Download or read book The Chicago Cubs written by Rich Cohen and published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After his first Cubs game when Rich Cohen was eight, his father asked him to make a promise. "Promise me you will never be a Cubs fan. The Cubs do not win," he explained, "and because of that, a Cubs fan will have a diminished life determined by low expectations. That team will screw up your life." Here he captures the story of the team, its players and crazy days-- not just what happened, but what it felt like and what it meant. He searches for the cause of the famous curse, and came to see the curse as a burden but also as a blessing.
Download or read book The Billy Goat Curse written by Gil Bogen and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2008-12-17 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1945 the most famous curse in sports was placed on the Chicago Cubs when Bill Sianis and his goat were ejected from Wrigley Field. Though Sianis purchased two tickets for the fourth game of the World Series against Detroit, the goat's stench led to the pair's ouster. The indignant Sianis allegedly cursed the Cubs, promising that they'd never again play in the World Series at Wrigley Field. More than six decades later, the team has yet to win a pennant. There were years when fortune seemed to pluck defeat from the wings of sure victory. The book focuses on the attitudes of players and fans, as well as attempts to exorcise the curse. It features photographs and interviews of former Cub players, as well as a foreword by Hall of Fame shortstop Ernie Banks.
Download or read book The Cubs Way written by Tom Verducci and published by Crown. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times Bestseller With inside access and reporting, Sports Illustrated senior baseball writer and FOX Sports analyst Tom Verducci reveals how Theo Epstein and Joe Maddon built, led, and inspired the Chicago Cubs team that broke the longest championship drought in sports, chronicling their epic journey to become World Series champions. It took 108 years, but it really happened. The Chicago Cubs are once again World Series champions. How did a team composed of unknown, young players and supposedly washed-up veterans come together to break the Curse of the Billy Goat? Tom Verducci, twice named National Sportswriter of the Year and co-writer of The Yankee Years with Joe Torre, will have full access to team president Theo Epstein, manager Joe Maddon, and the players to tell the story of the Cubs' transformation from perennial underachievers to the best team in baseball. Beginning with Epstein's first year with the team in 2011, Verducci will show how Epstein went beyond "Moneyball" thinking to turn around the franchise. Leading the organization with a manual called "The Cubs Way," he focused on the mental side of the game as much as the physical, emphasizing chemistry as well as statistics. To accomplish his goal, Epstein needed manager Joe Maddon, an eccentric innovator, as his counterweight on the Cubs' bench. A man who encourages themed road trips and late-arrival game days to loosen up his team, Maddon mixed New Age thinking with Old School leadership to help his players find their edge. The Cubs Way takes readers behind the scenes, chronicling how key players like Rizzo, Russell, Lester, and Arrieta were deftly brought into the organization by Epstein and coached by Maddon to outperform expectations. Together, Epstein and Maddon proved that clubhouse culture is as important as on-base-percentage, and that intangible components like personality, vibe, and positive energy are necessary for a team to perform to their fullest potential. Verducci chronicles the playoff run that culminated in an instant classic Game Seven. He takes a broader look at the history of baseball in Chicago and the almost supernatural element to the team's repeated loses that kept fans suffering, but also served to strengthen their loyalty. The Cubs Way is a celebration of an iconic team and its journey to a World Championship that fans and readers will cherish for years to come.
Download or read book The Curse Cubs Win Cubs Win Or Do They written by Andy Van Slyke and published by Ascend Books. This book was released on 2010-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Could this finally be the Cubs' season? This thrilling fictional journey involves much more drama and action than just winning and losing games on the field. More than just a baseball novel, this is a story about the bond that exists between fathers and sons, between a team and its fans, and the dangers of the lust for power, glory, and money.
