• EveryCubEver

    About JOBC

    Welcome to “Just One Bad Century dot com,” a site for die-hard Chicago Cubs fans. You know the old adage, `those who don`t know history are doomed to repeat it?`” The sad truth about many Chicago Cubs fans is that we don`t know it as well as we should. We follow them closely, we remember the personal torment, but we aren`t really sure why we went a hundred plus years without a World Series championship.

    The Just One Bad Century staff has spent years researching Cubs history, and we’re presenting that information to you here. We have a nearly limitless number of sources for the information contained on this site, but would like to acknowledge a few of them specifically. Without the great work of Baseball Reference, Retro Sheet, The Baseball Almanac, the Baseball Biography Project, and the many great books that have been written about the Cubs (especially “Cubbie Blues”, “Cubs Journal”, “For Love of Ivy”, “Good Money After Bad”, “Lost in the Ivy” , “Wrigley Field, the Unauthorized Biography”, “Wrigleyville”, “Nice Guys Finish Last”, “Veeck as in Wreck”, “Chicago Cubs Yesterday & Today”, “Cubs by the Numbers”, “Essential Cubs” , “Hoodoo”, “The Psycho 100”, “Wrigley’s Last World Series”, “Baseball Babylon”, “Harry Caray”, “The Original Curse”, ” “Public Bonehead, Private Hero: The Real Legacy of Baseball’s Fred Merkle” and all of George Castle’s books), Just One Bad Century wouldn’t be possible.

    The scanned baseball cards used on the site to illustrate a particular feature are part of the embarrassingly large personal baseball card collection of the Just One Bad Century staff. They are not for sale because we are geeks and love them. Many of the historical photographs used on the site are considered public domain. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1929. For those that do not fall into this category, we claim fair use on the following grounds…

    1. They are historically significant photos of famous events, people or structures
    2. The photos are only being used for informational purposes.
    3. Their inclusion into the articles add significantly to the articles because they show the subjects of the articles and how the subjects are depicted are historically significant to the general public.

    If we have erred and used a photograph that does not fall under fair use, or if you own the copyright and object to its use, or would like a photo credit, please contact us and we will promptly act to credit or remove the photograph. Also, one final note about the phrase that inspired this site: “Any team can have a bad century”. While this phrase is often attributed to Jack Brickhouse, Harvey Walken, former part owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates claims that he coined the phrase in a conversation with Jack, and that Jack adopted it as his own. Harvey went on to actually trademark the phrase with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office in 1998, and gave us his blessing to use it in 2008, with the priviso that we fully acknowledge his contribution to the phrase.

    Rick Kaempfer, Editor in Chief

    Rick is a former radio producer and host in Chicago (WLUP, WJMK), the co-publisher of Eckhartz Press, the author of several books, and the media critic for the Illinois Entertainer, but he’s also a life long Cubs fan. He attended his first Cubs game in 1968 and is embarrassed to report how many games he has attended since, not to mention how much money he has spent on Cubs merchandise. Suffice it to say, he wouldn’t be worried about where he’s going to get the money to put his kids through college if he had never encountered the Chicago Cubs.

    Rick is responsible for the content on the site, so if you have any comments, questions, contributions, corrections, or observations to share with him, contact him here: rick@justonebadcentury.com

    Dave Stern, Advertising and Merchandising Director

    Dave is the co-publisher of Eckhartz Press, the author of “The Balding Handbook”, and the proprietor of The Pothole Store, but he is also responsible for the super-cool Just One Bad Century merchandise. If you have any questions or complaints about our existing merchandise or have a suggestion for additional merchandise, or if you would like to advertise on Just One Bad Century, contact him here: david@justonebadcentury.com