The Cubs Way is a 2017 book by Tom Verducci. Verducci is Sports Illustrated's Senior Baseball Writer, and has won a ton of awards, including 2 Emmys and 3 National Sportswriter of the Year awards. In The Cubs Way, he recounts how the Cubs built their 2016 World Series winning team, and goes into depth, game by game, the 2016 World Series.
The Cubs Way is a fantastic read, a must for all Cubs fans. Even if you're not a Cubs fan, Verducci describes things in such detail that any baseball fan would enjoy. You might have not read a book since your school years. but this is a book you can easily pick up and read.
Verducci tells the story in an interesting way. He'll jump back and forth between a World Series game for a chapter, then go into a story from a year prior and how it directly ties into that WS game. For example, there's a chapter on the trade for and development of Jake Arrieta. Then he'll talk about Jake's dominating performance in Game 2. He creates this very precise roadmap from process to results. It really puts the perspective of the 2016 team into a very clear light.
There's a certain comparison between the Cubs 2016 team to a work out regimen. To get that magic number of pounds lost, you have to be consistent, work hard, change up diet, and mix in the proper workouts. For the Cubs to win it all, they had to draft well, make some solid trades, develop the players they had, and supplement the team in the right way when need arose. When you hit your weight loss goal, you can recount all the specific steps and see how each action became a piece of a puzzle that was assembled over time. Verducci does the same thing with the Cubs 2016 story, as he lays out all the puzzle pieces, and assembles the puzzle in a way that makes sense for everyone.
It's a really strong book. It's paced really well, never drags, and is accessible. It's 384 pages, but I read it in about a week because it doesn't require a lot of effort to understand. This book is easy to read and a quick paced pleasure.
The Cubs Way is available for sale on Amazon.
The Cubs Way: 9/10. an informational, quick paced and enjoyable read about the story of the 2016 World Champions.