OK, so maybe he’s not exactly Ernie Banks, but Yosh Kawano—according to a story from Chicago’s WBBM 780, found via Fark—was with the team over 65 years, working as the clubhouse manager from 1943 until 1999 when “he was given emeritus status and transferred to the visitor's clubhouse”—a position he held until he retired last year.

The Cubs’ clubhouse was named in his honour in 1984, and the report says that “he was given a day in his honor last June and a flag with his name was flown atop the stadium. A banner honouring him hangs in the main concourse alongside those of famous Cubs players and announcers, and he is part of the bricked ‘walk of fame’ adjacent to the ballpark.”

His trademark “floppy hat” is on display in Cooperstown—and, if memory serves, didn’t one of the groundskeepers in Major League wear one of those things?

Basically, he’s an icon.

So then how did Cubs security treat him when he went to visit the grounds crew two weeks ago while the Cubs were on a road trip?

Naturally, they kicked him out of the stadium.

“Three security guards approached him,” the report says, “and told him he had been spotted on the concourse security cameras and had to leave.”

''They apologized to me and said it bothered them,'' Kawano said. ''They said I'm not supposed to be there when [the team] isn't there. How do you think I felt? It's embarrassing.''

Jim Flood, an attorney who worked as a Cubs batboy in the late 1960s and has remained a close friend, said the incident ''really hurt him. Yosh means as much to the Cubs and Wrigley Field as anything. What they did to him stinks.''

The Cubs are trying to make amends, and it seems like it was genuinely a mistake on the part of the security crew, but… seriously? Not one of the three of them clued in that the old man in the floppy hat who says he’s here to visit the grounds crew might just be the guy whose got a banner up in the concourse because he was such a beloved member of the Cubs family for sixty-five years???

A+ for effort for the security guards, though, for working so quickly to eliminate the ominous threat a frail old Asian man posed to their empty stadium. Bravo, guys.