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George Castle

Born:
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Castle is an American freelance sports journalist and author, based in Chicago. He is a graduate of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois and makes his home in Morton Grove, Illinois.

Biography: Lifelong Chicagoan George Castle has turned an avocation into a vocation. Growing up in Wrigley Field's right-field bleachers and upper-deck grandstand, Castle followed the Cubs as a fan in the 1960s and 1970s before entering the sports media in 1980. He has worked for a variety of newspapers and magazines in covering baseball. Starting in 1994, he covered all Cubs home games, spring training, and postseason runs for ''The Times of Northwest Indiana'', the Chicago- area's fourth-largest daily newspaper. In 1994, Castle also began his syndicated weekly baseball radio show, ''Diamond Gems'', which top baseball newsmakers and often-rare vintage baseball broadcast highlights. In 1998, Castle ventured into baseball book authorship. He penned books on Harry Caray, Sammy Sosa, and the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry. In 2000, he published the previously most comprehensive book on Cubs ownership and management, ''The Million-To-One Team''. Following that work were books on throwback old-school players, baseball's relationship to the media, and a 'where are they now' look at former Cubs. In 1994, Castle also began his syndicated weekly radio show, ''Diamond Gems'', which broadcasts top baseball newsmakers and often-rare vintage baseball highlights.


Awards:

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

George Castle on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=george+castle


Selected Titles

Baseball and the media :
ISBN: 0803264690 OCLC: 68965661

University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln : ©2006.

"Charting the path of a veteran sports reporter's career, Baseball and the Media traces the changes in baseball coverage from the days of the old-time players and scribes to the no-holds-barred (and no facts checked) sports-talk radio of our time. Along the way, Castle introduces readers to the politics of baseball media (does sports journalism actually have its red and blue states?), documents the transformation of athletes from role models to sports-media celebrities, including emblematic characters such as LaTroy Hawkins and Carl Everett, and illuminates the profound changes in the way sports in general - and baseball in particular - are conveyed to avid consumers, who are the losers in the end."--Jacket.

Game of my life.
ISBN: 9781596701892 OCLC: 77334378

Sports Pub., Champaign, IL : ©2007.

Player share their insights into the defeat of Oklahoma in the NCAA championship basketball game.

  I remember Harry Caray
ISBN: 0585046557 OCLC: 42417748

Sports Pub., Champaign, IL : ©1998.

I remember Harry Caray /
ISBN: 1582610401 OCLC: 39803471

Sports Pub., Champaign, IL : ©1998.

Sammy Sosa :
ISBN: 1582610290 OCLC: 42854994

Sports Pub., [Champaign, Ill.] : ©1999.

Sammy Sosa :
ISBN: 158261024X OCLC: 42330871

Sports Pub., Champaign, IL : ©1998.

Sweet Lou and the Cubs :
ISBN: 1599215268 OCLC: 244417982

Lyons Press, Guilford, Conn. : ©2009.

  Sweet lou and the cubs :
ISBN: 9781461749424 OCLC: 945744848

Oak Knoll, [Place of publication not identified] : 2009.

The I-55 series :
ISBN: 1582610320 OCLC: 42855056

Sports Pub., Champaign, IL : ©1999.

The million-to-one-team :
ISBN: 1888698314 OCLC: 43791157

Diamond Communications, South Bend, IN : ©2000.

Throwbacks :
ISBN: 1574886371 OCLC: 51323480

Brassey's, Inc., Washington, D.C. : ©2003.

"Despite its many troubles, baseball still maintains a strong allure. Our love affair with the national pastime continues today thanks in no small part to players who hold fast to old-school values. With Throwbacks: old-school baseball players in today's game, we celebrate them ... In detailing some of the throwbacks in today's game--stars such as Kerry Wood, Greg Maddux, and Jim Thome and role players such as Herbert Perry and Doug Glanville--author George Castle relied on his past coverage of these players, more than a decade's worth with some of them"--Jacket.

Where have all our Cubs gone?
ISBN: 9781461709626 OCLC: 864552433

Notwithstanding the Chicago Cubs' legendary lack of a World Series Championship since 1908, the team is in the pantheon of Major League Baseball, among a select group of ball clubs that have a national following. This has probably given rise to the once a Cub, always a Cub mentality, where players from yesteryear - no matter what teams they might have subsequently played on - have always left their hearts at Wrigley Field.

 

 

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