Download or read book Before the Curse written by Randy Roberts and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2012-01-15 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before the Curse: The Chicago Cubs' Glory Years, 1870–1945 brings to life the early history of the much beloved and often heartbreaking Chicago Cubs. Originally called the Chicago White Stockings, the team immediately established itself as a powerhouse, winning the newly formed National Base Ball League's inaugural pennant in 1876, repeating the feat in 1880 and 1881, and commanding the league in the decades to come. The legendary days of the Cubs are recaptured here in more than two dozen vintage newspaper accounts and historical essays on the teams and the fans who loved them. The great games, pennant races, and series are all here, including the 1906 World Series between the Cubs and Chicago White Sox. Of course, Before the Curse remembers the hall-of-fame players--Grover Cleveland Alexander, Gabby Hartnett, Roger Hornsby, Dizzy Dean--who delighted Cubs fans with their play on the field and their antics elsewhere. Through stimulating introductions to each article, Randy Roberts and Carson Cunningham demonstrate how changes in ownership affected the success of the team, who the teams' major players were both on and off the field, and how regular fans, owners, players, journalists, and Chicagoans of the past talked and wrote about baseball.
Download or read book The Original Curse Did the Cubs Throw the 1918 World Series to Babe Ruth s Red Sox and Incite the Black Sox Scandal written by Sean Deveney and published by McGraw Hill Professional. This book was released on 2009-10-02 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: IN THE GRAND TRADITION OF EIGHT MEN OUT . . . the untold story of baseball’s ORIGINAL SCANDAL Did the Chicago Cubs throw the World Series in 1918—and get away with it? Who were the players involved—and why did they do it? Were gambling and corruption more widespread across the leagues than previously believed? Were the players and teams “cursed” by their actions? Finally, is it time to rewrite baseball history? With exclusive access to surprising new evidence, Sporting News reporter Sean Deveney details a scandal at the core of baseball’s greatest folklore—in a golden era as exciting and controversial as our sports world today. This inside look at the pivotal year of 1918 proves that baseball has always been a game overrun with colorful characters, intense human drama, and explosive controversy. "The Original Curse is not just about baseball. It is a sweeping portrait of America at war in 1918. . . . In the end, the proper question is not, ‘How could a player from that era fix the World Series?’ It’s, ‘How could he not?’” —Ken Rosenthal, FOX Sports, from the Introduction "Sean Deveney plays connect-the-dots in this intriguing account of a possible conspiracy to throw the 1918 World Series. Thoroughly researched and well written, The Original Curse is a must-read for baseball fans and anyone who loves a good mystery. Is Max Flack the Shoeless Joe of the 1918 Cubs? Deveney lays out the case and let's readers decide if the fix was in." —Paul Sullivan, Cubs beat writer, Chicago Tribune "This book gives the reader a fun and honest look at baseball as it used to be-- the good guys, the gamblers, the cheaters, the drunks, the inept leaders. But, more than that, it puts those characters into the context of Chicago, Boston and America at the time of World War I, and you wind up with a unique way to explain the motivations of those characters." —David Kaplan, host, Chicago Tribune Live and WGN's Sports Central “Deveney’s painstaking study of the 1918 World Series between the Cubs and Red Sox argues that the Black Sox scandal was not an aberration and might have had an antecedent. Deveney’s scholarship does not detract from his ability to spin a good tale: his tendency to imagine players’ conversations will remind readers of Leigh Montville’s The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth.... A welcome companion to Susan Dellinger’s Red Legs and Black Sox: Edd Roush and the Untold Story of the 1919 World Series, Deveney’s book contributes greatly to our understanding of this decisive period in baseball and American morals." —Library Journal
Download or read book Da Curse of the Billy Goat written by Steve Gatto and published by Protar House, LLC. This book was released on 2004 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History and discussion of the legendary Curse of the Billy Goat, the Chicago Cubs' pennant races and World Series games, and baseball's curses.
Download or read book Murphy s Ticket written by Brad Herzog and published by Sleeping Bear Press. This book was released on 2017-07-15 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For 108 years, fans of Chicago Cubs baseball suffered every playofff season, with mishap after mishap each being traced back to 1945 when a friendly goat was kicked out of a World Series game. But the 2016 season felt different. Would this finally be the year that the Billy Goat Curse was reversed? Author Brad Herzog tells the story of the curse's origin and follows the Cubs right through that fateful November night in 2016 when the Cubbies could finally fly the "W."
