title: Bleachers: A Summer in Wrigley Field
author:  Lonnie Wheeler 
description: With the imminent installation of lighting at Wrigley Field, Wheeler chronicles the last season of night-free baseball, as witnessed from the bleachers, at one of America's best-loved ballparks. The author, a freelance sportswriter, introduces us to such zany characters as Bleacher Preacher and Jeweler Joe and the equally odd traditions of the famed Bleacher Bums (such as throwing the home-run balls of opposing players back onto the field). Wheeler nicely blends the history of the grand old Chicago ballpark (built in 1914) with the fortunes (or, rather, misfortunes) of the franchise that hasn't won a World Series since 1908. Unfortunately, there is something missing here. Besides covering another dismal season of Cub baseball (highlighted only by the MVP performance of Andre Dawson), Wheeler, as an outsider, fails to convey the fun of it all. Amid depictions of drunks, the cursing at opposing players and the endless bumbling of the Cubs, the book somehow manages to show only a crude side of the national pastime. Although of little interest to most fans, Bleachers will undoubtedly engage Cub diehards. <br />Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: **The Bleachers**
  
  >  **The Bleachers**
  
  > The Bleachers
  
  > For
  
  > Ty, and the wonderful kids
  
  > he played high school football with;
  
  > their superb coach;
  
  > and the memories of two state titles
  
  > Tuesday
  
  > The road to Rake Field ran beside the school, past the old band hall and the
  > tennis courts, through a tunnel of two perfect rows of red and yellow maples
  > planted and paid for by the boosters, then over a small hill to a lower area
  > covered with enough asphalt for a thousand cars. The road stopped in front
  > of an immense gate of brick and wrought iron that announced the presence of
  > Rake Field, and beyond the gate was a chain-link fence that encircled the
  > hallowed ground. On Friday nights, the entire town of Messina waited for the
  > gate to open, then rushed to the bleachers where seats were claimed and
  > nervous pregame rituals were followed. The black, paved pasture around Rake
  > Field would overflow long before the opening kickoff, sending the out-of-
  > town traffic i