Cubs Nation: 162 Games. 162 Stories. 1 Addiction.

by Gene Wojciechowski

From Ernie Banks, the legendary Mr. Cub, to Sammy Sosa, today's record-setting sensation, Cubs Nation traces the history of a team that often had everything going for it and yet was so hampered by... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385513003
• ISBN13: 9780385513005
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 417 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Momentous Year at Wrigley

Gene Wojciechowski, writer for ESPN and Cub fan, has gone where several have blazed a trail before: writing about the day-to-day events in a season with the Cubs. Having read accounts before of 162 entries of Cubs games (or so), I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book and its premise was greatly improved over similar books. Wojciechowski interviewed over 220 individuals for this book and included a very wide range of stories, great humor and poignant episodes in the life of people associated with the Cubs, be they the struggles of ballplayers with injuries, ballplayers befriending kids with serious diseases, Cub fans and celebrities, Cub employees and weaving these tales around the daily game. This book takes place in 2004, when much was expected from the Cubs but the year unraveled for them in the last quarter of the season: players made mistakes, management made mistakes, the team blew leads and games, announcers were blamed for telling the truth, and the start of a wholesale personnel turnover at the park began. The stories are very enjoyable and Wojciechowski has a terrific sense of humor, and the drama of the last few weeks of the season just adds to the enjoyability of the book - it's definitely worth reading.

Easy, fun, informative read

My wife turned me into a Cub fan, and now I am a Cub FANATIC. I learned some great tidbits from this, and the style -- a story and chapter for every game day -- let me pick it up and read when I had a few spare minutes here and there. GO CUBS IN 2006!!

Great, great book!

I grew up on the South Side of Chicago as a Sox fan. This book was given to me as a present because--as I would find out later--the author devotes pages to the Sox, to the Cubs-Sox rivalry, to baseball in this city. The more I read, the more I loved this book. Yeah, it's about the Cubs. But it's more than that. It's simply a great baseball book. I highly recommend it.

great piece of cubs history

This book is an amazing chronology of a season with high hopes and eventual lost aspirations. Behind the scenes, the author brings perspectives of many followers in the "Cubs Nation." People on the inside like general managers and executives, players, and even the beer man have a story. Some of the unlikeliest places to go for a story-the equipment manager for example or the manager of a local pub are all a part of the strange history of Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs. The author's viewpoints are spectacular and research unmatched. I wish he wrote a book like this every year for the Cubs.

As much fun as sitting in the bleachers with a cold one

While the 2004 season wasn't good for the Cubs, this book is great for the fans. And not just Cubs fans (although there are plenty of us out there). Gene Wojciechowski manages to show why we're all fans in the first place. Wojciechowski uses a clever format -- 162 stories (one for each game of the season) on everyone and everything Cubdom from the ballhawks to the beer guy to the umpire's room attendent to the guy who parks the cars to the players to Dusty Baker to stream of Cubs consciousness with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder to movie pitches with Bull Durham's Ron Shelton to beers at the Billy Goat -- and it's a book that is impossible to put down. Told from the fans' point of view -- and it's obvious Wojciechowski is a fan -- it's a book for us, about us, no matter who our favorite team is or where they finished in the standings. This is a must-read for any sports fan.