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HOODOO: UNRAVELING THE 100-YEAR MYSTERY OF THE CHICAGO CUBS

By Grant DePorter, Elliott Harris and Mark Vancil $24.99 176 pages 8 ½ x 10, 2-color, Hardcover Published September 2008

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CUBS PRAISE HOODOO
“I love the book. A must for every Cubs fan.”
- Crane Kenney, Chairman, Chicago Cubs

“Reading this book was as much fun as watching the Cubs win at Wrigley. It’s a home run for any Cubs fan.”
- Ernie Banks, Cubs Hall of Famer

“Interesting book, a must for all Cub Fans!”
- Ryne Sandberg, Cubs Hall of Famer

Hoodoo: Unraveling the 100-Year Mystery of the Chicago Cubs, is an entertaining account of a multi-year quest to understand, and ultimately set right, the events contributing to Cubs unprecedented World Series drought.

Propelled by the cleansing effects of the 2003 infamous foul ball destruction and armed with a stack of Chicago newspapers from 1908, Grant DePorter, lifelong Cubs fan and President of Harry Caray’s Restaurant Group, set out to understand the extraordinary series of misfortunes that had plagued the Cubs for generations. He poured over the four-foot high stacks of one-hundred-year-old newspapers with a scientist’s resolve. The more he read, the clearer it became that he was looking for what was commonly known at the time as a “hoodoo,” or a harbinger of bad luck.

Along the way, DePorter uncovered many remarkable coincidences and never-before-told stories, including:

• A 1908 cartoon depicting a man bearing an uncanny resemblance to Sam Sianis, leading a goat on a leash. The goat is speaking the word “Never.” (page 62)

• The endless list of superstitions subscribed to by the 1908 players, including:
- Don’t strike out the first batter
- Never touch a catcher’s mitt before a game
- If you see a hairpin, pick it up
- Passing a wagon full of unbaled hay or empty barrels on the way to a game is good luck (page 124)

• “Mr. Cub” Ernie Banks’ story of how voodoo predicted his baseball success and how superstition ran rampant among Cubs players and managers as recently as 1969 (page 106).

DePorter learned that the 1908 Cubs had won the world championship in the face of unlucky goats and black cats, an astonishing list of player injuries, and even the “good of the league policy” that instructed umpires and league officials to give opposing teams every benefit of the doubt as a way of leveling the playing field against the dominant Cubs team.

Clearly none of these obstacles were too much for the Cubs to overcome. Rather, the hoodoo he sought led him to the words and actions of one man—Charles W. Murphy, then owner of the Chicago Cubs, who was widely disliked by players and fans. In response to complaints about his handling of the 1908 World Series, Murphy proclaimed “Rome was not built in a day, and it takes time even in Chicago to get ready for a World Series.” A spiteful Murphy went on to systematically dismantle the world championship team he had built, while simultaneously breaking up the West Side Rooters Social Club comprised of thousands of loyal Cubs fans.

Unraveling the mystery was not enough for DePorter. Guided in part by the spirit of his late friend Harry Caray, the ultimate Cubs fan, he did everything in his power to set right the many wrongs inflicted on the Cubs by Charles W. Murphy. From re-enacting the celebratory dinner following the 1908 championship to which Murphy had not been invited, to reviving the West Side Rooters Social Club, DePorter has worked tirelessly to clear the Cubs’ path of Murphy’s hoodoo.

Illustrated with cartoons from Chicago’s four newspapers in 1908, along with current work by Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Sun-Times cartoonist Jack Higgins, the book chronicles the journey of understanding and ultimate elimination of the epic hoodoo afflicting the Chicago Cubs.

About the Authors:

Grant DePorter is president of Harry Caray’s Restaurant Group and has led the company’s expansion to include seven establishments around Chicagoland. Grant became known to baseball fans around the world when he purchased, and then destroyed the Infamous Cubs Foul Ball.

Elliott Harris has been the Quick Hits columnist in the Chicago Sun-Times sports section since the feature’s inception in September 1998.

Mark Vancil is president and principal of Rare Air Media, which has produced dozens of award-winning titles, including five New York Times’ bestsellers.

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