After spending the last 18 months in the Japanese Baseball League with the Onix Blue Wave, Jersey City native Willie Banks was looking for any way out. “To be totally honest, I was planning to tell them that I had a death in the family, and then never come back,” said Banks, the former St. Anthony High School all-state pitching sensation who was drafted by the Minnesota Twins as the No. 3 pick overall in the country in 1987. He then spent five seasons in the major leagues, ending with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 1998, then headed to Japan in the spring of 1999. “I’m the kind of guy that finishes something once he starts it,” Banks said. “But being in Japan was basically a nightmare. I just didn’t care anymore. I wanted to get out. I love baseball so much that I never thought I would hate the game, but I began to hate it there.” Banks never really had a strong professional identity while in Japan. The Blue Wave never gave him a defined role with the team’s pitching staff. He pitched in only 13 games in 1999, posting a 3-3 record with a 3.94 earned run average, starting in only two games. This year, the team planned to make him a starter and used him in only 10 games, posting an 0-5 record with a 6.40 ERA. When a coach told Banks that he wanted him to throw 150 pitches one day during a workout, that was the last straw. “I didn’t know what they were looking for out of me,” Banks said. “When they gave me my release, I was out the door in a hurry. I was like a runaway slave. I needed to get back home.” The 31-year-old Banks headed back to Jersey City, but never once thought that his baseball career, one that has seen its shares of ups and downs, was finally over. It’s amazin’ “My career would be over when I say it’s over,” said Banks, who sat out the entire 1996 season with shoulder problems, only to be rescued from the scrap heap by the Yankees one year later. “I’ve been through so many things in the past that I just looked at this [release from Japan] as a new beginning.” It didn’t take long for Banks to find another home. Last Monday, Banks was signed to a Class AAA contract with the Mets’ affiliate in Norfolk. He left Wednesday for the journey to Virginia and hopes to be back in the major leagues with the Mets before the end of the season. “I was hoping and praying that the Mets would come along and they did,” said Banks, who signed a non-guaranteed minor league contract that will escalate to a major league figure of $310,000 when he gets recalled by the Mets. “I’ve got a lot left in me and I know I can still pitch in the big leagues. I know I can go out there and do the job for them.” Banks heads to Norfolk, where he is expected to be a member of the Norfolk Tides’ starting rotation. But he could get called up by the Mets as early as August. Banks is open to whatever the team has in store. “I can start, relief, set up, whatever they need,” Banks said. “Whatever they need, as long as it gets me back to the big leagues as quick as possible.” After being selected out of high school by the Twins (Ken Griffey Jr. was the first pick by Seattle that year), Banks spent seven years with the Twins organization, three of which were in the big leagues. His best season was with the Twins in 1993, when he posted an 11-12 record with a 4.04 ERA. A year later, he was traded to the Cubs and had an 8-12 record there in 1994. But he developed shoulder problems in 1995, bounced from the Cubs to the Marlins to the Dodgers and then the Phillies, seemingly hitting the end of the road in 1996 when no one signed him. In 1997, thanks to the hard work of personal tutor and friend, Ed “The Faa” Ford, a former major league scout and local sports columnist, Banks worked his way back into condition and earned a minor league contract with the Yankees. In September of 1997, Banks was called up to the Yankees, where he won three games for the team down the stretch. In 1998, Banks was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks and had a fine season as a set-up reliever there, posting a 1-2 record with a 3.09 ERA. He had a span of 22 straight appearances where he didn’t allow a run. But the Diamondbacks did not offer Banks a contract for the 1999 season, so he took the guaranteed contract in Japan, instead of trying to hook on with a team in spring training. The Mets had some interest in Banks at the time, but were not willing to offer a guaranteed contract. “I don’t regret making that move,” Banks said about signing the Japanese contract. “It was a good financial move for me, one that gave me more money than I ever made before in baseball. I had to be a fool to turn it down.” When Banks returned from Japan, he received offers from Pittsburgh and Kansas City, but chose to sign with the Mets. Banks is now happy he’s getting another opportunity to return to the major leagues, where he has posted a 31-38 career mark and a 4.94 ERA in five-plus seasons. “There’s nothing like being close to home,” Banks said. “Your friends and family get a chance to see you and you know you can’t disappoint anyone. For some reason, I always pitched well against the Mets. Maybe that’s why they wanted me.” Loves Jersey City Banks knows that the people of Jersey City have always been in his corner. That’s why he had spent his free time working with some of the young pitchers in the Jersey City Cobras baseball program, headed by his personal tutor, namely Ford. “I love to come back and work with the kids,” Banks said. “I owe so much to the good people in my corner, like Mr. Ford and my high school coach, [Mike] Hogan. They’ve stuck by me through everything, so I have to be able to give something back. Any time I can come back and work with the kids of Jersey City, I’ll do it.” While Banks was back home, he also had an impromptu workout. He pitched a game for the Hoboken team in the North Jersey Majors, a semi-pro league. Banks did well facing the players in that league. “At first, they didn’t know who I was,” Banks said. “They were just shocked that I could throw so well. But then, word started to get around that I was Willie Banks.” Banks has been through so much and he still keeps bouncing back. “Heart is everything and I believe I have a lot of heart,” Banks said. “You can’t teach that to kids. I was also blessed with the tenacity of a lion. Nothing stops me. I definitely feel like I’m going to be back in the big leagues this year, with the Mets. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be making this move.” Banks has received recent inspiration from his boyhood idol, Dwight Gooden, who came back last week for the Yankees to beat his former team, the Mets. “Dwight’s my idol,” said Banks, who earned the nickname “Goody” because of his resemblance to Gooden on the mound. “If he can come back and do it, then so can I.”
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