Chicago's Big Teams: Great Moments of the Cubs, Bears, White Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls

by Lew Freedman

Overview

Chicago is a 21st-century city that is not only represented by all four major team sports—football, basketball, hockey and baseball—but is also blessed with two long-standing Major League Baseball franchises, one in each league.

In Chicago's Big Teams, author Lew Freedman offers readers a comprehensive and interesting look into the histories and heroes that have made each franchise tick.

In 28 unique essays, Chicago's Big Teams unwraps the stories behind the men, moments and circumstances that have forged these great franchises and unforgettable champions.

Freedman leaves no stone unturned in the franchises' history, from opening day to current day, and provides snapshots of Chicago legends like Michael Jordan, Ernie Banks, Mike Ditka, Frank Thomas and Bobby Hull alongside tales of franchise curses, Stanley Cup parades, Super Bowl Shuffles and World Series fixes.

Chicago's Big Teams pays homage to Soldier Field, Wrigley Field, U.S. Cellular Field and the United Center, as well as the revered structures that came before them, like Comiskey Park and Chicago Stadium.

Packed with more than 150 photos, Chicago's Big Teams is the most comprehensive book on the best of Chicago's professional sports teams.

Includes profiles on the following:

Harry Caray
Eddie Collins
George Connor
Glenn Hall
Rogers Hornsby
Bo Jackson
Jerry Krause
Keith Magnuson
Joakim Noah
Brian Piccolo
Pierre Pilote
Ed Reulbach
Dennis Rodman
Ryne Sandberg
Ron Santo
Jerry Sloan
Buddy Ryan
Nolan
Ryan

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770855823
Publisher:	Firefly Books, Limited
Publication date:	10/20/2015
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 10.80(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Lew Freedman is a veteran prize-winning journalist who has written for the Chicago Tribune sports staff and other newspapers. He is the author of dozens of sports books, including many about the Chicago Bears, the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago White Sox and Loyola University's 1963 NCAA basketball championship. He is also the author of Football Stadiums (Firefly Books, 2013). He lives in Chicago.

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction
Root for the Home Team: But You Can Pick Only One Baseball Club

The Chicago Cubs
The Loveable Losers

Chapter 1 The Foundations of Success
Chapter 2 The Friendly Confines
Chapter 3 National League Champs Again... and Again
Chapter 4 Forever Mr. Cub
Chapter 5 Greatness Just Out of Reach
Chapter 6 Curses! Foiled Again

The Chicago Bears
Monsters of the Midway

Chapter 7 The Galloping Twenties
Chapter 8 Bronko and the Champs
Chapter 9 Sid Luckman and the All-American Massacre
Chapter 10 What Is and What Could Have Been
Chapter 11 A Special Friendship
Chapter 12 The Greatest Bears of All

The White Sox
The South Siders

Chapter 13 Champs from the Start
Chapter 14 The Black Sox Scandal
Chapter 15 From Oh-No to the Go-Go White Sox
Chapter 16 The Big Hurt
Chapter 17 The South Side Rules

The Black Hawks
Here Come the Hawks

Chapter 18 Gardiner Gets Them Out of the Gate
Chapter 19 The Stanley Cup Champs of 1961
Chapter 20 Chicago's Great One-Two Punch
Chapter 21 The Big Streak
Chapter 22 Three Cups and Counting

Chicago Bulls
An Heir for His Airness

Chapter 23 Humble Beginnings
Chapter 24 Michael Arrives
Chapter 25 Three-peat
Chapter 26 Repeat Three-peat
Chapter 27 Fresh Dreams

Index

Editorial Reviews

11/23/2015
The city of Chicago has seen its share of highlights and lowlights in sports history, so it takes a daring author, armed with a superb collection of historic photos, to try to tell 100 years of stories in one volume. For the most part, veteran sportswriter Freedman (Football Stadiums) succeeds in profiling the five major teams in four major sports (baseball, hockey, basketball, and football), highlighting significant moments such as accusations of fixing World Series games in the Black Sox scandal of 1919, the Blackhawks' Stanley Cup victories, and the Bulls' reign in the early '90s. While detailing the yearly ups and downs of the franchises in broad strokes, Freedman occasionally focuses on individual stars, such as Michael Jordan and Bobby Hull. He uses short sidebars to tell anecdotes about an owner, a consecutive game streak, or an on-field brawl. Some readers will wonder where their favorite player is, or whether there will be a separate volume for the sporting legacies of the many universities in town, but the book still makes a fine celebratory gift for Chicago fans, even as they hope that it will soon be rendered outdated by a new triumph from one of their teams. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly