Walter Banks: A Brave for all seasons

Simply stated, he’s worked almost every home game in Atlanta Braves history, most of those in the owner’s box. By his own reckoning he’s missed only 10 in 45 seasons and none because of illness. Though he’s not last -- the team isn’t sure how many remain -- he’s one of the few remaining original Atlanta Braves employees.

“We grew up together,” Banks said during a recent homestand. “It’s like how the largest oak tree in the forest began as an acorn. The Braves and me, we both started as acorns.”

His reach has become so sprawling it’s practically unfathomable. He counts among his friends Michael and Jan Carlin, who’ve held season tickets since 1982, when they began bringing their children, and now Banks seats them alongside their grandchildren. Then there’s former owner Ted Turner, who’s had Banks to his ranches three times, twice in Montana, once in New Mexico. There’s former President Jimmy Carter, of whom Banks says, “He doesn’t eat much when he’s here. He wants to focus on the game. But I always make sure I have his peanuts waiting.”

Officially, Banks’ title has always been “usher,” but the designation has never quite fit. It is every bit as confining as taking that same oak and stuffing it indoors.

For the past four years, Damion Carpenter has partnered with Banks in Section 107 behind the Braves dugout. Four decades younger than the man he calls “my mentor,” Carpenter marvels at Banks’ fast-twitch memory and sheer physical stamina.

“You can appreciate a great hitter or a world-class sprinter by seeing them on television,” Carpenter said. “But not until you see them in person and really close-up can you truly understand the power of what they do. That’s what it’s like working with Walter every day.”

Banks is 6 feet and 1/2 inch, 145 pounds, or about the same size as in 1957, when he graduated from Howard High (which was attended a few years later by Walt Frazier). He has a PVC-thin waist, his blood pressure’s an unflappable 110/70 and he briskly scales the Turner Field stairs – he almost never really walks – wearing his trademark white high-top Converse All Stars.

He certainly loves catering to the big shots in 107, the governors, the CEOs, the actors and the athletes. But what he really enjoys is roaming the concourse before games and finding newcomers and out-of-towners.

“Someone out there,” he said, “is celebrating an anniversary or is on a first date or is seeing their first major league game. That’s why I always try to have plenty of bouquets.”

Graciously eloquent, his mind fairly blooms with off-beat erudition, ranging from Turner Field expertise to standard Atlanta civic history to baseball history to dazzling minutiae regarding presidents and all 50 states.

Chatting recently with a family of five from Cincinnati, Banks suddenly noticed that the stadium clock read 7:14. He pondered this for maybe a millisecond before saying, “Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs, which you probably knew. But did you know that Jack Webb’s badge number on “Dragnet” was 714. Matter of fact, Tim Hudson was born on 7/14.”

He let this sink in before adding, “Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews both hit their 500th home runs on 7/14, although one year apart, both against the Giants, incidentally, Mathews on 7/14/67, Aaron on 7/14/68.”

Banks, who calls himself “a storyteller with numbers,” can take just about any figure and give it an expansive, elliptical resonance.

“I definitely don’t have a photographic memory,” he said. “I read a lot, reading soothes the mind. There’s too much junk on TV for my taste. I just naturally associate these people I read about with various numbers and I’ve done it all my life. I grew up during a time of imagination, when we listened to baseball on the radio, when we’d pick up a Sears Roebuck catalog, look at the pictures and make up stories about the people in there.”

Born July 1, 1939 – “I turned 71 on 7/1” – Banks was raised in Summerhill within blocks of the current stadium. Shortly after high school graduation he was hired by Rich’s (later Macy’s) and stayed there for the next half century, or until April 2009 -- he finished as a courier and mail room clerk -- when Macy’s closed its Atlanta corporate office.

It was early in 1965, more than a year before a pitch was thrown, when Banks applied for a job with the Atlanta baseball club.

“Originally,” he said, “the Braves had a street floor office in the Commerce Building at Forsyth and Marietta, only a block from Rich’s. I don’t know how many times I applied, but I kept going back and I would always take the ladies in the office some of those fine brownies we made at Rich’s. I don’t know if that helped me get a job, but I sure made a lot of friends.”

The true icing for Banks is that he’s gotten exactly what he wanted, or “to be part of history.” He was in the owner’s box on April 8, 1974, with then-governor Jimmy Carter and with Herbert and Stella Aaron, when their son hit number 715.

“Interesting fact,” Banks said, "is when Hank hit it, Darrell Evans was on first and he wore number 11, Dusty [Baker] was on deck and had number 12 and Dodgers catcher Joe Ferguson had 13. Go ahead and look it up.”

He was there when Eddie Mathews, in the twilight of his career, hit a ninth-inning walk-off homer to beat Sandy Koufax 2-1 on August, 9, 1966, Koufax’s second and last Atlanta appearance. There were also the All-Star games in 1972, when Aaron homered, and in 2000. He distinctly remembers the 19-inning loss to the Mets, July 4-5, 1985, which included several marathon rain delays.

“We got out of here at 4 in the morning,” Banks said, “and I was at Macy’s by 7:30.”

He was there for the first postseason game in 1969 (Tom Seaver vs. Phil Niekro), the first World Series game in 1991 and, finally, October 28, 1995, when the Braves beat Cleveland 1-0 to clinch the team’s first and only World Series, the outcome determined by the sixth-inning Dave Justice home run.

“Dave Justice, you might recall, wore number 23,” Banks said. “The first modern-style baseball stadium, Yankee Stadium, was built in 1923. Two Chicago players, Hall of Famers in different sports, wore 23: Ryne Sandburg of the Cubs and Michael Jordan. Maine is the 23rd state admitted to the union. It’s the first state that sees the sun in the morning and, I heard, the only state that doesn’t have poison snakes.”

Damion Carpenter, the usher who’s probably closest to Banks, said, “I never get tired of hearing those numbers. He knows every number under the sun. But there is one number he will not give anybody and that’s when he’ll retire.”

When the question was posed recently, Banks replied, “It’s really hard to answer a question like that. Let me put it this way: life and nature run parallel. That is, the leaves bloom, turn green, then they fall off the tree. Not all leaves fall at the same time. Some last a little longer than others.”

Taking a bite of salad during his early-game break, Banks smiled softly before adding, “Eventually, they will all fall. That much I know. Every leaf will fall.”