A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred (23 page)

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Authors: George Will

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Personal Memoirs, #Sports & Recreation, #Baseball, #History

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73
That team frequently played in front of such small crowds:
Kathy O’Malley and Dorothy Collin, “Daleyville,”
Chicago Tribune
, April 3, 1991.
74
On September 17, 1937:
Edward Burns, “New Wrigley Field Blooms in Scenic Beauty—and Scoffers Rush to Apologize,”
Chicago Tribune
, September 12, 1937, B5.
75
Paul Dickson is the author:
Paul Dickson,
Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick
(New York: Walker, 2012).
76
Veeck said the Cubs assigned:
Ibid., 42–43.
77
Paul Sullivan, who has been covering baseball:
For several quotations and anecdotes throughout this section, I drew on correspondence with Paul Sullivan.
78
Santa Catalina, the “isle with the smile”:
Ehrgott,
Mr. Wrigley’s Ball Club
, 154.
79
He had dinner in Los Angeles:
Ronald Reagan,
An American Life: An Autobiography
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990).
80
In his 1990 memoir:
Ibid.
81
In 1907, when the Cubs ruled the roost:
Edward A. Berlin,
King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 76.
82
In the summer of 1919:
William M. Tuttle Jr., “Contested Neighborhoods and Racial Violence: Prelude to the Chicago Riot of 1919,”
Journal of Negro History
, vol. 55, no. 4 (October 1970), 282.
83
On Monday, May 19, 1947:
Edward Burns, “Record 46,572 See Dodgers Beat Cubs, 4–2,”
Chicago Tribune
, May 19, 1947, 29.
84
The headline in the
Chicago Defender:
Ron Grossman, “ ’42’ in the Windy City,”
Chicago Tribune
, April 28, 2013.
85
A Cub official told the paper:
Leslie A. Heaphy,
Black Baseball and Chicago: Essays on the Players, Teams and Games
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006), 184.
86
That day, Mike Royko:
Mike Royko,
One More Time: The Best of Mike Royko
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 68–70.
87
“Managers,” Wrigley said, “are expendable”:
Steele, “Philip Wrigley.”
88
Wrigley’s rationale was:
Stout,
The Cubs
, 236.
89
For the 1966 season, he hired Leo Durocher:
Al Yellon, Kasey Ignarski, and Matthew Silverman,
Cubs by the Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Chicago Cubs by Uniform
(New York: Skyhorse, 2009).
90
His salty memoir:
For quotations throughout this section, I drew on Leo Durocher,
Nice Guys Finish Last
, with Ed Linn (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009).
91
The Cardinals sent out another scout:
George Vecsey,
Stan Musial: An American Life
(New York: ESPN Books / Ballantine Books, 2011), 202.
92
“Can’t act. Slightly bald”:
Mike Towle,
Pete Rose: Baseball’s Charlie Hustle
(Nashville: Cumberland House, 2003), 37.
93
Banks said that when Saperstein:
Golenbock,
Wrigleyville
, 349.
94
“His wrists,” said a teammate:
“Ernie Banks,” Baseball
Library.com
,
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=ernie_banks_1931
.
95
Bill James, in the first version:
James,
Historical Baseball Abstract
, 367.
96
In 1958, an opposing manager:
Golenbock,
Wrigleyville
, 349.
97
According to Golenbock, Caray was fired:
Ibid., 456.
98
Nearly forty years after he first experienced it:
For several quotations and anecdotes throughout this section, I drew on correspondence with Mike Krukow.
99
As his wife settled into her seat:
For several quotations and anecdotes throughout this section, I drew on Tyler Kepner, “On a Sunny Day at Wrigley, a Perfect Storm of Offense,”
New York Times
, May 17, 2009, SP1.
100
In Ashburn’s final big league season:
David H. Nathan,
The McFarland Baseball Quotations Dictionary
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2000), 13.
101
It is somehow fitting:
For this and other Danny Ozark quotations, see Robert Cohen,
The 50 Greatest Players in New York Yankees History
(Plymouth, UK: Scarecrow, 2012), 32, and Dickson,
Dickson Baseball Dictionary
, 619.
102
April is—a poet born and raised in the Midwest said:
See T. S. Eliot’s
The Waste Land
(1922), available here:
http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html
.
103
Because it is the most famous rhetorical moment:
“Lee Elia Cubs Rant,” Nuttysportsvideos, available here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S0CDtEz_Bo
.
104
What is not well known:
For several quotations and anecdotes throughout this section, I drew on correspondence with Keith Moreland.
105
In 1984, one of the happier summers:
For quotations and attendance numbers throughout this section, I drew on Tobias J. Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim,
Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games Are Won
(New York: Three Rivers, 2011).
106
Then, according to the Discovery Channel:
For much of the information related to beer in this section, I drew on
Martyn Ives,
How Beer Saved the World
(Discovery Channel, 2011); Steven Johnson,
The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
(New York: Riverhead, 2006); George F. Will, “Hooding Remarks” (Princeton University, June 4, 2012),
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S33/88/44Q33/
; and Daniel Okrent,
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
(New York: Scribner, 2010).
