Cubs by the Numbers

What do Dizzy Dean, Catfish Metkovich, John Boccabella, Bill Buckner, Mark Prior, and Kevin Hart all have in common? They all wore number 22 for the Chicago Cubs, even though seven decades have passed between the last time Dizzy Dean buttoned up a Cubs uniform with that number and the first time reliever Kevin Hart performed the same routine. Since the Chicago Cubs first adopted uniform numbers in 1932, the team has handed out only 71 numbers to more than 1,100 players. That's a lot of overlap. It also makes for a lot of good stories. Cubs by the Numbers tells those stories for every Cub since '32, from 1930s outfielder Ethan Allen to current ace Carlos Zambrano. This book lists the players alphabetically and by number, but the biographies help trace the history of baseball's most beloved team in a new way. For Cubs fans, anyone who ever wore the uniform is like family. Cubs by the Numbers reintroduces readers to some of their long-lost ancestors, even ones they think they already know.

Matthew Silverman is coauthor of Mets by the Numbers (with Jon Springer), Cubs by the Numbers (with Al Yellon and Kasey Ignarski), Red Sox by the Numbers (with Bill Nowlin), and Shea Goodbye (with Keith Hernandez), and the author of Mets Essential and 100 Things Mets Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die. He also served as the associate publisher at Total Sports Publishing, editing titles such as Total Baseball and Total Football.