The Best Team Ever - A Novel of America, Chicago, and the 1907 Cubs [Paperback]

Alan Alop (Author), Doc Noel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2008

The Best Team Ever captures the essence of a century-old Windy City, and weaves baseball, love, murder and intrigue through every page.

This baseball book, crime drama, and love story follows the 1907 Chicago Cubs from the Practice Season to the World's Championship Series. The team of Tinker to Evans to Chance. And ''Three Finger'' Brown, owner of the game's best curveball. Rookie ''Kid'' Durbin rides the bench and writes a journal as the Cubs play a near-perfect brand of baseball against the backdrop of a wild, corrupt Chicago and a transforming America. Madmen, saints and sinners on the diamond and off parade through the pages of this historical novel.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alan Alop is a lawyer in Chicago, where he is a Deputy Director of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago. He and his son Jim are long-suffering Cubs fans. Alan remains entranced by the game of baseball.

Doc Noel was chosen to play shortstop for the 1959 and 1960 All Star Teams of the Skokie Indians Little League in Illinois, and was elected to the 2002 National Adult Baseball Association (NABA) All Stars in Sacramento, California. He enjoys his career in health promotion, but continues to play, manage, watch and write and speak about baseball. Playing catch with his sons Andrew and Adam is still a favorite pastime.

Product Details

• Paperback: 516 pages
• Publisher: Bascom Hill Publishing Group; 1 edition (August 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1935098020
• ISBN-13: 978-1935098027
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,206,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Poetry and True Grit of our National Pastime, November 10, 2008

By 

Timothy Huizenga "White Sox fan" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best Team Ever - A Novel of America, Chicago, and the 1907 Cubs (Paperback)

This book is a wondrous celebration of the quintessential American sport. The authors have brilliantly infused the story of one baseball season with a related tale of murder and revenge, giving life to the characters on one of baseball's greatest teams and the many dangerous and intriguing currents which defined Chicago a century ago. This delightful book surpasses nearly all baseball novels I have read by creatively using parallel stories to bring home the reality of the "dead ball" era in baseball with the gritty stuff of life in the big city, with its corruption, chicanery, villians, and heroes.
The writing is superb and wide-ranging. Lovers of baseball will delight in lyrical passages which are reminiscent of scenes from the movie Field of Dreams. The locker room banter and the character descriptions are authentic and engaging. One of the great strengths of the book is the scene setting, such that the reader feels part of the action, on and off the field. Nearly everyone who loves baseball will enjoy this book and absolutely everyone who loves both baseball and Chicago will love this story, told by guys who obviously love both.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A story of the legendary season of the Chicago Cubs, November 5, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best Team Ever - A Novel of America, Chicago, and the 1907 Cubs (Paperback)

Baseball is supposed to be honest, pure, the American pastime . . . "The Best Team Ever: A Novel of America, Chicago, and the 1907 Cubs" is a story of the legendary season of the Chicago Cubs. A work of historical fiction, it brings conflict onto the success story as the city of Chicago changes with the turn of the century and all of the corruption hat comes with it. The epic season serving as a unique backdrop for a story, "The Best Team Ever" uses the old to provide something new, recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On site in 1907 Chicago, Inside the 1907 Cubs, September 21, 2008

By 

Bud Suse (Pauma Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best Team Ever - A Novel of America, Chicago, and the 1907 Cubs (Paperback)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book from a number of levels.

Exhaustive research provides unparalleled insight to early 20th Century Chicago and its unchecked rowdiness complete with a cast of characters including the city's charlatans, its serious as well as petty criminals and its heroes. Feeling completely absorbed into the fabric of life in wild 1907 Chicago, by itself, will engage any reader.

The plot connects the city and its time in history, its villans, its victims and its heroes, and of course, its magnificient 1907 Chicago Cubs. The plot is intriguing, full of twists and surprises, and is what it is intended to be - pure entertainment!

The binding glue of the book is the diary of the Cubs high-potential rookie southpaw, Kid Durbin, a young guy coming of age who shares with the reader his love for the game of baseball, his awe of the amazing Cubs and his first serious romance. It would be criminal to say much more about the plot or Kid's rookie year, but the diary, by itself, is a just a fun read!

What Alan Alop and Doc Noel have created with Kid Durbin's diary is an extra seat on the bench for the reader. In my case, to say that I felt like I was on the bench watching player/manager Frank Chance up close drive the players for every ounce of commitment to every play, every pitch and every at bat is not an exaggeration. Tinker, Evers and Chance become real people in the Best Team Ever. And so do all the other key players.

I really liked The Field of Dreams, but I really loved The Best Team Ever.