Take Me Out to the Cubs Game

Book excerpt: "There's too much nature in that ballpark"--Harry Chiti And make no mistake, whether it's the wind full-tilt off Lake Michigan, an early-season snowstorm at Waveland and Sheffield, or spring ivy hiding the batted balls of the visiting nine, nature seems to have Wrigley Field and the Cubbies under its thumb. In this book, John Skipper talks with 35 former Chicago Cubs who relive their ball-playing days and speculate on the eternally middling and undeniably popular Northsiders. This troop of now-grizzled bears, including Claude Passeau, Hank Wyse, Alvin Dark, Don Kessinger, Joe Niekro, Pete LaCock, and slugger Hank Sauer, hold forth on the front office moves, gruelling day-game scheduling and sometimes agonizing play of one of baseball's oldest, unluckiest and yet most revered franchises.