ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A book like this would not have been possible without… an incredible team! Like my career, this book doesn’t happen without the energy, hard work, dedication, assistance, and support of a host of others.

I have to start with my rock: My wife, Hyla, has been supportive at every step and worked so hard on pulling together photos for the book. My kids, Landri, Cole, and Harper, were willing to give up some “daddy time” so I could give this project the attention it deserved.

I also want to thank my parents, Jackie and David, and many teammates and coaches for their support and sharing their stories and memories—and for not humiliating me in the process! Ian Kleinert, the agent for this book, was absolutely fantastic and worked with my longtime friend and baseball agent, Ryan Gleichowski, to find the best publisher for this work. I was initially reluctant about writing a book and Ian helped me understand the process. The writing team of Don Yaeger and Jim Henry were so well prepared—and I should have expected nothing less from Jim, who has been a family friend for years. Because we were working on such tight deadlines, Don and Jim engaged a wonderful line editor, Jeremy Elliott, who spent hours poring over every word. And thanks to Bill Swales Jr. for all the amazing research he did to keep this project in perspective.

Paul Whitlatch, our incredible editor at Hachette Books, saw this project as bigger than even I did, right from the beginning.

We also found several resources to be especially helpful in reconstructing certain scenes and checking numbers. The good folks at Baseball-Reference.com run a top-notch site that not only posts player stats, but also has features like an online video on how to read a play-by-play. It is an awesome resource for any baseball fan or sportswriter.

The print, online, and broadcast media in Chicago and nationally provided comprehensive coverage of our 2016 season, and there were so many outlets that provided some great articles and analysis that were very helpful in pulling this project together. That lengthy list of writers includes Carrie Muskat and Jon Heyman at MLB.com, Tom Verducci at Sports Illustrated, Buster Olney, Peter Gammons, Tim Kurkjian at ESPN, Bob Nightengale at USA Today, Ken Rosenthal at Fox Sports, Paul Sullivan and Tim Bannon at the Chicago Tribune, and Chris De Luca at the Chicago Sun-Times, among many others.