THE
BOOK OF THE
CHICAGO CUBS A DECADE-BY-DECADE HISTORY
Foreword BY JOE KNOWLES AND DAN MANN
“Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America must first learn baseball,” wrote French-born social commentator Jacques Barzun in his book “God’s Country and Mine.” And if you want to understand why baseball means so much to so many of us, you might start by talking to a Cubs fan. What does it mean to be a Cubs fan? Pledging your allegiance to the Cubs means that you have a mandatory appreciation of the weight of history, and that you embrace this team knowing full well that its particular history contains a heavy sack of cruelty. It means you understand the true meaning of loyalty, even in the face of harsh and frequent disappointment. It means you believe in unrequited devotion, a commitment so strong that it defies logic and rationality. And you believe that this devotion should be passed from generation to generation, from fathers and mothers to sons and daughters, carefully handled so that the flame of hope—so fragile, so fickle—never dies. “Wait until next year” is just another way of saying “Keep the faith,” even if it takes forever. That faith, which had been kept alive since 1908, was finally rewarded in 2016 with a World Series championship, something many Cubs fans thought they wouldn’t live long enough to see. The joy created by the victory over the Cleveland Indians in Game 7 was the sort of eruption only decades of pent-up emotion can produce. That game, with all its drama, was itself a metaphor for what it means to be a Cubs fan. It began with a leadoff home run to create high hopes at the outset. Those high hopes were elevated further as the Cubs built what appeared to be a comfortable lead, only to see that lead erased in the late innings by a crushing reversal of fortune. Then, with the flame of hope still flickering, came a rain delay. Perfect. This, too, is perfect, in a full-circle sort of way: There are 108 stitches in a major-league regulation baseball. It took the Cubs 108 years to end the longest championship drought in professional sports history. As this book demonstrates, the Cubs and baseball grew up side by side, a partnership that has spanned three centuries. So can it be just a coincidence that a team so intertwined with the game, so wrapped up in its history, scratched a 108-year itch with a ball made of 108 stitches? No need to Tinker with the numbers. It was leading to this moment forever and Evers. These things cannot be just Chance. ◆ Left: The drought is history: Kris Bryant (left) and Anthony Rizzo raise their arms in celebration after the Cubs defeated the Indians in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series in Cleveland.
vii
1910s
1910s
Oct. 6, 1910
October 1911
The Cubs blank the Pirates 4-0 to clinch their fourth National League pennant in five seasons.
1910
Cubs outfielder Frank Schulte is named the National League’s Most Valuable Player. Schulte led the NL in home runs (21), runs batted in (107) and slugging percentage (.534).
1911
1912
June 11, 1911 Heinie Zimmerman drives in a team-record nine runs in a 20-2 rout of the Dodgers.
Oct. 23, 1910 Philadelphia defeats the Cubs 7-2 at West Side Grounds in Game 5 of the World Series. The A’s—who use only two pitchers, Chief Bender and Jack Coombs, in the entire five-game series—win the title 4 games to 1.
38
HEADING FOR HOME
1913
1914
1910s
June 17, 1915 Starting pitcher Bert Humphries is lifted with two outs in the 1st inning, and reliever Zip Zabel takes over. Zabel throws 181∕3 innings in a 4-3 victory over the Dodgers at West Side Grounds. Brooklyn starter Jeff Pfeffer goes the distance and takes the loss when the Cubs score with two out in the bottom of the 19th.
Sept. 9, 1915
May 2, 1917 Cubs pitcher Hippo Vaughn and Reds pitcher Fred Toney each go nine innings without allowing a hit. Vaughn gives up two hits and an unearned run in the top of the 10th. Then Toney holds the Cubs hitless in the bottom half to seal a 1-0 Reds victory.
The Cubs acquire future Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander and catcher Bill Killefer from the Phillies for pitcher Mike Prendergast, catcher Pickles Dillhoefer and cash.
April 1916
Al Spalding, one of the key figures in the founding of the Cubs, dies in San Diego at 65.
Dec. 11, 1917
Weeghman allows fans to keep any baseballs that land in the stands. Previously, ushers had retrieved the balls so they could be reused. The policy eventually catches on elsewhere and becomes a universal standard.
April 29, 1918 After pitching in just three games, Grover Cleveland Alexander reports for duty with the Army at Camp Funston, Kansas. He would not pitch again for the Cubs until the following season.
Sept. 5, 1918 Boston’s Babe Ruth shuts out the Cubs 1-0 on six hits in Game 1 of the World Series at Comiskey Park. The Cubs played at the South Side park, which had a larger seating capacity, for the series’ home games.
April 20, 1916 The Cubs beat the Reds 7-6 in 11 innings in the first game at Weeghman Park, later to be known as Wrigley Field.
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
Sept. 11, 1918 The Red Sox edge the Cubs 2-1 in Game 6 at Fenway Park and win the World Series 4 games to 2.
