Around the water cooler — Brinks lawyer writes a novel

Each week I will highlight a different case or legal happening, and solicit your thoughts on the impact of it in the legal community.

Jerry Jacover has lived in Chicago most of his life.

He grew up on the North Side and has lived and breathed the Chicago Cubs. He attended countless games with his father, and then with his own sons. He even attended the unforgettable Cubs game in 2003 when Steve Bartman interfered with a ball that Moises Alou was trying to catch. That situation, in part, led to the end of the Cubs’ road to the World Series.

Jacover, a partner at Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, said that when the Boston Red Sox won the World Series the next year, and seemed jubilant about the removal of the team curse, he thought they had no clue what it would be like to really have a curse on them.

This thought process led to him writing the novel, “Merkle’s Curse - why the Chicago Cubs have not won a world series since 1908.”

“During the summer of 2003, two life-long fans of the Chicago Cubs realize that their favorite team is really cursed. They become obsessed with undoing the curse lest it undermine their team’s march to its first World Series in almost 60 years and its first Major League Championship since 1908.

“Unbeknownst to them, the curse has its origins in an Old Testament prophesy that has had a profound effect on both the history of the world and the game of baseball. In the process, it traces a dark, forbidding path from the Holy Land, through the Roman Empire, medieval Europe, West Africa, and pre-Columbian America, before leaving an imprint on the United States and its national pastime.”

Jacover said he wrote and revised the book over about two years. He typically wrote on weekends, often in his sunroom on his laptop computer. He tried to write a chapter or two each week, and the evenings were often spent revising those chapters.

He has plans for other books, but right now he’s trying to get used to the whirlwind that occurs when promoting a new book.

“I’m sort of a very family-oriented person, and all of this other stuff is just not me,” he said. “[The publicity] is very embarrassing to me, but I know I have to do it. I’m eager to have people read it and I hope people enjoy it.”

Jacover said there is an underlining message that baseball is like life.

“Sometimes you get bad calls and sometimes you make errors and sometimes you just strike out,” he said. “But you have to pick yourself up and get back in the game.

“A more obvious message in reading the book is, you have to learn what to take from the past and what not to. If you forget the past you will be a fool, but if you don’t let go of certain things you will be a victim. Wisdom is really knowing the difference between the two.”

For more information about “Merkle’s Curse,” visit www.merklescurse.com.