It has been a long time.  Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance—that “trio of bear cubs” immortalized in poem and enshrined as a unit in Cooperstown—formed the core of a ball club that brought Chicago baseball fans back-to-back World Series championships 100 years ago.  And fans are still waiting for victory number three.  Art Ahrens, who was featured in HBO’s “Wait ‘til Next Year,” knows the meaning of that phrase as well as any Cubs fan.  Here he takes the reader back to the not-so-halcyon days of spitball pitchers, inside-the-park home runs, and an era when raucous fans lined the foul lines, often a little too close for comfort for the visiting ballplayers. Beginning in 1898 with the acquisition of a green Frank Chance and following the team’s exploits through the 1916 season, the last for Joe Tinker in a Cubs uniform, this is the story of Wrigleyville’s favorite tenants, before there was a Wrigleyville.
Softcover, 6 x 9, 128 pgs.