Wrigleyville: A Magical History Tour of the Chicago Cubs [Paperback]

Peter Golenbock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 19, 1999

For celebrated sportwriter Peter Golenbock, Wrigleyville is a symbol of America's fidelity to its greatest sport. As he did with classics of sports literature, Bums (a history of the Brooklyn Dodgers) and Dynasty (a history of the New York Yankees), Golenbock turns to a team that has won and broken the hearts of generations of fans; the Chicago Cubs. Utilizing dozens of personal interviews with players, coaches, fans, sportswriters, and clubhouse personnel, as well as out-of-print memiors by nineteeth-century players, Peter Golenbock has created a perfect gift for every baseball fan: a book that entertains, warms the heart, and touches the soul. This updated edition includes material from the team's past five years, such as Harry Caray's death, the magical seasons of Sammy Sosa and Kerry Wood, and the Cubs' 1998 playoff dive.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Chicago Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908 or the National League pennant since 1945. Yet the team has some of the most devoted fans in all of sport. Golenbock (The Bronx Zoo) looks at the reasons for the loyalty of Cubs fans, and along the way traces the history of the team through interviews with numerous former players, coaches and executives. In fact, the history of the Cubs is pretty much the history of the National League. The first Chicago baseball clubs were founded in the 1860s, but the team that would become the Cubs was largely the creation of Al Spalding. He not only was a star player, but became the Cubs' owner and in that capacity helped write the constitution that became the foundation of Major-League Baseball. Golenbock examines all the various Cub eras?Spalding/Cap Anson; the Wrigley years, of William and son Phillip?and closes with the current owners of the team, the Tribune Company. Written as an oral history, the text becomes repetitive at times, but Cub fans and baseball historians will find the work hard to put down. Photos .
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Golenbock, author of two earlier team oral histories, Bums (LJ 9/15/84) and Fenway (LJ 2/1/92), and many other sports titles, has crafted another winner about a team often thought of as lovable losers. He shows how the charming Wrigley Field, one of the oldest ballparks in the Major Leagues, has played a big role in the team's popularity. A solid work recommended for medium and large public libraries.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 3rd edition (June 19, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312156995
• ISBN-13: 978-0312156992
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,586,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Only lack of modern history prevents a 5-star rating, February 9, 1999

By 

rletterly (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wrigleyville: A Magical History Tour of the Chicago Cubs (Paperback)

I heartily recommend all of Mr. Golenbock's works, Wrigleyville as well as Bums and Fenway. The author shares my passion for the greatest game ever invented, and it is especially heartening that he chose to write about the Cubs. This book shares much of its content with many recent epics about baseball, such as Ken Burns' Baseball, and Our Game by Charles C. Alexander. The relatively recent trend in emphasizing baseball's traditions and history render this book to be judged as a nice find; but if it weren't for the above mentioned books, it would be a treasure. Unlike the above mentioned books, however, the author has chosen a topic that forces him to look away from developments that occurred on the East Coast. I understand that baseball was invented pretty much on the East Coast, and a substantial portion of its history evolved there. But one thing I found maddening about Ken Burns' masterwork was the notion that New York City was the Sun which all the other baseball planets revolved around. Mr. Golenbock, as well, chose first to write about New York and Boston teams. It is to his credit that he has shown the same love and passion in his chronicling of Cubs history, which is every bit as long, involved, and passionate as Dodger or Red Sox history. As I noted above, there is very little attention paid to recent times...as any Cub fan knows, there has been very little to cheer about for the last half century. The author does a admirable job in analyzing the transition from William Wrigley, a baseball man, to his son Phillip, a gum man, and the long term harm on the franchise. I just wish he could have went one step further, to similarly dissect the "cost-benefit" approach the Tribune Company has used since it took over in 1981.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you grew up with the Cubs, you need to own this book., March 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Wrigleyville: A Magical History Tour of the Chicago Cubs (Hardcover)

I have to admit a bias in that I am an insufferable Cubs fan, one who spent more than a few childhood days at Wrigley Field. Despite that, Golenbock's book enlightened me to things I am ashamed to say I did not know. For instance, I had no idea the Cubs' original name was the White Stockings. I had assumed all along they were the Cubs. That revelation took some getting used to, for if you're a lifelong Cubs fan, you can't admit to accepting anything White Sox.

That aside, Wrigleyville isn't exactly filled with heretofore unknown information, but it does go into particular detail about pre-1900s Cubs history that you're unlikely to find anywhere else. Golenbock seems to have spent the bulk of his energy on the pre-WWII period, and appears to assume the reader is already a Cubs fan with post WWII knowledge. That isn't a complaint, merely an observation. The chapters devoted to Cap Anson, Albert Spaulding, Mike Kelly and Frank Chance are filled with stories even Ernie Banks couldn't have known.

Which brings me to my next point. While the passages from Dickie Noles, Darold Knowles and Gene Oliver were entertaining, where were Ernie Banks, Jim Hickman, Phil Regan, Joe Amalfitano, Don Kessinger, Paul Popovich, Bill Madlock etc....? The one paragraph attributed to Joe Pepitone appeared verbatim in his own book. However, as someone who grew up with the Cubs since the late Sixties, it was extremely enlightening to hear from Glenn Beckert, Randy Hundley and Ron Santo. That, however, made the dearth of information from Ryne Sandberg, Shawon Dunston, Andre Dawson, Keith Moreland, Leon Durham, Jody Davis and Jim Frey all the more glaring.

But please don't get me wrong, I wouldn't be without this book. Until now, the idiosyncrasies of P.K. Wrigley were only a rumor, and while we always had him to blame for the College of Coaches and the Lou Brock trade, I would now like to thank him for holding out on night baseball and thereby adding to the considerable charm of Wrigley Field.

One last thing. In light of the recent passing of the legendary Harry Caray, and the obvious reverence in which Golenbock holds him, it is lamentable there isn't more from him here. Golenbock ends the book with what amounts to a mini-tribute to Harry, and since he makes the correct observation that the current editions of the Cubs are synonomous with Harry, it would have been nice to have had him flesh out that concept to its conclusion. Because, to paraphrase more than one interviewee, my idea of Heaven is being at Wrigley Field on a weekday afternoon in July with Grace in the on-deck circle and Harry at the mike, warbling yet another rendition of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" as I order another Old Style and tell the story of how I saw Hank Aaron make the final out for Ken Holtzman's no-hitter in 1969. Ahhh, you can't beat fun at the ol' ballpark....

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wrigelyville Plus, March 20, 2005

By 

Scott Roeda "Mozart" (Bremen Township, Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wrigleyville: A Magical History Tour of the Chicago Cubs (Hardcover)

This book is about the Chicago Cubs. But it is not about purely the Chicago Cubs of the Wrigleyville era. So the subtitle A Magical History Tour of the Chicago Cubs is a more accurate title of this book. Some reviews complain that there is not enough coverage of the more recent past.Well I have read Cub histories and other team histories that seem to elaborate on the more recent- what is more familiar. This book contains 498 pages of text. It starts the Cubs History from 1876 through the early 1990's. This book is anthology. Not skimping on the premodern era of 1876 -1899, but includes it. I found each era covered about the same amount of time. the author had a clear goal about writing balance history about the Chicago Cubs. Balance in the sense of covering the whole historically. Yes this book is a promotion for baseball, critical analysis of baseball and socity problems need look elsewhere, but I enjoy getting losed in a good read.