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Baseball remembers Charlie Root for one pitch -- Babe Ruth's supposed "called shot" in the 1932 World Series. But baseball's biggest legend should not overshadow Root's 201 wins, the most of any pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. Root's daughter tells the rest of the story with humor, love and never-reported, off-the-field details of one of the greatest Cub dynasties in history. Roger Snell, an award-winning, former investigative reporter, spent hundreds of hours with faded news clips, old microfilm and baseball stats. But his greatest find was Root's 90-year-old daughter, Della.  Della has devoted her life to setting the record straight about the Babe and sharing how much more there was to her father's life.
"If that big, fat guy had pointed, you'd think we would have seen it," says Della, whose personal journal and hours of interviews with the author add uncommon flavor and spice to this biography. Snell, a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, spins a love story with uncommon off-the-field details about Cub pranks, conflicts and emotions that ranged from the Root's dining room table to the turf of Wrigley Field. Follow the extreme emotions of the 1929 season when Root tries to disguise arm problems and believes his career is over. "It's the only time that I ever saw Dad cry," Della said. By fall, he is standing on the mound for Game One of the World Series, anchoring one of the greatest Cub teams in history. Learn what happened and was never reported when Hack Wilson's two errors in a game cause the worst collapse in World Series history with Root as the victim. Chicago gangster Al Capone and troubles on the stock market compete for newspaper headlines for Cub fans in 1929 who think the 21-year drought is about to end since their last championship. Pitchers and catchers board the train at Union Station on Feb. 14, headed to spring training on Catalina Island, just hours after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in a North Side warehouse. Root for the Cubs: Charlie Root and the 1929 Chicago Cubs is coming to your favorite bookstores and libraries by Opening Day 2009 and will be available on Amazon.com, this web site and from the nation's two biggest book wholesale distributors, Ingram and Baker & Taylor. Please bookmark this site for future details about public appearances, news and reviews. Please contact the author to arrange speaking engagements with your civic organization, book store, library or baseball fan club. |
Feedback from Cub fans, baseball historians, and reporters has been pleasantly surprising in this first month on the market. My favorite comment is from a reporter who called this a "love story and not just a baseball book" and said Charlie Root's wife, Dorothy, emerges as the heroine of the book. Dorothy stood by Charlie in his minor league days when he was mocked by his father for pursuing a child's game and she was steadfastly behind him when he thought his career was over at the start of the 1929 season. Charlie and Dorothy (left) are shown dancing in the Casino ballroom at Catalina Island during spring training.