Reference and Humanities Librarian Emeritus Jack Bales. Photo Credit: Erin Wysong.

Reference and Humanities Librarian Emeritus Jack Bales’ book, “The Chicago Cub Shot for Love: A Showgirl’s Crime of Passion and the 1932 World Series,” was the subject of an article in Chicago’s Daily Herald.  The book and article focus on 21-year-old Violet Popovich, a former chorus girl with the Earl Carroll Vanities, who shot 24-year-old Cubs shortstop Billy Jurges in Jurges’ room on July 6, 1932 at the Hotel Carlos in Chicago. Read more.

Jack Bales, Reference and Humanities Librarian, had his latest critical baseball study, “Baseball’s First Bill Veeck,” published as the lead article in the fall 2013 issue of The Baseball Research Journal.  Bales’s biographical piece in the peer-reviewed journal is the first major work on William L. Veeck Sr., who as president of the Chicago Cubs from 1919 until his death in 1933, helped mastermind two National League pennants (1929 and 1932) and built the foundations for two others (1935 and 1938). Bales used largely original source materials for his lengthy article. The Baseball Research Journal is the publication of the Society for American Baseball Research.

Reference and Humanities Librarian Jack Bales has written an article debunking the Chicago Cubs’ famous Billy Goat Curse for ChicagoSide, an online sports magazine. The so-called curse dates to 1945, when a Chicago tavern owner was asked to remove his pet goat from the Cubs’ Wrigley Field during the fourth game of the World Series. The angry restaurateur allegedly put a curse on the Cubs, declaring that the team would never again get to the World Series. Bales, who has used original sources to disprove other baseball legends, writes that Chicago journalists not only created the story but also helped perpetuate it. With the passing of many Cubs losing seasons (and perhaps due to shrewd publicity on the part of the restaurant owner), the alleged curse has gained international renown, been the subject of several books, and become a part of Chicago and baseball folklore. Bales originally wrote about the legend for his website, http://WrigleyIvy.com, which he created while participating in UMW’s “Domain of One’s Own” faculty initiative this past spring.