Jersey City native returns to baseball with Newark BearsWillie Banks had reached the crossroads of his professional baseball career – once again – only this time, he thought it might have been for good.
The 35-year-old Jersey City native, who had spent the last 17 years in professional baseball, nine of which were in the major leagues, was a player without an organization soon after the Texas Rangers unceremoniously released him during spring training.
Sure, Banks had been released plenty of times before, so the idea that he had been cut from a franchise was nothing new. In other times that he was granted a release, like with the Boston Red Sox out of spring training in 2003, he handled the news like a professional and carried on.
But this time, the release made Banks a little bitter – and with reason.
“As soon as I got to the Rangers’ spring training facility (in Surprise, Arizona), I started feeling bad,” Banks said. “The heat just ate me up and I was throwing up every day. The next time I tried to throw, I felt horrible again and I passed out.”
Banks didn’t know what caused him to faint in the bullpen, but he was transported to a local hospital.
“I never had been in an ambulance, and the last time I stayed overnight in a hospital, it was when I was born,” Banks said. “But I spent five days in the hospital, hooked to an IV. I knew it wasn’t good. I called my agent [Slay Meade] and told him that I knew I was going to be released as soon as I got out of the hospital.”
Banks never got a chance to truly prove his talents to the Rangers. On the day after he was released from the Arizona hospital, he received his release from the Rangers. Banks never found out the true reason why he passed out.
“I was told that I was anemic and that I had high blood pressure,” Banks said. “But I never had a chance to really pitch there. I could handle the thing two ways, either handle it like a professional or get angry. I have nothing but respect for [Rangers manager]) Buck Showalter, who was my manager in Arizona [in 1998, when Banks was a fine setup reliever for the Diamondbacks]. Buck has always been honest with me. It was sad that he never got a chance to talk to me.”
When Banks received his walking papers, he returned to Jersey City, obviously upset that his baseball career was once again hanging in the balance.
But the last time it happened eight years ago, he was only 27 years old. His pitching shoulder was ravaged by nerve damage and he was told by orthopedic experts that his career was over.
But at the time, Banks didn’t believe it, came home to Jersey City after a stint in Japan and worked on his comeback diligently with his long-time friend and baseball guru Ed “The Faa” Ford, who practically reinvented Banks, breaking down Banks’ pitching mechanics in order to regain strength and velocity.
Now, Banks was 35, much older and unwanted.
“I really went through a depressed stage,” Banks said. “I couldn’t even watch baseball. I was mad at the world. I knew I could still pitch. I knew I was still good. But no one wanted me. I thought I was done. I thought about retiring. I was thinking about possibly going to Mexico, but that didn’t work out. But I’ve been at the bottom before. It was nothing new to me. I knew that I still had the fire to get back to the big leagues.”
Banks said that he worked out a little during March and April, pitching batting practice to the Ramblers of St. Mary’s High School in Jersey City, helping out long-time friends Pat Laguerre and Ruben Rodriguez, who coach at St. Mary’s.
“I felt like a kid again,” Banks said. “It felt good to be on the mound at Franco Field again. It brought me back.”
Back to the days when Banks was a pitching whirlwind, when he was blazing fastballs and unleashing that nasty hook as a pitcher for St. Anthony. In 1987, Banks was clearly the best high school pitcher in the nation, winning an amazing 15 games and leading the Friars to the NJSIAA Parochial B state title. He earned the National Gatorade Player of the Year award and was selected by the Minnesota Twins as the No. 3 pick overall in the 1987 draft, just two picks after the Seattle Mariners took a skinny kid out of Cincinnati Moeller High School named Ken Griffey, Jr.
Once Banks was taken by the Twins, Jersey City became a distant place during baseball season. He was shipped to places like Elizabethtown, Tennessee and Kenosha, Wisc. in his early minor league days, but he eventually was called up to the big leagues with the Twins in late 1991 and remained with the Twins for three seasons.
