A Season for the Ages: How the 2016 Chicago Cubs Brought a World Series Championship to the North Side

by Al Yellon, Pat Hughes (Foreword by)

Overview

No doubt, you’ve heard about the Cubs’ decades-long run of futility. They hadn’t won a pennant in seventy-one years or a World Series in a record 108 years. To the frustration of Cubs fans everywhere, the team often missed chances with soul-crushing defeats.

But after a complete teardown that resulted in a 100-loss season in 2012, Theo Epstein and his baseball staff reversed that with the Cubs of 2016, a team that was not only supremely talented, but cared nothing for all the media narratives of losing. They did things during the regular season that no Cubs club had done in more than a century, including earning the most wins for the franchise since 1910. The club went on to defeat the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League playoffs before beating the Cleveland Indians to win the World Series.

Anthony Rizzo, MVP candidate Kris Bryant, Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester, manager Joe Maddon, and fan favorites like Javier Baez and David Ross are the heroes of the 2016 Cubs’ story. Told by Al Yellon, managing editor of SB Nation’s Bleed Cubbie Blue, A Season to Remember chronicles not only the 2016 Cubs’ rise to the top of the baseball heap, but the team’s—and the fans’—long journey to get there.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683581161
Publisher:	Sports Publishing LLC
Publication date:	12/06/2016
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	948,996
File size:	8 MB
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Al Yellon is the founder and editor in chief of the popular SB Nation Cubs site Bleed Cubbie Blue. He is coauthor of Cubs By The Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Cubs by Uniform Number. Yellon lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Pat Hughes has been the radio play-by-play voice of the Chicago Cubs for twenty-one seasons. Hughes was named the Illinois Sportscaster of the Year in 2015, 2014, 2009, 2007, 2006, 1999, and 1996. He earned Wisconsin Sportscaster of the Year Award honors three times (1990-1992). Hughes is the producer of "Baseball Voices: Hall of Fame Series," compact discs that commemorate and pay tribute to famous announcers of the past. He lives in the Chicago area.

Table of Contents

Foreword Pat Hughes ix

Introduction: A World Series on Chicago's North Side xv

Chapter 1 How the Cubs Got Here 1

Chapter 2 One Fan's Journey 9

Chapter 3 Spring Training: The Preparation, the Sunshine, the Fun of March 21

Chapter 4 April: Roaring Ahead of Everyone 39

Chapter 5 May: Continuing the Roar 53

Chapter 6 June: Swoon 73

Chapter 7 July: Righting the Ship 93

Interlude 101

Chapter 8 August: Winning, and Winning, and Winning 119

Chapter 9 September: All the Ducks in a Row 137

Chapter 10 October: The Postseason to Remember 153

Epilogue: What This All Means 173

Acknowledgments 177

Editorial Reviews

"Yellon provides a brief history of the Cubs, explores the madness that was the World Series itself, and looks back at his personal Cubs journey, which began when he was a boy. All are related with history and a sense of humor." —Booklist

"A most magnificent of Cubs seasons. This book is filled with details, as well as tracing the journey, of both the team, Al as a Cubs fan, and as to how we got to this time of triumph." —Pat Hughes, from the foreword

"Al Yellon is the founder and editor of the popular SB Nation Cubs site, 'Bleed Cubbie Blue.' His opening line is, 'Most of all, this is a love story.' Indeed it is, as early on he chronicles how he became a Cubs fan for more than 50 years. Throughout the book, he includes his perspective as a spectator."—Chicago Tribune

"Yellon provides a brief history of the Cubs, explores the madness that was the World Series itself, and looks back at his personal Cubs journey, which began when he was a boy. All are related with history and a sense of humor." —Booklist

"A most magnificent of Cubs seasons. This book is filled with details, as well as tracing the journey, of both the team, Al as a Cubs fan, and as to how we got to this time of triumph." —Pat Hughes, from the foreword

"Al Yellon is the founder and editor of the popular SB Nation Cubs site, 'Bleed Cubbie Blue.' His opening line is, 'Most of all, this is a love story.' Indeed it is, as early on he chronicles how he became a Cubs fan for more than 50 years. Throughout the book, he includes his perspective as a spectator."—Chicago Tribune

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