'Cubs Killer' writes book about Cubs' 2010 championship

As a hustling, clutch ballplayer throughout the 1980s and '90s for the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates, Andy Van Slyke did everything he could to keep the Cubs from reaching the World Series.

"He was a 'Cubs Killer,'" remembers former Cubs public relations director Bob Ibach, who lives in Arlington Heights and owns a public relations firm that now is helping promote Van Slyke's new novel, "The Curse: Cubs Win! Cubs Win!-Or do they?"

A three-time All-Star who could hit and field, Van Slyke kicked up his game a notch whenever he came to Wrigley, where he hit .370 and broke a lot of hearts.

"I love the Cubs," a grinning Van Slyke says, "because I used to hit the heck out of them."

In Van Slyke's novel, cowritten with longtime baseball writer Rob Rains, the Cubs are in first-place as the season approaches the 2010 All-Star Game. Then the Cub-killing Van Slyke kills off almost the entire Cubs team in a plane crash.

"Well, yeah," says Van Slyke, who is 49 and looks as if he could still play. "But I think what happens at the end of the book supersedes anything that happens at the front. Triumph supersedes tragedy."

Sure enough, the piecemeal Cubs of Van Slyke's imagination use a rookie, an outcast from Japan and players drafted from other teams to win the World Series under the direction of Mike Callan, the fictional portrayal of Van Slyke's real high school baseball coach in New Hartford, N.Y.

"He's actually a State Farm agent now," says Van Slyke, adding that if anyone is looking for insurance in upstate New York, Callan is the man. "I just told him, 'Hey, I'm using your name in my book.' I wanted to show my appreciation."

That high school coach helped focus the talented teenager, who was colorblind, dyslexic and had attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, says Lauri Van Slyke, his high school sweetheart, mother of their four sons and wife of 27 years. While Van Slyke's older brother Matthew, who lives in Grayslake, was a good basketball player and excellent student, "it was hard for Andy to finish a book," Laurie Van Slyke remembers.

But when his younger brother focused on becoming a superior athlete, "we've seen his results," Matthew Van Slyke says. "He had a real animalistic determination to succeed."

The younger brother would practice his baseball swing for hours by hitting an old tire hanging from a tree.

"I'd try to time it to hit the flat spot, and if I didn't hit it, it would hurt," Andy Van Slyke says.

As a first-round draft pick from his small hometown, the colorful and quick-witted Van Slyke quickly became a media favorite. When Rains, then a reporter in St. Louis, asked the rookie about his adjustment to life in the Major Leagues, Van Slyke replied, "My biggest problem in the Big Leagues is that I can't figure out how to spend $43 dollars in meal money."

When Cubs reliever Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams fired fastballs in the general direction of home plate, Van Slyke quipped, "If everyone were like him, I wouldn't play. I'd find a safer way to make a living."

Sons of a high school principal who now is a judge, the Van Slyke brothers are political opposites.

"He's David Axelrod and I'm Rush Limbaugh," Andy Van Slyke says.

Matthew Van Slyke lives in the conservation community of Prairie Crossing in Grayslake, is an activist for progressive political reform and peace movements, and works as a sales rep for biosoil enhancers and green energy products. During the 1991 Gulf War, when decals of the U.S. and Canada flags were added to players' batting helmets, Andy Van Slyke scrapped off the Maple Leaf and declared Canada "a pacifist, socialist country."

"Andy has a unique view of the world," says Matthew Van Slyke, who adds that he likes his brother's book.

"I always had a crazy imagination," Andy Van Slyke says. "I had a great imagination and horrible structure."

So does the Cubs Killer really want the Cubs to win?

"I love the Cubs," says Van Slyke, who grew up a Mets fan and has lived in St. Louis for 27 years. "I love Wrigley Field, the fans, the day game, the grass."

But he admits that he doesn't want the Cubs to pull a miracle rally and win the World Series this year.

"I don't want them to win the World Series for a couple more years," Van Slyke says. "I've got to wait for the movie to come out."

If his book can become a full-length film, the retired player says he would like to be an actor in it.

"I'm thinking about trying to play the manager," Van Slyke says. "It's acting. If Tom Cruise can do it, it can't be that hard."

• Andy Van Slyke and Rob Rains will be autographing copies of their novel ($14.95) from 6 to 8 p.m. today, and commentating on the All-Star Game 2010, at Harry Caray's Restaurant, 33 W. Kinzie St., in Chicago.