'The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse' weaves history memoir as only a fan could
Rich Cohen
Back in 2000   Rich Cohen  went on a mission.
The magazine writer  put on the literary map two years earlier with the book "Tough Jews " flew to Chicago to chronicle the legendary losing of  his  favorite baseball team for the esteemed pages of Harper's. It was such an unlikely assignment that the Cubs' hitting coach  Hall of Fame slugger Billy Williams  was convinced there was no such magazine as Harper's;  Cohen  must have made it up to get free tickets.
 Cohen 's observations included Mark Grace's smoking habits (a cigarette at his locker before and after every game)  Joe Girardi's naked body ("old-fashioned  a body from the Great Depression: thick torso and heavy arms  social realism  a WPA poster")  and Sammy Sosa's daily boombox battles with his teammates. They liked loud Pearl Jam. He liked even louder salsa music.  Cohen  wrote: "Today  and each day  it ended with the Pearl Jam turned down and turned off. It was not hard to tell how Sosa's teammates felt about this."
The Cubs lost seven straight games while  Cohen  was on their trail  reinforcing everything  he  was there to see: misery  piled up for generations. The piece is essential reading for any Cubs fan  precisely because  Cohen  is one of us  trying to make sense of it all: "For every Cub fan  there is a season  an inning  an at bat  when all hope is lost  when  at long last  he becomes disillusioned and realizes with dread certainty that no matter how good its prospects the team will never win."
Now  at last   Cohen  gets to update the story.
But how did we get here? Why did such futility endure? What scars were wrought across generations of the fan base? These are the questions  Cohen  takes up  and  he  hints at  his  own scars as early as the dedication. It is to  his  four sons  who "will grow up with the nonsensical idea that the Chicago Cubs are a great baseball team."
To those of us who suffered long enough —  Cohen   me  probably you (any White Sox fan stumbling onto this presumably bailed paragraphs ago) — it still sometimes doesn't quite seem possible. That shared sentiment is part of the book's power.  Cohen  tells a story that is all of ours: "When I was 13  I began going to Cubs games on my own. This was my first taste of adulthood. I've associated Wrigley Field with freedom ever since."
Jessica Medoff / Farrar  Straus and Giroux Magazine writer Rich Cohen chronicles the Cubs’ journey to a World Series championship in “The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse.” Magazine writer Rich Cohen chronicles the Cubs’ journey to a World Series championship in “The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse.” (Jessica Medoff / Farrar  Straus and Giroux) (Jessica Medoff / Farrar  Straus and Giroux)
Weaving between history lesson  memoir and fairly faithful sports reporting  "The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse" is a brisk and engaging read. It's hard to say much new or novel about the Cubs — probably no team has had more words spent in a bid to understand it — but  Cohen  does  his  best and employs an advantage even beyond  his  skilled storytelling:  He  has lived a life of good fortune.
Not only has  he  been on the front lines for Harper's  Sports Illustrated  Vanity Fair  Rolling Stone and The New Yorker  but also we learn that  Cohen 's father  legendary negotiation expert Herb Cohen  was friendly with former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda (we get an amusing personal anecdote from it) and Ernie Banks (an even better personal anecdote).
Along the way   Cohen  grapples with the hiccups — '84  '89  '03  '07 and '08 — along with the question of why the Cubs could never pull it out. The answer  of course  is not a literal curse. There may be no single answer  but  Cohen  sifts through a handful of compelling options. The "schizo" ballpark  which offered no true home field advantage. Bad ownership (meaning  in part  the Tribune Company — sorry everyone!). Bad organizational culture. It's not a new insight  but it's a fascinating one: In Chapter 11  current Cubs owner Tom Ricketts says winning the World Series is a fluke. Once you're in the playoffs  he says  any team can win it: "The fact is  when you go back and look  you'll see there's little correlation between how many games you win during a season and how far you go in the postseason. Almost zero." Simply  all the Cubs needed to do all these years was build a core of talent to consistently reach the playoffs. Then a World Series would inevitably have happened. Instead  the franchise was doomed by a lack of vision.
