With the recent success of the Gas House Gang as backdrop, the National League prepared for the 1935 season. The United States was still in the Great Depression, but executives in baseball predicted a financial comeback during the year, and Chicago’s “windy” politicians demanded a pennant-contending ballclub. Yes, there was a time when the Cubs were expected to win.
This book chronicles the Cubs’ 1935 season and the many on- and off-field events that impacted the game for years to come: Fans who had once turned to baseball for heroes and men of character now laughed at players’ uncouth antics and fun-loving carousing reported in the morning newspapers; Babe Ruth debuted in the National League with the Boston Braves, and retired soon after; the first major league night game was played in Cincinnati; the chewing gum king Phil Wrigley was the first to broadcast all of his team’s games on the radio; and the Cubs won 21 games in a row in September to take the pennant—the last Cubs team to win 100 games in a season.

Doug Feldmann is a professor in the College of Education at Northern Kentucky University and a former scout for the Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners, and San Diego Padres.

Doug Feldmann
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 247
Bibliographic Info: photos, appendices, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2003
pISBN: 978-0-7864-1591-5
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8056-2
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vi

Prologue      1

1. Overcoming the “Gang”      5

2. Gabby, Jolly Cholly, and the Grimm Reapers      19

3. The Great One Takes a Final Bow      36

4. The Night the Lights Went On      59

5. Alabama Gets Out, and So Does the Babe      88

6. Cubs Out After Dark      114

7. Chasing the Galloping Hoodlums      137

8. An Amazing Run      159

9. Hold That Tiger      181

Epilogue      210

Appendices      219

Bibliography      227

Index      229

“an excellent job…enjoyable…recommend[ed]”—Nine.