Download or read book My Cubs written by Scott Simon and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-04-11 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NPR's Scott Simon's personal, heartfelt reflections on his beloved Chicago Cubs, replete with club lore, memorable anecdotes, frenetic fandom and wise and adoring intimacy that have made the world champion Cubbies baseball's most tortured—and now triumphant—franchise. Heartbreak and hope. Charmed and haunted. My Cubs is Scott Simon’s love letter to his Chicago Cubs, World Series winners for the first time in over a century. Replete with personal reflections, club lore, memorable anecdotes, and tales of frenetic fandom, My Cubs recounts the franchise’s pivotal moments with the wise and adoring intimacy of a long-suffering devotee and Chicago native. Simon illustrates how the condition of “Cubness” has defined the life of so many Chicagoans and how the team’s fortunes became intertwined with the aspirations of its faithful. With the curse finally broken on November 2, 2016, My Cubs is the perfect portrayal of paradise lost and found.
Download or read book A Chicago Tavern written by Rick Kogan and published by Lake Claremont Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chicago newspaperman Rick Kogan plunks down at a barstool at the Billy Goat Tavern and tells the tales of the city landmark, which became a haven for newspaper reporters, policemen, politicians, and anyone else drawn to the hospitality and showmanship of hardworking William “Billy Goat” Sianis and his often antic, uniquely comforting establishment. The story begins in the summer of 1934, when a baby goat fell off a truck and limped into a tavern owned by Greek immigrant William Sianis, and a Chicago icon was born. Later, when he and one of his goats were barred from entering Wrigley Field during the 1945 World Series, the Cubs’ eventual loss to Detroit fueled a legend as enduring as their fans’ “Wait ’til next year” mantra. Kogan writes about some of the regulars, visitors, employees, and luminaries found at the tavern, including columnist Mike Royko and the young stars who immortalized the tavern in the Saturday Night Live "Olympia Diner" skit—John Belushi, Bill Murray, and Don Novello—and discusses Sam Sianis, Billy's nephew and the current owner. Let the Goat In! In the summer of 1934, a baby goat fell off a truck, limped into a tavern owned by Greek immigrant William Sianis, and a Chicago icon was born. The Billy Goat Inn became a haven for newspaper reporters, policemen, politicians, and anyone else drawn to the hospitality and showmanship of hardworking "Billy Goat" Sianis and his often antic, uniquely comforting establishment. But did Billy jinx the Cubs? When he and one of his goats were barred from entering Wrigley Field during the 1945 World Series, the Cubs' eventual loss to Detroit fueled a legend as enduring as their fans' "Wait 'til next year" mantra. Today there are seven Billy Goat Taverns, including one in Washington, D.C., and Billy's nephew, Sam Sianis--a celebrity in his own right--oversees what Illinois Senator Dick Durbin called "a national institution." Rick Kogan's affectionate tale plunks you down at a barstool next to some of the Billy Goat's regulars, visitors, employees, and such luminaries as columnist Mike Royko, and those young stars--John Belushi, Bill Murray, and Don Novello--who immortalized Sam and the tavern in the Saturday Night Live Olympia Diner ("Cheezborger, Cheezborger! No fries . . . chips!") skits. "I remember . . . I miss . . .," someone will say, and names and faces begin to float through the tavern air. . . In these echoes Kogan lets you see and hear why taverns remain essential social focal points and lets you understand what makes a Chicago original.
Download or read book The Cubs Curse written by Lyn Christian and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2022-07-28 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does the Cubs Curse of 1945 go back to 1908?
