The Million-to-One Team: Why the Chicago Cubs Haven't Won a Pennant Since 1945 [Hardcover]

George Castle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

In The Million-to-One Team, author George Castle traces all the management actions and strategies that kept the Cubs on the golf course in October while every other team in existence in 1945 has been in at least one World Series, and a goodly number in far more than that. Castle also looks at the proverbial glimmer of hope that could end the unparalleled championship drought.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sportswriter George Castle grew up as a third-generation Cubs fan, never living more than seven miles from Wrigley Field on Chicago’s North Side. He turned an avocation into a vocation when he began covering the Chicago Cubs in 1980. Currently, Castle covers the Cubs for The Times of Northwest Indiana and Lerner Newspapers. He is also president of Castle Sports Journalism, Inc., and is the host of the syndicated “Diamond Gems” baseball radio show.

In addition to The Million-to-One Team, Castle is the author of three other books: I Remember Harry Caray, Sammy Sosa: Clearing the Vines, and The I-55 Series: Cubs vs. Cardinals.

A 1978 journalism graduate from Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Castle makes his home in Morton Grove, Illinois.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 337 pages
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing; 1st ed edition (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888698314
• ISBN-13: 978-1888698312
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,444,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Have for Cubs Fans, October 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Million-to-One Team: Why the Chicago Cubs Haven't Won a Pennant Since 1945 (Hardcover)

The million to one team is probably the best book ever written on the Chicago Cubs. It goes through the problems the cubs have endured throughout their history, but doesn't dwell on them. It rather shows the missed opportunities that the management has gone through, and that we, as fans, should remain hopeful. George Castle goes through the trials and tribulations of the entire cubs history, and how botched trades or failures in drafts can hurt you not only for 1-2 years, but can still be stinging 4-5 years down the line. Mr. Castle paints a picturesque scene that could have been the cubs. He shows how the upper management is to blame for this "million to one" streak of seasons without a world series.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If You are a Cubs Fan, Essential Reading, March 18, 2002

By 

Brent Jordan (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Million-to-One Team: Why the Chicago Cubs Haven't Won a Pennant Since 1945 (Hardcover)

This is essential reading for Cubs fans. A tremendous exploration of the post-War history of the franchise. I have been a Cubs fan all my life. Before reading this book, I would say I was simply a fan of the teams and players, remembering the various successful and (mostly) failed seasons. I could probably have quoted you alot of stats and could recount most major events in the team's history. However, now that I have devoured this large book, in just a few days of intense reading, I can say that I feel like I understood the team. Where the franchise has come from all these years, particularly from the management side.

This history is more detailed for the 80's and 90's era Cubs, as these were the teams that the author personally covered as a Chicago area sports journalist. For example, he really delves into recent Cubs drafts, what happened to their top picks, and analyzes every major trade the club has made in the last 20 years.

The author has an ax to grind when it comes to the Cubs. He, like us, is a bitter lifelong Cubs fan, and he focuses on the failures much more than the successes we've had along the way. I guess that is to be expected, as the treatise here is to explain why the Cubs have always been, at the end of the day, failures. So yeah, we may have gotten Fergie Jenkins for next to nothing in an awesome trade with the Phillies in 1966 (we gave up Bob Buhl and Larry Jackson -- that's right, Buhl and Jackson), but here, you're going to hear more about how we gave away Ray Culp after 1967 for nothing, only to see him win 50 games for the Red Sox between 1968 and 1970, just when we needed him.

The bottom line, this author will show you, is that the Cubs management was often inept, behind the times, fighting racial stigmas if not downright prejudices, and sorely lacking in having "baseball men" running the show and making baseball decisions. What the author will indirectly show you, through this book, was that something was always "being done" about various problems, although that thing may in hindsight have resulted in mistakes. Trades were made, people were fired or replaced, things were always moving. Hey, they even tried the College of Coaches. Unfortunately for all of us, it just never worked out in the end, despite incredibly close calls in 1969, 1984 and 1989.

Coming out with favorable reviews here are Gordie Goldsberry, John Holland and Dallas Green. Up for sacrificial skewering are anyone living after 1932 with the last name "Wrigley" and Leo Durocher. Andy McPhail is treated with a degree of neutrality. He is shown to be bringing the Cubs up to modern times in terms of player development, but is also shown to be a little too "patient", as he is not a native Chicagoan, is more of a future-baseball-Commissioner type with a sense of distance from competitive zealousness, with the end result that while he is competent, he does not understand a Cubs fan's sense of urgency.

All in all, a four star book for Cubs fans, with some faults as described above, and also including a very large number of editing errors, but mostly highlights.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great View into Cubs History, January 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Million-to-One Team: Why the Chicago Cubs Haven't Won a Pennant Since 1945 (Hardcover)

This book does a good job of getting behind the scenes of Cubs management over the last half of the 20th century. It is a good source of management history for any serious Cubs fans. At times the book is overly negative, but this is expected from serious fans that have been heartbroken by the Cubs. Also, the author should have a serious talk with his editors as there are numerous errors. Overall, not the best book around, but it definitely does do what it advertises, which is give a good history of Cubs management.