When the Cubs Won It All

In the fall of 1908, no one could have guessed that the Chicago Cubs, a team that had dominated the National league three straight years, would for a century be shut out in its efforts to reclaim the world championship. Stars like Frank Chance, Ed Reulbach, and Three Finger Brown were still in their prime, and the Cubs had just emerged the winner in the most remarkable pennant race in history.
In the decades since, the achievement of the 1908 Cubs has been overshadowed first by the events of the season, which included the Merkle Game and a playoff that pitted two all-time great pitchers against each other, and more recently by the calendar, as the centennial anniversary of the last Cubs championship closed in. This book rescues the 1908 team from its status as footnote to baseball history, following one of the all-time great clubs on a thrilling, season-long march toward the World Series.

George R. Matthews has written on the Olympics, baseball and Zebulon Pike, and is a member of Biographers International Organization and the National Coalition of Independent Scholars. He lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

George R. Matthews
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 234
Bibliographic Info: 28 photos, notes bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2009
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3495-4
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5412-9
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii
Preface      1
Introduction      3

1. Spring Training      7
2. Fast Start      30
3. Caught in the Rain      46
4. The Brawl      68
5. Backs, Legs, and Thumbs      91
6. Bottomed Out      116
7. Touching Second, Twice      141
8. Triumphs and Scandal      173

Chapter Notes      203
Bibliography      211
Index      213