Ernie Banks' New Statue: Not a Testament to Good Grammar

On Saturday night I was in Wrigleyville on my way to a bar to celebrate a friend's birthday. As I got off at the Addison stop of the red line stop so many Cubs fans take to see their favorite team played, I walked along outside of Wrigley Field on my way to the bar. As I was walking by the stadium, I came across the as of yet unveiled statue of Ernie Banks.

The statue was wrapped up for the most part, except for Ernie's feet and the statue's base. It didn't take me long to notice something wrong with the statue. The statue was inscribed with Banks' legendary "Let's play two!" mantra, but there was one tiny little problem. It didn't say "Let's Play Two" it said "Lets Play Two." My first reaction, of course, was to chuckle and think to myself that only the Cubs could screw up a monument to one of their all-time greats, and then I wondered how on earth nobody else had noticed this mistake.

Then the team unveiled the statue on Monday, and well, people noticed.

At least half the people I asked leaned toward the inscription, mouthed it-Lets play two, lets play two, lets play two-then shook their heads, no.

"That's just a nitpicky thing about English," said a guy named Brian when I pointed it out. He declined to give his last name on the grounds that he didn't want to be on the record insulting the Cubs.

Cub fan Ken Royal, on the other hand, would have made his grade-school teacher Mrs. Cassert proud.

"There's an apostrophe missing," he said without hesitation. "Who engraved it? Who did the inspection? All these years to get a statue for him and . . ."

Royal shrugged, and said, almost happily, "That's the Cubs for you."

Indeed, that is the Cubs for you.

In defense of the man who made the statue, Lou Cella, he's a sculptor not an English teacher. Still, whoever his English teachers were growing up, they're no doubt hanging their heads in shame. I don't want to get on Cella too bad here, though, because I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten to put an apostrophe in a word I type here, or sometimes I put one in its when it isn't called for just out of habit.

I'm here for you if you need someone to talk you through this, Lou.

Of course, the Cubs do plan on fixing the mistake.

UPDATE: Not only do the Cubs plan on fixing the mistake, they already have! Thanks to our very own PostmanR for discovering the correction.