ESPN MLB

For 19 years, shortstop Ernie Banks was a fixture at Wrigley Field. Now, the Chicago Cubs will make sure "Mr. Cub" will always be there to greet fans.

The Cubs announced Tuesday that it will honor Banks, a Hall of Famer, with a statue to be erected at Wrigley by Opening Day of next season.

"This is richly deserved for Ernie Banks and it is a great way to honor 'Mr. Cub,'" team president John McDonough said. "The statue will help immortalize someone who continues to have a tremendous impact on the Cubs and [their] fans, just as he did while he was on the playing field."

The statue's exact location at Wrigley Field has yet to be determined. The Fine Art Studio of Rotblatt-Amrany, the same company that produced the statue of Harry Caray at Wrigley and the Michael Jordan statue outside Chicago's United Center, will commission the piece.

The Caray statue is the only other statue at Wrigley.

Banks spent his entire 19-year career with the Cubs. He is second in franchise history with 2,583 hits, 512 home runs and 1,636 RBIs, and was National League MVP in 1958 and 1959. He was a 14-time All-Star and was enshrined at Cooperstown in 1977.