Cubs 2014 Media Guide

A new season means a new media guide to add to my collection.  The guides start showing up on Ebay around mid-March, but most are at inflated prices.  Even once the season got under way, the books listed were higher than I was willing to pay. I was watching a couple auctions, but when the price hit the mid-twenties, I knew I would have to keep waiting.  Then one popped up with a BIN that was just a dollar over the price you'd pay at the ballpark, and that is also well below where the auctions were heading.

I hit the BIN ASAP.

And here's what I got.

The layout and format of the book is that same one that Cubs have been using since 2000.  There is a lot of information in there that's been repeated.  But with Wrigley Field's 100th birthday this year, they've added some interesting facts and pictures.

This is a picture I've never seen before. It's the fans on the field after Gabby Hartnett's famous Homer in the Gloamin' on September 28, 1938.  It doesn't look that dark at all.

This picture is the one I've usually seen associated with that day and it sure seems a lot darker than in the other picture.

This picture is from the 1929 World Series. The current bleachers were still eight years away and left field in 1929 was a long distance away.  Adding a few rows of fans held back by a rope was a fairly common thing back then.

This picture came to the Cubs from the Hall of Fame.  Its wrong.  That is not Ernie in 1953...the white piping on his hat dates the picture as 1957.  The Cubs and the Hall should know better.  Who do they think they are, Topps?

My Roster Book/Media Guide collection now stretches from 1958 (the year of the first roster book) to 2014.

This is my run, all neatly in order on my desk at the WW World Headquarters.