Portland, Oregon HS student finds vintage Ernie Banks Cubs jacket at Goodwill
PORTLAND, Oreg. — In a bin of clothes at a Goodwill store in Portland, Oregon, a high school student found a vintage jacket that may have been worn once-upon-a-time by Mr. Cub himself, Ernie Banks.
18-year-old Jack Ricketts was that high school student last winter. Ricketts said he paid $8.70 for the jacket, which he found turned inside out among a mound of clothes inside of a plastic at Goodwill.
“It’s always a hunt, you never know what you’re going to find,” Ricketts said.
Ricketts, who has no relation to Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts and his family, said the jacket stood out when he initially came across it.
“When I first saw it, it was inside out laying on top of the bin, so I was like, ‘Oh this is cool,’” Ricketts said. “And then I turned it back inside out I see the big Cubs patch and I was like, ‘It’s an old jacket from the Cubs.’”
Specifically, it was a vintage wool Cubs jacket that had somehow made its way from the home dugout at Wrigley Field, more than 1,900 miles and 70 years, to a Goodwill Store in Oregon.
“It said 1953 on it, I was like ‘Wow, that’s pretty old,” Ricketts said. “In the inside pocket, it looks to be an old stencil and it’s just an E and a B, and the number 14.”
1953 was Banks’ rookie year and 14 was the number he wore for 19 seasons as he became the face of a team often endeared to those on the North Side as “The Lovable Losers.”
After playing ten games in 1953, Banks went on to make 14 all-star teams, win two National League Most Valuable Player awards, and hit over 500 home runs while playing shortstop, a position often not known for having a plethora of power hitters.
Aside from the accolades though, Banks is best remembered for the eternally optimistic outlook he brought to the team he played for over the span of nearly two decades.
“Everybody talks about how what a great person Ernie was – Mr. Sunshine,” Ricketts said.
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With the once-in-a-lifetime thrifting find in his possession, Ricketts now aims to sell the jacket at auction. The last time one like it went on sale, it fetched more than $2500 at auction.
But if it turns out the coat is authenticated as having been worn by the Major League Baseball Hall of Famer, some sports memorabilia experts say it could for as much as $25,000.
“I think the fact that it’s belonging to a player, not just any player, will pretty heavily increase the value,” Ricketts said.
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