A former Cubs prospect, Jesse White learned from Ernie Banks

When Secretary of State Jesse White was a young Chicago Cubs prospect in the early 1960s, legendary slugger Ernie Banks would hold court at spring training dinners with other black players.

White, 81, says Banks was “our godfather,” a player “who we rallied around. And we would meet at this restaurant, and we'd talk baseball. And he'd give us guidance about how to conduct ourselves.”

The Cubs' playoff run means a little more to the fifth-term statewide officeholder, who played from 1959 to 1966 in the Cubs farm system. He made it close to the major leagues but never got that coveted call.

Still, the advice White says Banks relayed about hard work and moving up in the world could apply as neatly to politics as it does to baseball.

“You cannot just expect a promotion to come from the sky,” White said.

He says the only time he played at Wrigley Field aside from a softball game among lawmakers was at a tryout in 1956, 11 years after the team's last World Series appearance. After that tryout, he was signed by the Cubs organization but would be drafted by the Army shortly afterward.

“Instead of going to spring training, I went to basic training,” White said.

In 1959, White started playing for the low-level Potashers of Carlsbad, New Mexico. He eventually made it to the highest levels of the minor leagues, playing a couple od years for the AAA Salt Lake City Bees in the early 1960s.

He finished with a lifetime .291 batting average, but the game is different now.

“I think there's more enthusiasm for the game today, especially here in Chicago, than ever before,” he said. “I cannot ever remember there being this much enthusiasm for the Cubs. The players are a lot younger. They're a lot faster. And they pitch the ball a lot faster.

“But we played ... for the love of the game and not so much for the money involved, because we didn't get paid that much.”

With the Cubs facing the New York Mets for the right to play in the World Series, White praised Cubs management for putting together a winner. Because, maybe like many fans, he didn't expect this level of success so soon from Cubs President Theo Epstein.

“When they brought Epstein in, I didn't think he'd be the miracle worker he was purported to be,” White said. “He's been that and more.”