A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred Author: George Will | Language: English | ISBN:
B00FIN0UT0 | Format: EPUB
A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred Description
“George Will on baseball. Perfect.”—Los Angeles Times In
A Nice Little Place on the North Side, leading columnist George Will returns to baseball with a deeply personal look at his hapless Chicago Cubs and their often beatified home, Wrigley Field, as it turns one hundred years old. Baseball, Will argues, is full of metaphors for life, religion, and happiness, and Wrigley is considered one of its sacred spaces. But what is its true, hyperbole-free history?
Winding beautifully like Wrigley’s iconic ivy, Will’s meditation on “The Friendly Confines” examines both the unforgettable stories that forged the field’s legend and the larger-than-life characters—from Wrigley and Ruth to Veeck, Durocher, and Banks—who brought it glory, heartbreak, and scandal. Drawing upon his trademark knowledge and inimitable sense of humor, Will also explores his childhood connections to the team, the Cubs’ future, and what keeps long-suffering fans rooting for the home team after so many years of futility.
In the end,
A Nice Little Place on the North Side is more than just the history of a ballpark. It is the story of Chicago, of baseball, and of America itself.
- File Size: 3230 KB
- Print Length: 226 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0385349319
- Publisher: Crown Archetype (March 25, 2014)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00FIN0UT0
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #100,785 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #17
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Historical Study > Essays - #27
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Baseball > History - #42
in Books > History > Historical Study & Educational Resources > Essays
- #17
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Historical Study > Essays - #27
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Baseball > History - #42
in Books > History > Historical Study & Educational Resources > Essays
The measure of a good book, perhaps a great book, is when I finish the last page, I’m sad to see it end.
This Wrigley Field tribute, lovingly crafted by George Will, is a gem—but I still had five days of vacation left. Surely Will could craft a second book for us hopeless Cub fans. Misery loves company.
Another measure of a great book—I can read numerous paragraphs out loud to my wife, and she’s not annoyed. And no wonder—she converted me into the religion that is Cubs misery in 1968, a year before we married.
“Is 1984 in the book?” she asked, sadly.
I assured her that the heartbreak of 1984 was duly noted—plus other dates and fates: Leon Durham, Steve Bartman, 100 years of Wrigley Field, and dozens and dozens of other Cubs moments to inspire depression.
So why read this? Because the sadness is frequently erased with Will’s dry wit, intelligent analysis, and sidebar wisdom and humor:
--“For most teams, 0 for 30 is called a calamity. For the Cubs it is called April.”
--“What does a female bear taking birth control have in common with the World Series? No Cubs.”
Will quotes sportscaster Red Barber who once said, “baseball is dull only to dull minds.” Exactly. That’s why Cubs fans clearly have higher I.Q.s. We find meaning and solace in the nuanced explanation of win/loss records.
But this is far more than a tribute to Wrigley Field, host to more than 140 million fans since 1913. Will’s wisdom shines in hundreds of one-liners:
--For immigrants, “Learning to talk baseball was part of the catechism of the civic religion.”
--“Chicago was just the place for a man with Cowperwood’s high ratio of energy to scruples.
When I saw the Amazon Vine description for this book, I expected it to be a lot like Fenway 1912: The Birth of a Ballpark, a Championship Season, and Fenway's Remarkable First Year. I had enjoyed that book, so I expected I would like this, too. Nope: I LOVED this book.
But it might help for you to know what to expect.
The Fenway book really is about the "birth of the ballpark;" it's largely about the story of _the park_, with everything from architecture design to the political scene to the nature of how baseball was played in 1912. Will's _Wrigley Field at One Hundred_ isn't really about the park itself, despite the fact that it too is published a century after Wrigley's construction. It's about the community that makes the Cubs -- and its park -- special.
Oh dear, that sounds sappy. It's not -- not in the least. This book alternately make me say, "Oh wow, that's cool!" and laugh out loud. George Will clearly LOVES his Cubbies, and yet is perfectly aware of their failings. And he has me utterly charmed.
The book has plenty of trivia and statistics, the sort we baseball fans love. Will shares marvelous anecdotes, too, and they're skillfully told. "When Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the commissioner of baseball, objecting to Cubs chatting up Al Capone when he sat in a front row box seat, Gabby Hartnett, longtime Cub player and manager, supposedly said, 'If you don't want me talking to the big fellow, why don't you tell him yourself?' This looks like one of those suspiciously perfect quotes that journalists refer to as 'too good to check.
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