Miles: Rename Crosstown Cup for Ernie and Minnie

Chicago baseball has endured a rough go of it lately.

Within just a few weeks of each other, the most popular players in Cubs and White Sox history died.

Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub, died in January, just shy of his 84th birthday. On Sunday, we got the news that White Sox great Minnie Minoso passed away at age 90.

The tributes were heartfelt and effusive for Ernie, and they've begun that way for Minnie, too.

In thinking about these men who brought so much pleasure to Chicago baseball fans, I came up with a modest idea on Sunday.

As you know, the Cubs and the White Sox have been playing interleague series against each other since 1997. At some point, a marketer came up with the idea of the teams playing for a “cup” each year. It's been called the Crosstown Cup or the BP Cup, when the trophy had a corporate sponsor.

My proposal is to rename the trophy the Banks-Minoso Cup in honor of these legendary figures. And let's do it this year.

This should be a relatively simple thing to get done. The team's ownerships and/or marketing people can get together, hold a joint news conference and make the announcement.

If there comes a time when a corporate sponsor wants to get involved, that's fine, too. The trophy can be called the XYZ Corp. Banks-Minoso Cup or the Banks-Minoso Cup presented by XYZ Corp.

The most important thing is to celebrate the lives and baseball accomplishments of these two men, who wore perpetual smiles every time they were at a ballpark.

It might also give a little more meaning to and provide a little more reverence for a cup that has been ridiculed at times.

Minnie Minoso and Ernie Banks each broke his team's color barrier, Minoso with the White Sox in 1951 and Banks with the Cubs in 1953. Each man went on to become one of the most popular people in Chicago, a city with a history of race relations that has not always been proud.

That's amazing. Minnie and Ernie were amazing, transcendent figures for Chicago and for baseball.

Let's honor their memories by naming the Crosstown Cup for them.