Jan. 20, 1916 A group of investors led by Charles Weeghman purchases the Cubs for $500,000.
1918 Hippo Vaughn leads the NL in victories (22), earned-run average (1.74), shutouts (8), innings pitched (290.1) and strikeouts (148).
HEADING FOR HO ME
39
1950s
Shortstop Ernie Banks poses for a photo on his first day as a Cub, Sept. 14, 1953 at Wrigley Field. Banks made his Cubs debut three days later.
134
A LONE-STAR STAT E
1950s
SHORTSTOP, FIRST BASEMAN
Ernie Banks
14 1953–1971
E
rnie Banks passed away Jan. 23, 2015, at the age of 83, but his DNA will be embedded forever in the game of baseball. Aside from his 512 home runs, back-to-back Most Valuable Player awards and first-ballot induction into the Hall of Fame, the Cubs’ first black player put the “friendly” into the “Friendly Confines” of Wrigley Field and became synonymous with sunshine. No, Mr. Cub wasn’t the last of a breed. He was a true original, a once-in-a-lifetime athlete whose vibrant personality was part of the package, spreading the gospel of Cubs’ baseball to the masses long after his playing days had ended. Nothing could ruin Ernie Banks’ positive vibes, not even the luckless team he made you love. “Ironically, the guy with the sunniest disposition was really the face of their franchise,” former Cubs’ executive John McDonough said. “You could argue he was the greatest baseball player in the history of Chicago, but he would never talk about his own career.” Banks’ numbers spoke loud enough. A 14-time All-Star, he became the ninth player to reach the 500home run plateau in 1971, only to be passed by a number of Steroid Era suspects, among others, knocking him down to 22nd place. No matter. Anyone who spent a moment in Banks’ company quickly discovered he was more than just a ballplayer, and his numbers never could define him. “You didn’t have to be around baseball to understand what a great person he was,” former Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. “I know he was Mr. Cub, but he really was Mr. Baseball,” White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said. “He was really a great, great ambassador for the game.” Though baseball made him a celebrity, Banks was always curious and up for new challenges. In 1963, he unsuccessfully ran for 8th Ward alderman as a Republican in Chicago. In the summer of ’69, he was appointed to the board of the CTA, which led to speculation in the Tribune that he was planning to retire, “especially if the Cubs win the pennant and the World Series.” (Spoiler alert: They did not.) Banks once owned his own sports marketing firm, “Ernie Banks International,” was employed by New World Van Lines moving company and even dabbled in the media, writing a column in the Tribune and serving as a part-time sportscaster on WGN-9 news. Banks
often would be seen narrating his own highlights, famously saying: “And then, I came to the plate . . .” Aside from his home run prowess, the perennial optimist also was renowned for his annual slogans, assuring Cubs fans their high hopes ultimately would be rewarded. “The Cubs will come alive in ’65” Banks proclaimed before the team ended with 90 losses and an eighth place finish. “The Cubs will shoot from the hip with ‘Leo the Lip,’” he announced when new manager Leo Durocher came on board in 1966. The Cubs finished in 10th, tying a franchise record with 103 losses. Undeterred, Banks predicted the following spring “the Cubs will be heavenly in ’67.” The awkward rhyme worked, relatively speaking. The Cubs won 84 games and finished in third in ’67, and actually spent some time in first place during the summer. The resurgence of the late ’60s led to Banks’ most memorable slogan: “The Cubs will shine in ’69.” They did indeed shine until September, when a late-season collapse spoiled an otherwise glorious summer, adding to their litany of futility.
Ernie Banks (left) and teammate Gene Baker open a new shipment of bats on Aug. 6, 1955. Banks and Baker were the first African-Americans to play for the Cubs.
A LONE- S TAR STATE
1 35
2010s
At last!
For Cubs and their fans, 2016 was a season so special you hated to see it end
N OV. 2 , 2 01 6 WORLD SERIES VS. CLEVELAND INDIANS
WON 4-3 Cubs dig 3-1 hole but win next 3, capped by wild Game 7
298
F
inally. The most epic drought in sports history is over, and the Cubs are world champions. After 108 years of waiting, the Cubs won the 2016 World Series with a wild 8-7, 10-inning Game 7 victory over the Indians at Progressive Field. The triumph completed their climb back from a 3-1 Series deficit to claim their first championship since 1908. A roller-coaster of emotions spilled out in a game that lasted almost five hours, featuring some wacky plays, a blown four-run lead, a 17-minute rain delay and some 10th-inning heroics that sealed the deal. It was a perfect ending for a franchise that had waited forever for just one championship, and your stomach never will be the same. This is not a dream. The Cubs did it. It was real, and it was spectacular. After blowing an 8th-inning lead in stunning fashion, the Cubs bounced back in the 10th with run-scoring hits from Ben Zobrist and Miguel Montero. Over? Not quite. The Indians came within a run with two outs, until Mike Montgomery entered to induce the game-ending grounder to third base that saved the city. The Cubs rushed the field, waved “W” flags and embraced each other just as they had embraced Joe Maddon’s symbolic “target.” Tears flowed across Cubs Nation after the final out, and fans responded with the world’s biggest group hug, remembering all the loved ones who could only imagine what it would be like to experience this moment of pure bliss. The 1969 Cubs, the team that defined the word “collapse,” were off the hook. So were their predecessors in ’84 and 2003, who also came close only to suffer painful endings that scarred two generations of Cubs fans and kept the drought alive.
