When the Cubs Won It All: The 1908 Championship Season

by George R. Matthews

In the fall of 1908, no one could have guessed that the Chicago Cubs, a team that had dominated the National league three straight years, would for a century be shut out in its efforts to reclaim the world championship. Stars like Frank Chance, Ed Reulbach, and Three Finger Brown were still in their prime, and the Cubs had just emerged the winner in the most remarkable pennant race in history. In the decades since, the achievement of the 1908 Cubs has been overshadowed first by the events of the season, which included the Merkle Game and a playoff that pitted two all-time great pitchers against each other, and more recently by the calendar, as the centennial anniversary of the last Cubs championship closed in. This book rescues the 1908 team from its status as footnote to baseball history, following one of the all-time great clubs on a thrilling, season-long march toward the World Series.

Genres: Baseball, History

234 pages, Paperback

First published July 6, 2009

About the author

Readers may contact me at georon3@gmail.com to receive a digital copy of Billy the Kid: The Life Behind the Legend. The book was released by McFarland and Company on March 7, 2025. The book description reads, in part, "George R. Matthews’ Billy the Kid: The Life Behind the Legend gives us, for the first time, the whole person. It brings together a huge amount of material, much of it made available to researchers only in recent years. The result is nothing less than an original, authoritative, and provocative portrait of Billy the Kid, as both outlaw and frontier fighter against the infamously corrupt Santa Fe Ring."
I have posted the book's cover as my photo.

My three previous books:
1. When the Cubs Won It All: The 1908 Championship Season.
An Amazon customer posted the following review: "If you like the early days of Baseball, this book recounts the story of the Chicago Cubs of 1908. They were a powerhouse team by any standard. When BASEBALL was king and Chicago ruled. A must read."

2. America's First Olympics: The St. Louis Games of 1904
An Amazon customer posted the following review: "A very interesting and well-researched book. Using newspapers and other 1904-era accounts, you read about the individual events. It's like reliving the games as you read the daily summaries. George also discusses the various 'selective' history of these early Olympics (which largely rely on IOC director DeCoubertin). Were the Olympics as big or professional as the post-1920 games? Certainly not... But they all had various issues, from under-publicizing to over doing it. A must-read for early Olympic enthusiasts, or fans of the 1904 World's Fair.

3. Zebulon Pike: Thomas Jefferson's Agent for Empire. This tells the story of Pike's spy mission to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1806, when the United States anticipated an invasion of Spanish New Mexico in a dispute over the boundary of the Louisiana Purchase. An Amazon customer posted the following review: "Highly recommended to those curious about Pikes Peak, Lewis & Clark, Louisiana Purchase, western expansion, American attempts of sincere relations with indigenous people and espionage!"

Reviews

[George Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book description on Amazon reads: In the fall of 1908, no one could have guessed that the Chicago Cubs, a team that had dominated the National league three straight years, would for a century be shut out in its efforts to reclaim the world championship. Stars like Frank Chance, Ed Reulbach, and Three Finger Brown were still in their prime, and the Cubs had just emerged the winner in the most remarkable pennant race in history.

In the decades since, the achievement of the 1908 Cubs has been overshadowed first by the events of the season, which included the Merkle Game and a playoff that pitted two all-time great pitchers against each other, and more recently by the calendar, as the centennial anniversary of the last Cubs championship closed in. This book rescues the 1908 team from its status as footnote to baseball history, following one of the all-time great clubs on a thrilling, season-long march toward the World Series.

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

For diehard fans and casual fans alike, here is a book detailing a season of the Cubs in the semi-early days of baseball.

It is a narrative that deals with the day to day of a baseball season. A winning one at that! Expertly researched and detailed, we start in spring training and watch the Cubs progress to the Championship. Traveling, off days, exhibitions, player injuries, player hijinks(!), player family life. It's all included. I learned a lot of fun facts with this book too, among them the advent of tarp to cover the field.

One facet of my baseball knowledge that is baseball pre-1950's. This superb book by George R. Matthews is one to delve in to fill in the gaps.

Recommended!