Before Wrigley: The Inside Story of the First Years of the Cubs’ Home Field

This solid account of the early years of the Chicago Cubs’ beloved Wrigley Field will delight fans who have been looking for a World Series championship since 1908. But what most current fans probably don’t know is that championship was won in the Cubs’ original stadium on Chicago’s West side, not in its the current North Side home in Wrigley Field, which wasn’t built until 1914. Sports writer Deveney (The Original Curse) recounts the Byzantine business, sports, and political stories behind the ballpark’s beginning, which was first named Weeghman Park and was used by the Chicago team of the old Federal League—a “short-lived outlaw circuit” that boldly claimed major-league status and “challenged the dominance of the American and National Leagues.” “Fortune, treachery, and foresight” were all factors in building the park, which is on the former site of the Chicago Theological Lutheran Seminary. Deveney gives an excellent and thoroughly detailed account of the “winding path” that led the Cubs to that piece of land, including the likes of Charlie Weeghman, a flamboyant millionaire who first saw the possibility of baseball success on the city’s budding North side, , and legendary Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis.[em] (Apr.) [/em]