THE BEST-LAID P LANS
The billy goat is gone, and the black cat too. And what was the name of the foul-ball dude? No matter. It was never really his fault, and now he’s just a footnote in Cubs history. The catchphrase Cubs fans uttered over the last century and change has been “just one before I die,” a plea that fell on deaf ears decade after decade. Well, you can die in peace now, thanks to Maddon’s resilient club, which was bloodied and on the mat after a Game 4 loss at Wrigley Field. The Cubs picked themselves up when Jon Lester and Aroldis Chapman tag-teamed the Indians in Game 5, and they battled to a Game 6 victory in Cleveland to set up the mother of all Game 7s between two franchises synonymous with heartache. The road trips to cemeteries can now commence, where caps, balls, pennants and news clippings will be placed on markers of loved ones, letting them know they did it. The Cubs did it. It may look like the final scene of “Field of Dreams,” a caravan of cars on a mission of closure. When the Red Sox ended their 86-year championship drought, Cubs President Theo Epstein was moved by all the cemetery scenes, the touching tributes to those who taught us to love a baseball team through thick and thin—or in the Cubs’ case, through thin and thinner. Epstein, then the Red Sox’s general manager, said fans have thanked him almost every day since 2004 for “what it meant to their family” and those who didn’t live long enough to see it happen. “That really resonated,” he said last year. “More than anything else, that feeling influenced my decision to come to Chicago, because that was the one place in the world where you could experience something that meaningful again and play a small part in contributing to something that meaningful.”
2010s
Anthony Rizzo (clockwise from left), Kris Bryant, Mike Montgomery, Javier Baez and Addison Russell celebrate the Cubs’ 8-7 victory over the Indians in Game 7 of the World Series on Nov. 2, 2016 in Cleveland.
THE B ES T- LAID P L A NS
299
The stands are full at Wrigley Field during a Cubs game in 1951.
Extra Innings THE BEST OF THE CUBS How can you tell a die-hard Cubs fan from a bandwagon jumper? It’s easy. Mention “Brock-for-Broglio” or “Bruce Froemming” and then check their blood pressure. If it rises precipitously, you’ve got yourself a true-blue die-hard. While the Cubs may have been championship-challenged for more than a century, they never had a shortage of bizarre backstories, colorful characters or individual stars to hold fans’ interest. Why do the foul poles at Wrigley Field have the words “Hey Hey” on them? What do Jake Arrieta and Ken Holtzman have in common? What does “Eamus catuli” mean? And what does a goat have to do with baseball, anyway? Consider this chapter your quick-study guide to becoming conversant in the language of “Cubs.” 307
307
By the Chicago Tribune Staff
The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago Cubs is a decade-by-decade look at one of baseball’s most beloved teams, starting with the franchise’s beginnings in 1876 as the Chicago White Stockings and ending with the triumphant 2016 World Series championship run. For more than a century, the Chicago Tribune has documented every Cubs season through original reporting, photography, and box scores. For the first time, this mountain of Cubs history has been mined and curated by the paper’s sports department into a single one-of-a-kind volume. The book chronicles Cubs history by era and includes timelines, profiles of key players and coaches, and feature stories that highlight it all, from the heavy hitters to the no-hitters to the one-hit wonders. And of course, you can’t talk about the Cubs without talking about Wrigley Field. In this book, readers will find a complete history of that most sacred of American stadiums, where Hack Wilson batted in 191 runs—still the major-league record—in 1930, where Sammy Sosa earned the moniker “Slammin’ Sammy,” and where fans congregated, even when the team was on the road, throughout its scintillating championship run. The award-winning journalists, photographers, and editors of the Chicago Tribune have produced a comprehensive collector’s item that every Cubs fan will love.
The Chicago Tribune staff comprises the award-winning editors and journalists working for this
flagship newspaper established in 1847. The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago Cubs features content collected by the paper’s sports section editors.
SPORTS & RECREATION / BASEBALL ISBN: 978-1-57284-217-5 Publication date: April 11, 2017 $35 | 9.5 × 11 | 336 pages
For more information, contact Jacqueline Jarik at 847.475.4457 ext. 4# or at jarik@agatepublishing.com. Please supply two tear sheets of any published review. 1328 Greenleaf St., Evanston, IL 60202