CHICAGO (AP) — Ernie Banks fans got their first chance to pay their respects to the most famous and beloved Chicago Cub who ever played after the statue of the Hall of Famer was placed in a downtown plaza Wednesday.
One after another, fans stopped in Daley Plaza to take photos of the statue that normally stands at Wrigley Field. The city and the Cubs took the unprecedented step of taking the statue out of storage – where it was being held while the ballpark is renovated – and putting it on public display away from its usual home.
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The statue will remain at Daley Plaza through Saturday, just a few feet away from a Picasso sculpture – an ironic placement given that in 1967 an alderman called on the city to replace what he saw as a hideous piece of junk with a statue of, that’s right, Ernie Banks.
