The Cubs: The Complete Story of Chicago Cubs Baseball
by Glenn Stout (Author), Richard A. Johnson (Photographer)

Order this Book at Amazon.com here Hardcover: 480 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (October 1, 2007)

From the critically acclaimed authors of Red Sox Century and Yankees Century, the definitive narrative history of the Chicago Cubs: They were America’s most successful baseball club at the turn of the twentieth century, but at the turn of this century the Cubs have not won a World Series in nearly one hundred years. Yet, the Cubs have some of the most devoted fans in all of sport. Glenn Stout chronicles the long, rich, counterintuitive history of this team in all its depth, nuance, and color.  Complementing the text are more than two hundred gorgeous black-and-white photographs selected by Richard Johnson as well as essays by noted Cubs chroniclers, including Scott Turow, William Nack, Rick Telander, Penny Marshall, Mike Royko, and more. A must-have for Cubs fans past and present, The Cubs is the definitive history of one of baseball’s most treasured franchises.

“A definitive account of the last remaining team to go almost a century without earning a World Series Championship, this illustrated team history displays the superb gifts that have graced the authors similar studies (Red Sox Century Yankees Century, The Dodgers), Stout combines skillful writing with methodical research to produce detailed and insightful reporting behind team myths…” – Publishers Weekly

” ‘The Cubs’ by Glenn Stout and Richard Johnson is even better (if that’s possible) than their previous team histories of the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers.” - Bill Madden, New York Daily News

“Perhaps the greatest allegorical compliment that could be paid Glenn Stout and Richard Johnson’s book on the history of the Cubs is that the book was not authorized by the Cubs organization. Those who have struggled through the seemingly endless varieties of Cubs literary lore may appreciate that reality, seeing as reading some Cubs books is like reading about the parties on the Titanic. This one, however, is different and exceptional. Stout and Johnson do well to tell the tale of this franchise, and to discuss, dispel or fortify some myths or truths, and also invoke a certain treasured tenderness that a true Cubs fan should appreciate. Essays by the likes of Mike Royko, Rick Telander, and Penny Marshall tell that other Cubs tale: the kind you only seem to treasure because at one time you too were inside the bricks. It’s a massive volume, heavy as a brick but worth it’s curb weight.”-Chris Sprow, Chicago Sports Weekly

“The Cubs is an epochal study of Cubness: the Friendly Confines, daft and devoted fans who take their losses personally, myopic owners, spurious curses, classic collapses, and abiding stars who gave better and deserved more. It vividly portrays how, for a century, this historically losing franchise has made bonehead plays and stupid trades—and still amassed a huge national following. The Cubs will not always comfort Cub fans. But it will increase the tribe of Cub fans across the country. Let’s play two today!”– Scott Simon, Host, NPR’s Weekend Edition and author of Home and Away: Memoir of a Fan

“Richard Johnson and Glenn Stout long ago established their expertise at writing wonderful books about baseball teams that have been notorious for various reasons. In their latest endeavor, they’ve been joined by Mike Royko, John Schulian, and William Nack, among others. Talk about your all-star line-ups. The Cubs despite or perhaps because of the Cubs, is a winner.” – Bill Littlefield, Host, NPR’s Only a Game

“Once again, Glenn Stout and Dick Johnson have taken what is supposed to be a quaint genre — the coffee table book — and transformed it into important, indispensable history. Finally, we have a Cubs book that isn’t hagiography, but one deconstructs and enjoys the legend of the Cubs while simultaneously explaining the eternal mystery of how a big-city team could be so rich, so powerful, and so beloved with such little to show for it. An outstanding read that doesn’t let anyone off the hook.” –Howard Bryant, senior writer, ESPN and author of Juicing the Game and Shut Out

“I live in Boston, once a town of great baseball angst filled with downtrodden folk who mumbled and stumbled through a succession of 86 summers with the knowledge that sometime before the end of October the sky would fall directly on their heads. Then the crack literary firm of Stout and Johnson published a book entitled Red Sox Century, which confronted all demons, banished them forever and opened the way to a new zip-a-dee-doo-dah future. Now the lads take on the subject of The Cubs in the same through and entertaining fashion. The only question is what route the victory parade will take through the Windy City. – Leigh Montville, author of The Big Bam

Nine Months at Ground Zero

The Story of the Brotherhood of Workers Who Took on a Job Like No Other

By Glenn Stout, Charles Vitchers and Robert Gray
Photography by Joel Meyerowitz

Publication Date: 04/26/2006

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Description

Hours after two airplanes hit the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001, Charlie Vitchers, a construction superintendent, and Bobby Gray, a crane operator, headed downtown. They knew their skills would be crucial amid the chaos and destruction after the towers fell.

What they could not imagine — and what they would soon discover — was the enormity of the task at Ground Zero. Four hundred million pounds of steel; 600,000 square feet of broken glass; and 2,700 vertical feet of building had been reduced to a pile of burning debris covering sixteen acres. Charlie, Bobby, and hundreds of other construction workers, many of whom had helped to build the Twin Towers, were the only ones qualified to safely handle the devastation.

