Charlie Murphy: The Iconoclastic Showman behind the Chicago Cubs

2023 SABR Larry Ritter Book Award Finalist for the 2022 CASEY Award You don’t know the history of the Chicago Cubs until you know the story of Charles Webb Murphy, the ebullient and mercurial owner of this historic franchise from 1905 through 1914. Originally a sportswriter in Cincinnati, he joined the New York Giants front office as a press agent—the game’s first—in 1905. That season, hearing the Cubs were for sale, he secured a loan from Charles Taft, the older half-brother of the future ...