Wrigleyworld
A Season In Baseball's Best Neighborhood
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- 5,49 €
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- 5,49 €
Publisher Description
In 2016 the Chicago Cubs finally won the World Series after a 108 year losing streak. But before that, "never say die” was a way of life for Cubs fans, including sportswriter Kevin Kaduk...
In the summer 2005 season, in a fit of nostalgic, heartfelt (and possibly insane) loyalty to his “Lovable Losers,” Kevin quit his job as a sportswriter in Kansas City and moved back to the Windy City on a quest to find the heart and soul of what has come to be known as “Wrigleyville.”
As Kevin searched for answers, he found one hell of a good time. In this rollicking exploration of baseball and blind faith, he weaves a riveting tale of the team that stole his heart—and the life of the neighborhood surrounding baseball’s most historic ballpark. He takes us from the famed ivy-fronted bleachers in Wrigley Field to the full-blast party atmosphere that vibrates through the surrounding blocks every game day. He visits the rooftops across the street from the field where the beer is ice cold and the bratwurst never stops coming and explores the depths of Wrigleyville’s bar scene, where raucous celebration and heartrending commiseration are all too common.
So crack open a cold one, and get ready to experience the true adventures of Kevin Kaduk—a man who took himself out to the ballgame, bought himself some peanuts and Cracker-Jack...and never came back.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wrigleyville is the popular name for Lake View, the neighborhood where the Chicago Cubs have played baseball at storied Wrigley Field for almost 100 years. But readers won't learn much about Lake View or the Cubs in this tedious, smug account of how Kaduk, only four years out of college, quit a sportswriting job at the Kansas City Star resenting the "dues-paying tactics" of covering prep sports and moved to Wrigleyville for the 2005 season. Kaduk's focus is on "what it means to be a twenty-something baseball fan" in "one of the top party spots in the nation." To bolster this arguable assertion, he attends 62 of the Cubs' 81 home games, providing game-by-game descriptions of where he drinks, the kind and number of the drinks he has, the drunks he drinks with and hackneyed sportswriting ("a three-run dinger to left"). While Kaduk sneers at the "privileged" yuppies who live in the neighborhood, his stories reveal nothing beyond the fact that hanging out near Wrigley Field "provides a college lifestyle for as long as anyone wants to live it," making his choice of what he claims "countless others had surely dreamed of doing" instead of working ("It really isn't for me") rather juvenile.