Everyone working the site faced the looming danger of the collapse of the slurry wall protecting lower Manhattan from the waters of the Hudson River, the complexity of shifting tons of steel without losing additional lives, and the day-to-day challenge and emotional strain of recovering victims. Charlie Vitchers became the go-to guy for the hundreds of people and numerous agencies laboring to clean up Ground Zero. What he and Bobby Gray make dramatically evident is how the job of dismantling the remaining ruins and restoring order to the site was far more complex and dangerous than constructing the tallest buildings in the world.

With stunning full-color photographs donated by Joel Meyerowitz — a celebrated and award-winning artist and the only non-newsroom photographer allowed access to the site — and first-person oral accounts of the tragedy from the morning of the attack to the Last Column ceremony, Nine Months at Ground Zero is a harrowing but ultimately redemptive story of forthright and heroic service.

Nine Months at Ground Zero with be available in 04/2006

Reviews:

“Journalist Stout (series editor, The Best American Sports Writing) co-wrote this moving account of the nine-month effort to recover bodies at Ground Zero and safely handle the wreckage of the Twin Towers with two veterans of the construction industry. Charlie Vitchers (general superintendent, Bovis Lend-Lease) and Bobby Gray (Int. Union of Operating Engineers) became key leaders in this massive undertaking. For his part, Vitchers coordinated the work of the New York City public service departments and various private companies, resolving problems among the groups and dealing with pressures to speed up the recovery efforts. It was construction workers, many who had been involved in building the World Trade Center, who handled much of the recovery effort. This book’s strength is in showing the human cost of this process. Unlike firefighters, police officers, and other emergency-response personnel, construction workers are not trained or conditioned to recover human remains, and that aspect of their work took a heavy toll. Included are interviews with ten other people (construction workers, firefighters, family members, etc.) involved in the grim recovery process. This touching book is recommended for all.” – Library Journal

“Although the attacks on the Twin Towers on 9/11 are etched into our consciousness, few of us understand the enormity of the task of the subsequent search and rescue and protracted debris removal. The shots of the site with the coming and going of trucks is the most any of us remember about the grueling cleanup project. As the men who originally built the towers, coauthors Charles Vitchers and Robert Gray were uniquely qualified to help. Unasked, they devoted nine months of their lives, not to mention the stress, sleep deprivation, and loss of family life that went along with it. The scale and complexity is nearly unfathomable: 400 million pounds of twisted steel; 600,000 square feet of thick shattered glass; and mountains of the trappings of office life, including chairs, desks, and other furnishings; all mixed with the scattered remains of almost 3,000 victims. Through this account of their heroic effort, beginning at the moment of first impact, we can begin to get a sense of ‘what the men and women went through who dealt with the tragedy firsthand.” –from Booklist

“Pick up the newspaper and it’s the same every day whether it’s politics, sports, or business: greed and corruption have become standard operating procedure. It’s hard to have faith, until you read Nine Months at Ground Zero. Are there any heroes left? The answer is a resounding yes in this beautiful and poignant and important book. God bless these men so willing to make the impossible possible.” – Buzz Bissinger, author of Three Nights in August

“This inspiring story brings us all to a concrete-and-steel intimacy with a structure, its place, and its people. To know Charlie Vitchers and Bobby Gray is to know New York down to its bones.” – Richard Ben Cramer, author of What It Takes: The Way to the White House

Red Sox Century
by Glenn Stout, Richard A. Johnson

* Hardcover: 480 pages
* Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (September 15, 2000)
* Language: English
* Book Dimensions: 11.0 x 9.2 x 1.3 inches
* Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds.
* In-Print Editions: Hardcover : Paperback : All Editions

Order Red Sox Century at Amazon.com

Editorial Reviews From Amazon.com

“Oh, to be a Red Sox fan. It is a mark of the singular angst that attends the territory that the four retired numbers–9 (Ted Williams), 4 (Joe Cronin), 1 (Bobby Doerr), and 8 (Carl Yastrzemski)–taunt the faithful every game from their perch on Fenway’s right-field facade; they precisely correspond to the date–September 4, 1918–that the Sox won their last World Series title. Less than two years later, owner Harry Frazee would sell his star pitcher and outfielder, Babe Ruth, to the Yankees, and the curse of the Bambino would take hold of Boston hearts.

From Cy Young to Cy Young award winner Pedro Martinez, this is a franchise full of myth and history–the first to win a World Series and the last to cross the color line–and, contend authors Glenn Stout, the series editor of the annual Best American Sportswriting volume, and Richard A. Johnson, curator of the Sports Museum of New England, the most interesting franchise in the history of the game. Their splendid, fully illustrated chronicle, rich with anecdotes, of the club from 1901 to the present makes it hard to argue with the assessment. The Sox have always been interesting–as well as frustrating, enigmatic, contradictory, and thrilling, and Red Sox Century touches all of those bases. This is an exhaustively researched history, but it’s also a fan’s book, filled with affection and exasperation. Stout and Johnson effectively pepper their narrative with personal reflections and observations from writers such as Peter Gammons, Dan Shaughnessy, and Elizabeth Dooley. They also pick a Red Sox all-century team, make a fine case for Pedro’s ‘99 season as the best ever for a pitcher, compile some requisite stats, and assemble the most complete Sox bibliography ever. About the only thing they don’t supply is a good parking place near Fenway.” –Jeff Silverman

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Best,

Glenn