A Season for the Ages

No doubt, you’ve heard about the Cubs’ decades-long run of futility. They hadn’t won a pennant in seventy-one years or a World Series in a record 108 years. To the frustration of Cubs fans everywhere, the team often missed chances with soul-crushing defeats.

But after a complete teardown that resulted in a 100-loss season in 2012, Theo Epstein and his baseball staff reversed that with the Cubs of 2016, a team that was not only supremely talented, but cared nothing for all the media narratives of losing. They did things during the regular season that no Cubs club had done in more than a century, including earning the most wins for the franchise since 1910. The club went on to defeat the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League playoffs before beating the Cleveland Indians to win the World Series.

Anthony Rizzo, MVP candidate Kris Bryant, Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester, manager Joe Maddon, and fan favorites like Javier Baez and David Ross are the heroes of the 2016 Cubs’ story. Told by Al Yellon, managing editor of SB Nation’s Bleed Cubbie Blue, A Season to Remember chronicles not only the 2016 Cubs’ rise to the top of the baseball heap, but the team’s—and the fans’—long journey to get there.

Al Yellon is the founder and editor in chief of the popular SB Nation Cubs site Bleed Cubbie Blue. He is coauthor of Cubs By The Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Cubs by Uniform Number. Yellon lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Pat Hughes has been the radio play-by-play voice of the Chicago Cubs for twenty-one seasons. Hughes was named the Illinois Sportscaster of the Year in 2015, 2014, 2009, 2007, 2006, 1999, and 1996. He earned Wisconsin Sportscaster of the Year Award honors three times (1990-1992). Hughes is the producer of "Baseball Voices: Hall of Fame Series," compact discs that commemorate and pay tribute to famous announcers of the past. He lives in the Chicago area.

"Yellon provides a brief history of the Cubs, explores the madness that was the World Series itself, and looks back at his personal Cubs journey, which began when he was a boy. All are related with history and a sense of humor." --Booklist

"A most magnificent of Cubs seasons. This book is filled with details, as well as tracing the journey, of both the team, Al as a Cubs fan, and as to how we got to this time of triumph." --Pat Hughes, from the foreword

"Al Yellon is the founder and editor of the popular SB Nation Cubs site, 'Bleed Cubbie Blue.' His opening line is, 'Most of all, this is a love story.' Indeed it is, as early on he chronicles how he became a Cubs fan for more than 50 years. Throughout the book, he includes his perspective as a spectator."--Chicago Tribune