The neighborhood of baseball

by Barry Gifford

Barry Gifford was born in 1946, one year after the Chicago Cubs last won the National League pennant. The Cubs' chances for reversing that trend are so obviously bleak to even the most diehard Cubs fans that, on opening day of the 1980 season, a group of fans in the Wrigley Field bleachers unfurled a banner that read: WAIT 'TIL NEXT YEAR! How can a team with such a miserable record inspire what is perhaps the greatest, most dedicated following in baseball? Why have the Cubs continued to perform so poorly even during years in which they always drew good crowds? This book addresses these questions and much more about this mysterious ball club and it's following.