John Owens is an award-winning media professional with more than 30 years of experience as a writer, journalist, producer, director and videographer. He has worked in a variety of capacities in broadcast, print and online – from producer to executive producer to director to videographer to writer to reporter. Owens has produced numerous full-length documentaries and programs for broadcast and online platforms. His film “The City’s Pastime” received the Chicago/Midwest Emmy Award for best historical documentary in 2005, and his film “Kenwood’s Journey” won the Chicago/Midwest Emmy Award for best topical documentary in 2015. Owens also received honors for his... Read More
Chili Dog MVP: Dick Allen, The 1972 White Sox and A Transforming Chicago
March 8, 2022
Trade paperback
Available now!
$25.00
“Chili Dog MVP: Dick Allen, The 1972 White Sox and A Transforming Chicago” re-creates a unique time and place in baseball and Chicago history, when the arrival of a controversial slugger lifted the bedraggled Sox out of a daunting hole and briefly united a fractious fan base for the two hours-plus he played.
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John Owens
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Dr. David Fletcher
Dr. David J. Fletcher is a 1972 alum of Glenbard West High School in Glen Ellyn, Ill., where he played baseball. Sometimes taking three trains as a teenager to go to baseball games in Chicago, Fletcher attended some 20 White Sox games in 1972, and witnessed first-hand what Dick Allen meant to the city. In 1980, he graduated from Rush Medical College, and practiced medicine in the U.S. Army. Along with his private medical practice Safeworks Illinois (www.SafeworksIllinois.com) in Champaign, Ill., Fletcher has become a noted baseball historian. In July 2005, he was granted the Hilda Award at the Shrine... Read More
Author
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Never had I witnessed such fan fervor as when Dick Allen came to bat. This resulted in his exclusive walk-up, “Jesus Christ, Superstar,” my first song to editorialize a players performance.
Life behind my keyboard was glorious.
Life behind the scenes, I learned…not so much.
The “Chil Dog MVP’s” authors’ forensic-style of research, involving a vast array of sources and checking long-forgotten information, captured Chicago history with its societal and political upheaval — tumultuous and even tragic personal moments that shaped attitudes of the media, fans and Dick Allen.
The book provides the reader with a clear understanding of the big picture surrounding all of us and this once-in-a-generation superstar.
Wow, “Chili Dog MVP” even reminded me of facts about my own career that over the years had escaped my memory.
Summary
“Chili Dog MVP: Dick Allen, The 1972 White Sox and A Transforming Chicago” re-creates a unique time and place in baseball and Chicago history, when the arrival of a controversial slugger lifted the bedraggled Sox out of a daunting hole and briefly united a fractious fan base for the two hours-plus he played.
Lead author John Owens, along with Dr. David Fletcher and George Castle, weave an entertaining narrative of Allen, his teammates and broadcaster Harry Caray bringing pride to a franchise that had one foot out of town to Milwaukee just 2 1/2 years previously and equal status in profile with the dominant Chicago Cubs.
The best baseball books endeavor to re-create the time, place and “feel” of a team and the people around it. “Chili Dog MVP” follows in that tradition to recall a more innocent time in baseball intertwining with the hard truths of a hyper-political city like Chicago. In both baseball and life, for which the game is often a metaphor, past is prologue.
Edited by baseball writer par excellence, George Castle. George has written 21 books, and is a historian for the Chicago Baseball Museum.