“'Mr. Cub' Ernie Banks dies at 83”

The former Negro League upstart turned Cubs legend turned favorite son of Chicago died Friday of a heart attack in the Illinois city. It was a week shy of his 84th birthday. Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts described Banks as "one of the greatest players of all time." "Words cannot express how important Ernie Banks will always be to the Chicago Cubs, the city of Chicago and Major League Baseball," Ricketts said. "... He was a pioneer in the major leagues. And more importantly, he was the warmest and most sincere person I've ever known.” Despite all his stellar play over his career, Banks never earned a World Series ring or even played in a playoff series. He became the Chicago franchise's first black player in 1953. Throughout his career Banks’ accomplishments piled up through the 1971 season: 2,583 hits, 11 National League All-Star selections, two of the league's Most Valuable Player awards, and 512 home runs, including five seasons hitting more than 40 homers. And in 1977 Banks was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In Other News Authorities say a man's plans to break into a Houston store fell through, after he crashed through the ceiling and landed in front of police. Houston police say the man climbed a tree and onto the roof of a Family Dollar store early Sunday morning, then managed to break a hole in the roof and enter the building. But after making his way into the store, the man fell through the ceiling just as a police officer arrived in response to a call about a potential burglary. KHOU-TV reports that the officer ordered the unidentified man to stay on the floor. The man was later arrested. Authorities believe the man was trying to steal cigarettes. A New Hampshire woman got a surprise at a Burger King drive-thru: a bag full of cash instead of food. Janelle Jones says she discovered on the way home that the bag did not contain the sweet tea and junior spicy chicken sandwich that she had ordered Friday at the Rochester fast-food restaurant. Foster's Daily Democrat reports that Jones called her husband and they decided to return the $2,631, which was a Burger King bank deposit. Showing how much one Colorado city loves its bikes, cyclists who go to the hospital by ambulance no longer have to leave their rides behind. Poudre (POO'-dur) Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, home of Colorado State University, has equipped all 14 of its ambulances with bike racks after encountering increasing numbers of cyclists who had bicycle accidents or medical emergencies while riding. Some people were reluctant to leave their bikes locked up behind at the scene — whether because they were fancy recreation bikes that cost more than some cars or because they were the patient's main form of transportation, Steve Main, the hospital's emergency medical services director, said Friday. Plus, ambulance workers were spending too much time going back to unlock the bikes once patients could retrieve them.