There have been many histories written about the Cubs, but I found Bruce Miles and Jesse Rogers’ “The Franchise: Chicago Cubs” particularly fascinating because it weaves in stories and interviews about things you’ve probably heard about before, but perhaps not in this exact way.
The book is separated into five sections, which cover “The Stars,” “The Managers,” “The Trades,” “The Lovable Losers” and “The Oddities.” It’s not intended to be a comprehensive history of the ballclub, as noted in the subtitle “A Curated History of the North Siders.”
The first section about stars has a long, interesting examination of Gabby Hartnett’s “Homer In The Gloamin’,” for which Miles interviewed Hartnett’s granddaughter Joanne Biebrach.