107
Before the game, he waxed poetic:
For Vin Scully’s opening remarks, see Curt Smith,
Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story
(Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2009); Steve Nidetz, “Despite Blowout in Game 1, Big Audience Got a Fine Show,”
Chicago Tribune
, October 6, 1989; and “This Time It Will Be Better,”
Desipio Blog
, October 1, 2007,
http://www.desipio.com/?p=1390
.
108
This is Miss Havisham as seen:
Charles Dickens,
Great Expectations
(Hertfordshire, UK: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 2000), 48–49.
109
The Cubs were leading the 2003:
For much of the information related to the Bartman incident in this section, I drew on Alex Gibney,
Catching Hell
(ESPN Films, 2011).
110
The relevant rule reads:
“2013 Official Baseball Rules: 2.00 Definition of Terms,” Major League Baseball, 2013,
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/downloads/y2013/official_baseball_rules.pdf
, 18.
111
In
Chicago: City on the Make:
Nelson Algren,
Chicago: City on the Make
(New York: Doubleday, 1951), 30.
112
In a
New Yorker
cartoon:
George F. Will, “
Your Brain on Cubs,” Newsweek
, March 29, 2008.
113
So says Jordan Grafman:
Dan Gordon, ed.,
Your Brain on Cubs: Inside the Heads of Players and Fans
(New York: Dana, 2008).
114
On October 23, 1943:
Winston S. Churchill,
Never Give In! The Best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches
(New York: Hyperion, 2003), 358–61.
115
It was, after all, a great Chicago architect:
Fitzhenry,
Harper Book of Quotations
, 43.
116
Returning to the huddle:
Mark C. Bodanza,
1933: Football at the Depth of the Great Depression
(Bloomington: iUniverse, 2010), 27.
117
To those who said, “You can’t turn back”:
For information related to Janet Marie Smith, I drew on several sources, including correspondence with Janet Marie Smith; Ryan Vaillancourt, “Janet Marie Smith and the Changes to Dodger Stadium,”
Los Angeles Downtown News
, February 12, 2013,
http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/janet-marie-smith-and-the-changes-to-dodger-stadium/article_41c5419e-7245-11e2-9350-0019bb2963f4.html
; Bret McCabe, “Janet Marie Smith Talks Ballparks and Urban Transformation,”
Hub
, December 7, 2012,
http://hub.jhu.edu/2012/12/07/berman-lecture-smith-ballparks
; and Ryan Sharrow, “Power 20: Janet Marie Smith,”
Balitmore Business Journal
, February 18, 2011,
http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/print-edition/2011/02/18/power-20-janet-marie-smith.html?page=all
. 170
118
He says “the best $50,000 we spent”:
Martan F. Nolan, “Advice to Red Sox: Just Keep Swinging,”
Boston Globe
, September 1, 2001.
119
His grandfather was the wit:
George F. Will,
Bunts: Curt Flood, Camden Yards, Pete Rose and Other Reflections on Baseball
(New York: Touchstone, 1999), 91.
120
William Zinsser, a gifted writer:
William Zinsser,
The Writer Who Stayed
(Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2012), 66, 124–25.
121
In it he recalls the pleasure:
Ralph Branca,
A Moment
in Time: An American Story of Baseball, Heartbreak, and Grace
, with David Ritz (New York: Scribner, 2011), 25.
122
He said owning the team:
For various facts related to Wrigley Field and Tom Ricketts in this section, I drew on correspondence with Tom Ricketts.
123
In May 2012, a
USA Today:
Bob Nightengale, “No Joy in Wrigleyville as Cubs, Neighbors Clash,”
USA Today
, May 9, 2013.
124
“Baseball,” wrote A. Bartlett Giamatti:
A. Bartlett Giamatti,
A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti
(Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1998), 46.
125
Its themes explain why we care:
For quotations throughout this section, I drew on A. Bartlett Giamatti,
Take Time for Paradise: Americans and Their Games
(New York: Bloomsbury USA, 1989).
126
“Life is a long preparation”:
Fitzhenry,
Harper Book of Quotations
, 263.
Throughout this book, records, standings, payroll figures, information about ballparks, and other miscellaneous data have been drawn from:
Correspondence with Steve Hirdt, Elias Sports Bureau
Correspondence with Michael Haupert, University of Wisconsin, La Crosse
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/
http://www.baseball-reference.com/
http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/
http://mlb.mlb.com/home
http://www.retrosheet.org/
http://sabr.org/research/

Bibliography

Ahrens, Art.
Chicago Cubs: Tinker to Evers to Chance
. Charleston: Arcadia, 2007.

Algren, Nelson.
Chicago: City on the Make
. New York: Doubleday, 1951.

Ballparks of Baseball:
http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/
.

Baseball Almanac:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/
.

Baseball-Reference.com:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/
.

Belasco, Susan. “Harriet Beecher Stowe.”
New York Times
.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/harriet_beecher_stowe/index.html
.

Berkow, Ira. “On Baseball; Hack Wilson’s Lesson Still Valid.”
New York Times
, September 5, 1998, D3.

Berlin, Edward A.
King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Bodanza, Mark C.
1933: Football at the Depth of the Great Depression
. Bloomington: iUniverse, 2010.

Boyle, Robert. “A Shy Man at a Picnic.”
Sports Illustrated
, April 14, 1958.

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