From Black Sox to Threepeats – Ron Rapoport

Former Sun-Times columnist Ron Rapoport put together this collection of the best writing in the Chicago sports pages over the last century and more.  From the sole crosstown World Series between the White Sox and Cubs in 1906 through the White Sox World Series championship of 2005, this collection covers all of the highs and lows in Chicago sports from all of the local newspapers.  There were the over the top champions of the 1985 Bears, the thrills of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen bringing home 6 titles in the 90s, and the (mostly) heartbreak of the local baseball teams who usually come up just a little (or a whole heck of a lot) short.

Alongside the traditional stories detailing the local teams, there are also those columns fighting against the segregation that followed black players to spring training, the bombings of both Oklahoma City and the Twin Towers, the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, and many other stories of local, national, and international scope.

Fans of the local sports teams will likely enjoy this book, and may have even read some of the stories when they originally appeared in the newspaper.  It gives a nice historical look at the best writing the papers had to offer, as well as the historical highs and lows of our favorite teams.