Download or read book Monsters The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football written by Rich Cohen and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football is the New York Times bestselling gripping account of a once-in-a-lifetime team and their lone Super Bowl season. For Rich Cohen and millions of other fans, the 1985 Chicago Bears were more than a football team: they were the greatest football team ever—a gang of colorful nuts, dancing and pounding their way to victory. They won a Super Bowl and saved a city. It was not just that the Monsters of the Midway won, but how they did it. On offense, there was high-stepping running back Walter Payton and Punky QB Jim McMahon, who had a knack for pissing off Coach Mike Ditka as he made his way to the end zone. On defense, there was the 46: a revolutionary, quarterback-concussing scheme cooked up by Buddy Ryan and ruthlessly implemented by Hall of Famers such as Dan "Danimal" Hampton and "Samurai" Mike Singletary. On the sidelines, in the locker rooms, and in bars, there was the never-ending soap opera: the coach and the quarterback bickering on TV, Ditka and Ryan nearly coming to blows in the Orange Bowl, the players recording the "Super Bowl Shuffle" video the morning after the season's only loss. Cohen tracked down the coaches and players from this iconic team and asked them everything he has always wanted to know: What's it like to win? What's it like to lose? Do you really hate the guys on the other side? Were you ever scared? What do you think as you lie broken on the field? How do you go on after you have lived your dream but life has not ended? The result is Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football, a portrait not merely of a team but of a city and a game: its history, its future, its fallen men, its immortal heroes. But mostly it's about being a fan—about loving too much. This is a book about America at its most nonsensical, delirious, and joyful.
Download or read book The Cubs Fan s Guide to Happiness written by George Ellis and published by Triumph Books. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Chicago Cubs tradition is one built on spectacular losing streaks and even more spectacular collapses. Yet despite all the losses and disappointments, an amazing thing happens every summer at the corner of Addison and Sheffield: millions of fans flock to Wrigley Field and millions more fans across the country regularly tune in to watch Cubs games broadcast on television. Exactly why Cubs fans support their squad with such reckless abandon isn’t entirely clear—these people represent a remarkable aberration of human psychology, epitomizing the spirit and experience of dedication to a desperate cause. And the whole time, they’re oddly happy. The Cubs Fan’s Guide to Happiness reveals what makes Cubs fans tick and what keeps them happy. It explains why it’s not over until you’re mathematically eliminated, why winning really isn’t everything, and why it’s perfectly acceptable to blame all your trouble on a scapegoat—which may or may not be an actual goat. The fully revised edition also provides educational sidebars, practical applications, and true words of wisdom from celebrity Cubs fans as well as surviving the planned renovations to the product on the field and Wrigley Field itself.
Download or read book Wrigley Blues written by William J. Wagner and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Will Wagner captures in a day-by-day account of the ups and down, ins and outs, of a team that aspired to win it all under the leadership of manager Dusty Baker.
Download or read book Teammate written by David Ross and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2017-05-09 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER USA TODAY BESTSELLER Packed with "compelling inside stories" (Chicago Tribune), Teammate is the inspiring memoir from "Grandpa Rossy," the veteran catcher who became the heart and soul of the 2016 Chicago Cubs championship team. In 2016 the Cubs snapped a 108-year curse, winning the World Series in a history-making, seven-game series against the Cleveland Indians. Of the many storylines to Chicago's fairytale season, one stood out: the late-career renaissance of David Ross, the 39-year-old catcher who had played back-up for 13 of his 15 pro seasons. Beyond Ross's remarkably strong play, he became the ultimate positive force in the Cubs locker room, mentoring and motivating his fellow players, some of them nearly twenty years his junior. Thanks to Cubs Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, "Grandpa Rossy" became a social media sensation. No one, however, could have predicted that Ross's home run in his final career at bat would help seal the Cubs championship. Now, in Teammate, Ross shares the inspiring story of his life in baseball, framed by the events of that unforgettable November night.
Download or read book Amazing Tales from the Chicago Cubs Dugout written by Bob Logan and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-02-07 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amazing Stories From the Cubs Dugout is crammed with stories, quotes, and anecdotes about the greatest Cubs players of past and present. The story of the Cubs is part legend, part pathos; heroic and, on occasion, hilarious. Enjoy the heartbreak and joy of unforgettable afternoons at Wrigley Field. Without a doubt Amazing Stories From the Cubs Dugout is a must for any Chicago Cubs fan.
Download or read book Merkle s Curse written by Jerry Jacover and published by . This book was released on 2008-05 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two Cubs fans and their sons discover their favorite team really is cursed and set out to undo it before it ruins the Cub's chance in the next World Series. Unknown to them, the curse has its origins in an Old Testament prophesy that has affected both the history of the world and the game of baseball.