Back in 2000   [TGT]went on a mission.
The magazine writer  put on the literary map two years earlier with the book "Tough Jews " flew to Chicago to chronicle the legendary losing of  his  favorite baseball team for the esteemed pages of Harper's. It was such an unlikely assignment that the Cubs' hitting coach  Hall of Fame slugger Billy Williams  was convinced there was no such magazine as Harper's;  [TGT]must have made it up to get free tickets.
 [TGT] 's observations included Mark Grace's smoking habits (a cigarette at [TGT] locker before and after every game)  Joe Girardi's naked body ("old-fashioned  a body from the Great Depression: thick torso and heavy arms  social realism  a WPA poster")  and Sammy Sosa's daily boombox battles with his teammates. They liked loud Pearl Jam. He liked even louder salsa music.  [TGT]wrote: "Today  and each day  it ended with the Pearl Jam turned down and turned off. It was not hard to tell how Sosa's teammates felt about this."
The Cubs lost seven straight games while  [TGT]was on their trail  reinforcing everything  [TGT]  was there to see: misery  piled up for generations. The piece is essential reading for any Cubs fan  precisely because  [TGT]is one of us  trying to make sense of it all: "For every Cub fan  there is a season  an inning  an at bat  when all hope is lost  when  at long last  [TGT] becomes disillusioned and realizes with dread certainty that no matter how good its prospects the team will never win."
Now  at [TGT]gets to update the story.
But how did we get here? Why did such futility endure? What scars were wrought across generations of the fan base? These are the questions  [TGT]takes up  and  [TGT]  hints at  [TGT]  own scars as early as the dedication. It is to  his  four sons  who "will grow up with the nonsensical idea that the Chicago Cubs are a great baseball team."
To those of us who suffered long enough —  Cohen   me  probably you (any White Sox fan stumbling onto this presumably bailed paragraphs ago) — it still sometimes doesn't quite seem possible. That shared sentiment is part of the book's power.  [TGT]tells a story that is all of ours: "When I was 13  I began going to Cubs games on my own. This was my first taste of adulthood. I've associated Wrigley Field with freedom ever since."
Jessica Medoff / Farrar  Straus and Giroux Magazine writer Rich Cohen chronicles the Cubs’ journey to a World Series championship in “The Chicago Cubs: Story of [TGT] chronicles the Cubs’ journey to a World Series championship in “The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse.” (Jessica Medoff / Farrar  Straus and Giroux) (Jessica Medoff / Farrar  Straus and Giroux)
Weaving between history lesson  memoir and fairly faithful sports reporting  "The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse" is a brisk and engaging read. It's hard to say much new or novel about the Cubs — probably no team has had more words spent in a bid to understand it — but  [TGT]does  [TGT]  best and employs an advantage even beyond  [TGT]  skilled storytelling:  [TGT]  has lived a life of good fortune.
Not only has  [TGT]  been on the front lines for Harper's  Sports Illustrated  Vanity Fair  Rolling Stone and The New Yorker  but also we learn that  Cohen 's father  legendary negotiation expert [TGT]was friendly with former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda (we get an amusing personal anecdote from it) and Ernie Banks (an even better personal anecdote).
Along the way   [TGT]grapples with the hiccups — '84  '89  '03  '07 and '08 — along with the question of why the Cubs could never pull it out. The answer  of course  is not a literal curse. There may be no single answer  but  [TGT]sifts through a handful of compelling options. The "schizo" ballpark  which offered no true home field advantage. Bad ownership (meaning  in part  the Tribune Company — sorry everyone!). Bad organizational culture. It's not a new insight  but it's a fascinating one: In Chapter 11  current Cubs owner Tom Ricketts says winning the World Series is a fluke. Once you're in the playoffs  he says  any team can win it: "The fact is  when you go back and look  you'll see there's little correlation between how many games you win during a season and how far you go in the postseason. Almost zero." Simply  all the Cubs needed to do all these years was build a core of talent to consistently reach the playoffs. Then a World Series would inevitably have happened. Instead  the franchise was doomed by a lack of vision.