The capital of baseball -- Samples of baseball -- The age of Wilson begins -- The McCarthymen take the stage -- My dad the sportswriter -- To paradise and back -- "A sort of frenzy" -- McCarthy's debacle -- "I wanted Wilson" -- The prime of Mr. Hack Wilson -- "A lousy outfield" -- Room 509 -- Informants -- "Nothing to it" -- "No particular pal of mine" -- "That story is terrible, Judge" -- The natural -- "Mugs . . .Chiselers"

Chicago in the Roaring Twenties was a city of immigrants, mobsters, and flappers with one shared passion: the Chicago Cubs. It all began with the decision of the tycoon William Wrigley to build the world's greatest ball club in the nation's second city. In this Jazz age center, the maverick Wrigley exploited the revolutionary technology of broadcasting and attracted eager throngs of women to his renovated ballpark. Mr. Wrigley's Ball Club transports us to this heady era of baseball history and introduces the team at its crazy heart, an amalgam of rakes, pranksters, schemers, and choirboys who take center stage in memorable successes and disasters.--[book jacket]