He was then traded to the Chicago Cubs to begin the 1994 season, then bounced around the big leagues, with stops in Los Angeles, Florida, the Yankees, Arizona and finally Boston in 2002. After being released by the Red Sox in spring training of 2003, Banks spent time with the Yankees’ Class AAA affiliate in Columbus, Ohio and the Cubs’ Triple A franchise in Iowa City, Iowa.
“I pitched well in Iowa,” Banks said. “I had a 2-0 record with 18 saves as a closer. But they didn’t call me up in September and I didn’t know why. It’s not like I wasn’t getting guys out. I was doing the job. They told me to go throw at Wrigley Field, but no one even bothered to come see me throw. The best compliment I got was from [former big league standout pitcher] Jerry Reuss, the pitching coach at Iowa, who said that I was the truest professional he’d ever seen. That I took with me.”
But Banks didn’t have a ton of offers after the 2003 season.
“After the numbers I put up, I got nothing,” Banks said. “If it was because I wasn’t doing the job, then I would say I was done. But I was doing the job. I didn’t understand it. I figured someone up there don’t like me.”
Added Banks, “But I have that Jersey City attitude. I’m not going to give up. Nothing ever came easy for me. I have to fight and hunt and scrap. I’m not going to quit. I have to do it for the kids of Jersey City, but I had to do it for myself as well.”
Every time that Banks had been released in years past, the Newark Bears, the local independent team that is now the home of sure-fire Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, contacted Banks and offered him a job.
This time, with no other offers on the horizon, Banks was willing to accept the offer.
“Loyalty is a beautiful thing,” Banks said. “[Bears manager] Bill Madlock was the first to call me. He was the only guy to call. So I figured I would go and play with them. I can get some work in and possibly help to put some people in the stands. And it’s a chance for me to get back to the big leagues, where I belong.”
So last week, Banks signed a contract with the Bears. He’s not getting rich, nowhere near the $450,000 contract he signed with the Red Sox in 2003.
“It’s not about money now,” Banks said. “It’s baseball season. It was time for me to get out of hibernation and do what I do. I love to play the game. I could be doing something else, but I can’t yet. I’m taking a positive out of a negative. I can’t let what has happened to me get to me. I can’t get upset over things I can’t control. I just have to prove to people that I can still pitch in the big leagues. I know I can.”
Banks, who had been working out sparingly at Caven Point Cochrane Field to keep in decent shape, believes he’s about “50 percent” as he works to get back to full strength. He’s pitched in one game for the Bears thus far, going two innings.
“I let a few go, but I couldn’t air it out yet,” Banks laughed.
“I want to be a starter here and get some innings,” said Banks, who said that he should be ready to pitch regularly in three weeks. “It would be better for me here. I’ll get more chances to throw and that will get me healthy quicker. Plus, it will give me more chances to be spotted.”
The Atlantic League has been a resting place for players who were looking for one last chance to get back to the majors. Players like Carlos Baerga, Ruben Sierra and Jose Lima [last year with the Bears] made their way back to the big leagues after playing in the Atlantic League. Even new teammate Henderson got another sniff of the majors with the Dodgers last year. He’s back with the Bears again this year.
“A lot of the reason why I’m here is that I still have the drive,” Banks said. “When the game stops being fun, that’s when you have to give it up. The man upstairs told me to play until I can’t throw anymore. Once I feel in my heart that I can’t do it, then I’ll know to walk away. Once the game leaves my heart, then I’ll leave the game. But my heart is still in the game. I’m making the most of it and I’m going to come back.”
So for the first time in his baseball life, Willie Banks is playing pro ball, just a stone’s throw from his Jersey City roots.
“It feels good, but it’s a little strange,” Banks said. “It’s a little weird. Ever since I got drafted, I’ve always been gone during the season. Now, I’m back home, with my family, with my good friends. I’ve been down before, but it’s just another story for when I make it back. They can’t take it out of my heart. That’s what keeps me going. I have to make it back. I can pitch better than 90 percent of the guys in the big leagues now. I’m now going back to basics. I’m hungry again.”
Banks is hopeful that the hunger will continue until another major league team comes calling, if another comes calling. At 35, the chances are running out. Banks needs a big break – and it begins just seven miles from home.
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