Golenbock - Wrigleyville: a magical history tour of the Chicago Cubs

WRIGLEYVILLE: A MAGICAL HISTORY TOUR OF THE CHICAGO CUBS. Copyright 1999 by Peter Golenbock. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martinns Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

All photos copyright George Bruce, except for photos on pages 504, 505, 508 and 511, that are courtesy of Corbis-Bettmann.

Design by Pei Koay

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Golenbock, Peter.

Wrigleyville : a magical history tour of the Chicago Cubs / by Peter Golenbock.

p. cm.

ISBN 0312-156995

1. Chicago Cubs (Baseball team)History. I. Title.

GV875.C6G66 1996

796.357'64'0977311 dc20

9526052

CIP

10 9 8 7 6

A LSO BY P ETER G OLENBOCK

Dynasty: When Rooting for the Yankees Was Like Rooting for U.S. Steel

The Bronx Zoo (with Sparky Lyle)

Guidry (with Ron Guidry)

Number 1 (with Billy Martin)

Balls (with Graig Nettles)

Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers

Bats (with Davey Johnson)

Personal Fouls

The Forever Boys

Fenway

American Zoom

Wild, High and Tight

Cowboys Have Always Been My Heroes

The Last Lap

WRIGLEYVILLE

This book is dedicated to Studs Terkel, whose oral histories I have so greatly admired through the years. Using oral history, a writer can bring to the reader an immediacy rarely found in books in the writers voice. In oral histories, the reader meets the participants, one by one. Studss successes have inspired me to use this form for my team histories.

Also to Harry Caray, the last of a unique breed.

Through my childhood I had the privilege of being able to listen to Mel Allen and Red Barber. We can no longer listen to these talented sources of entertainment and inspiration do play by play, but thank heaven, we still have Harry, not only the voice of the Cubs but, thanks to cable television, the voice of the game of baseball itself.

For fifty years Harry has embraced the game of baseball. He never fails to remind us how wonderful, how thrilling, and most important, how much fun the game can be.

With every broadcast Harry Caray keeps alive baseballs spirit in the purest sense. True baseball fans everywhere thank you.

Folks marvel at the great throngs which attend important baseball matches. They really need not be wondered at. The spectators have mostly been players, and once the germ of baseball gets in their blood, they never get it out.

ALBERT SPALDING , 1911

Itook out a package of Spearmint and I stuck a rib in my throat. Always buy Wrigleys, I said, it lasts longer. Besides, they spend $5,000,000,963.00 a year for advertising. Gives people work. Keeps the subways clean.

HENRY MILLER, The Colossus of Maroussi, 1941

Time is of the essence. The crowd and players

Are the same age always, but the man in the crowd

Is older every season. Come on, play ball!

ROLFE HUMPHRIES

Wrigleyville, in addition to being the easygoing North Side neighborhood around the charming old Chicago ballpark, is so much more than that. It is a state of mind, harkening to a warm afternoon at Wrigley Field: the sun reddening the exposed backs of devoted bleacherites, the smell of peanuts, popcorn, and hot dogs in the air, the Cubs players on the grassy field below striving against whoever comes to town.

If visitors inside the ivy-coated park listen closely, they can summon the echoes of the past: the brogue of Mike Kelly, the deep voice of Joe McCarthy, the laughing banter of Gabby Hartnett, the feisty bark of Phil Cavarretta, the singsong joy emanating from Ernie Banks. If they close their eyes and look out onto that expanse of emerald green, they can see Hack Wilson lift high fly balls into the stands, recall Ron Santo clicking his heels after a win, and marvel at the flawless fielding of Ryne Sandberg.

From childhood forward, things happen to us, good and bad, but nothing bad has ever happened to us at a baseball game, even when our favorite player makes an error and the team loses a pennant on the final day of the season. This is especially true of Cubs fans, the purest, truest fans in America. Cubs fans have a Jobian view of life. Yes, Job was a Cubs fan. Didnt Job ask, Why are you doing this to me, God? Isnt this the refrain of all Cubs fans?

For Cubs fans, there are no bad Cubs ballplayers, only players trying to become more proficient; there are no bad Cubs teams, only teams that promise success in the future.

Cubs fans love the Cubs, warts and all, no questions asked. This quality is called faith.

Cubs fans have blindly and faithfully thrilled to their personal heroes, regardless of result. In the wonderful world of Wrigleyville, Paul Minner, Wayne Terwilliger, Roy Smalley, Bob Buhl, and Glen Hobbie were heroes to someone, someplace, the same way Shawon Dunston, Rey Sanchez, Jim Bullinger, and Turk Wendell have their rabid fans today. An outsider may see these players as flawed. To Cubs fans, they are family, to be accepted at whatever skill level they perform.

And when a truly talented player arrives: ecstasy. For Cubs fans, every Ernie Banks home run was a thrill. Every Phil Cavarretta or Billy Williams hit a joy. Every Fergie Jenkins victory a cause for celebration. When Rick Sutcliffe and Ryne Sandberg almost led the Cubs to the pennant in 1984, this sophisticated city almost lost its mind.

The goal of Wrigleyville is to allow the reader to experience what the ballplayers experienced while they played for the Chicago Cubs. Through the hallowed corridors of the various home ballparks through the years has passed a virtual Hall of Fame lineup in Chicago uniforms: Albert Spalding, Cap Anson, King Kelly, John Clarkson, Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, Frank Chance, Rabbit Maranville, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Rogers Hornsby, Hack Wilson, Joe McCarthy, Kiki Cuyler, Dizzy Dean, Billy Herman, Frankie Frisch, Phil Cavarretta, Ernie Banks, Leo Durocher, Ron Santo, Fergie Jenkins, Billy Williams, Bruce Sutter, Andre Dawson, and Ryne Sandberg, just to name a few.

These are fascinating men in their own right, and through them and their teammates in Wrigleyville you will get to meet the greatest players and managers the game has ever known, including George and Harry Wright, Charles Comiskey, John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Stan Musial, Robin Roberts, Johnny Vander Meer, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Warren Spahn, Bob Gibson, Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Pete Rose, and Mike Schmidt.

So many players. So many stories. So many memories.