching on the limited-edition (2 of 14) uniform. He was inducted into the HOF in 1977 as a fourteen-time All-Star. He was also NL MVP in 1958 &1959 and is the most beloved Cub of all time (with a tasty autograph). I can buy another signed ball on Ebay, but I’m still disturbed that Mr. Cub died a painful second death in my custody!