"Before the Curse: The Chicago Cubs' Glory Years, 1870 1945" brings to life the early history of the much beloved and often heartbreaking Chicago Cubs. Originally called the Chicago White Stockings, the team immediately established itself as a powerhouse, winning the newly formed National Base Ball League's inaugural pennant in 1876, repeating the feat in 1880 and 1881, and commanding the league in the decades to come. The legendary days of the Cubs are recaptured here in more than two dozen vintage newspaper accounts and historical essays on the teams and the fans who loved them. The...

Those who avidly followed the on-court acrobatics and off-court celebrity of the Dream Team in Barcelona in 1992 would hardly recognize what passed as Olympic basketball fifty-six years earlier, when the United States first played the game in the 1936 Olympics. In those early days of men s Olympic basketball, many teams lacked basic skills, games were played in the pouring rain, only seven players could suit up, and the rules allowed only two substitutions and no time-outs. How this slow, low-scoring sport became the breakneck game that enraptures millions worldwide is the story of...