Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
With all that MAGIC and PASSION, why didn't they win?, April 1, 2000
DUROCHER'S CUBS is dynamite! It captures and actually recreates all the excitement and passion of those magical years for baseball fans, and still provides fresh and solid answers as to why this great team of half a decade fell short. The insights into Leo's personality were amazing. Thank you David Claerbaut!
|
|
|
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Why is this Collection of Cubs So Well Remembered?, May 30, 2006
Between 1967 and 1972 one of the best teams ever assembled played in the friendly confines of Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Cubs during those years were perennial favorites to win at least the National League championship. Anchored by three Hall of Fame players--Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, and Ferguson Jenkins--and a Hall of Fame manager, Leo Durocher, they should have dominated the league. They didn't. During that stretch, as the author of this interesting book notes, "The Cubs turned in 515 victories, finished second three times, never lower than third, but won not a single flag of any kind--not a World Series, not a pennant, not even a divisional championship" (p. 2).
David Claerbaut, a stathead and diehard Cubs fan, unravels why the Cubs failed during that six year period when it looked like everything was in the team's favor. No question, they had the best starting lineup in the National League. Ernie Banks at first, Glenn Beckert at second, Don Kessinger at shortstop, Ron Santo at third base, and Randy Hundley at catcher filled out the infield. Billy Williams and others secured the outfield, and a stellar pitching staff with three superb starters in Ferguson Jenkins, Bill Hands, and Ken Holtzman ensured the opposition did not score many runs. Regardless, they did not win.
Then there was 1969. The St. Louis Cardinals had cruised to the National League championship in both 1967 and 1968, but in 1969 the Cubs burst out of the gate and no one believed they could be caught. On September 3 the Cubs led the second place New York Mets by five games, with 26 left to play and more than half of them at Wrigley Field. The Mets caught them, taking 23 of their last 30 games, and won the National League East by eight games. Meantime, the Cubs went 8 and 18. It was a stupendous collapse, one worthy of memorialization in song and story.
Claerbaut offers a useful inquiry into why the Cubs collapsed in 1969. He finds that their offense failed, their defense failed, and most importantly their will power failed. Durocher deserves major credit for the debacle. He refused to rest his stars and pushed them to their limits. Most important, he rode his veterans until they were ready to drop. He feuded with everyone--many of the players, virtually all of the sportswriters, and even the fans. His antics created tension everywhere. As Claerbaut concludes: "When people perform in a tense atmosphere, are tired, are led ineffectively, and are then unprepared emotionally for a major challenge, they are likely to collapse. They are likely to choke" (p. 129). The Cubs proved that truth in 1969.
The Cubs remained a superb team for several years after the 1969 season but never challenged for the National League East in the same way again. The Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates emerged as the class of the league and dominated the early years of the 1970s. The team dispersed many of its players to other teams and in 1972 Durocher was finally fired as manager. Seemingly, Durocher's departure raised the Cubs of this era to an immortal status. Claerbaut notes that while there have been very good Cubs teams since 1972, some with Hall of Fame ballplayers and with division titles in 1984, 1989, and 2003, none have captured the imagination of fans more effectively than this collection of players that never reached the playoffs. Banks, Beckert, Callison, Hands, Hickman, Holtzman, Hundley, Jenkins, Kessinger, Regan, Santo, and Williams live on in the memory of Cubs nation. Ryne Sandberg, Rick Sutcliffe, Mark Grace, Andre Dawson, Sammy Sosa, Mark Prior, and Lee Smith were all outstanding players who labored with terrific Cubs teams since that time, but they do not have the appeal of "Durocher's Cubs." David Claerbaut offers an explanation why. This is a very good book that would have been better with good editing and references.
|
|
|
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not a Bad Read, January 1, 2001
This book is great if you are a fanatic for statistics that go above and beyond what you usually get...seasonal batting and pitching statistics. But, I do not go much past those statistics and the author uses them far more often than I as a reader wanted to see, mainly because it fragmented much of the narrative. The author does well in explaining their purpose, I just didn't care for them. Now, as far as baseball history goes, if you have read or know little about the Cubs seasons during the tenure of Leo Durocher, this book will be very insightful in many respects. Otherwise, it's just another baseball book with too many statistics added. I would have preferred something with interviews from more of the players that made up the Cubs teams as they recounted what happened that kept them from winning the division. The one thing the author really did a great job of pointing out was the ineffectiveness of Kessinger and Beckert at the top of the order. Although they were all-stars, they weren't the tablesetters that Williams, Santo, and Banks really needed in front of them. All in all, I did get enjoyment from this book, but I can't see myself reading it over again as I have with many others in my library.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
DVD ~ Hank Aaron
DVD ~ Ryne Sandberg
DVD ~ Robert Redford
by Peter Morris
by Fred Mitchell
