A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred

More than just about a ball park with a powerful mystique, Will%E2%80%99s (Men at Work) book on Wrigley Field offers a rich history of the city of Chicago through its hapless baseball team. In celebration of the ballpark%E2%80%99s 100th year, Will compiles a random batch of anecdotes and history about the franchise that inhabits this much loved though antiquated structure with its famous ivy-covered walls. (%E2%80%9CIt is not a good sign for fans when their team%E2%80%99s venue is better known for the attractiveness of its flora than for the excellence of the athletes who have played there,%E2%80%9D Will quips.) Broad-ranging topics include beer and its legendary importance in baseball, the long-standing resistance to installing lights for night games, personality quirks of the father-son owners, chewing gum kings William and P.K. Wrigley, and colorful takes on famed Cub Ernie Banks and (mostly) beloved sportscaster Harry Caray. The reader will learn about numbers%E2%80%93%E2%80%93attendance, beer prices, stadium stats, monies paid for the team%E2%80%94and enjoy reflections by the author, who understands firsthand the trials and tribulations of being a Cubs fan. Rooting for the Cubs, he writes, is %E2%80%9Ca lifelong tutorial in delay gratification.%E2%80%9D As Will illustrates in his book, there%E2%80%99s plenty for Cubs fans to celebrate from the past 100 years, even if a world series isn%E2%80%99t one of them. (Apr.)