This is my review of George F. Will's "A Nice Little Place On the North Side: Wrigley Field At One Hundred". This is a hilarious and enlightening take on the tortured history of the Chicago Cubs and their pleasant prison/ stadium. Among the highlights is the motto "anyone can have a bad century", the disputed Babe Ruth called home run and many other things. Will takes the perfect tone with this franchise.
Would it surprise you to know it was a Cubs player and the woman who shot him that inspired the movie "The Natural". Eddie Waitkus, a war hero who earned 4 bronze stars, became the object of intense affection of a lady named Ruth Ann Steinhagen. She became obsessed with Waitkus, even building a shrine for him in her apartment. In June 1949 she stayed at the same hotel the Cubs were staying at. She lured him to her hotel room, where she shot him.
Three years later Bernard Malamud published "The Natural". As Will says "the story of Roy Hobbs, who is shot by a woman." "The Natural" isn't only one of the best baseball movies of all-time, but it's also one of the best movies of all-time.
Will obviously has quite a bit fondness for Ernie Banks, as he highlights the many accomplishments of Mr. Cub.
This book shares how the Ivy came to added to Wrigley Field in 1937. The author also marks one of the most Cubness moments ever, a moment that happened on July 20,1962. In a loss to the Dodgers, the Cubs fell below .500 in the history of Wrigley Field. They have remained below .500 ever since then, in fact they have fallen even more below .500. The Cubs finished 16 games below .500 in 2014, which is a lot better when they finished 30 games under .500. Somehow they still had 2.6 million fans come to Wrigley each of those two years.
This book also details the Cubs connection to Jack Ruby, Ronald Reagan and Ray Kroc. Also mentioned is Cubs fans love of beer, hatred towards Steve Bartman. (Moises Alou, and his tantrum, should be ashamed of himself, he was never going to catch that ball.)
Other highlights in this book include the game played on May 17th, 1979, when the Phillies beat the Cubs 23-22. Also how the lights came to Wrigley in 1988. The book touches on the poetry of Carl Sandburg, the Chicago Black Sox scandal- including it's link with "The Great Gatsby" and legendary mobster and huge Cubs fan Al Capone.
In Will's theories, Cubs fans are very loyal to their Cubs- almost to a fault. They love to go to Cubs games for the baseball, weather and beer- not necessarily in that order. Tobias J. Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim wrote a book called "The Hidden InfluencesBehind How Sports Are Played and Games are won. The last chapter of the book is titled "Are The Chicago Cubs Cursed". Moskowitz and Wertheim studied Wrigley Field beer prices between 1984 and 2009. They concluded that "attendance was four more times more sensitive to beer prices than to the teams won-lost record. By 2009 Cubs ticket prices were the third highest in MLB, but beer prices were the third lowest in MLB.
(However with the Core Four maturing and gaining experience, the signing of Jon Lester and Joe Maddon the good times have got to be right around the corner? Right? The NL Central may be the strongest division in the 2015 season. I'm considering doing a game by game review of the Cubs season as I did with the Dodgers a couple of years ago.)
The Cubs season begins on April 5th with a 3 game series against the St. Louis Cardinals. That season opening game will be on ESPN 2. Go Cubs!!
themusicaddict
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