Musings, observations, and written works from the publisher of Eckhartz Press, the media critic for the Illinois Entertainer, co-host of Minutia Men, Minutia Men Celebrity Interview and Free Kicks, and the author of "The Loop Files", "Back in the D.D.R", "EveryCubEver", "The Living Wills", "$everance," "Father Knows Nothing," "The Radio Producer's Handbook," "Records Truly Is My Middle Name", and "Gruen Weiss Vor".
This year marks my 20th year as a professional writer. Over the course of 2024, I'll be sharing a few of those offerings you may have missed along the way.
In 2019, I released the first edition of my book EveryCubEver. The 6th edition came out earlier this year, and I'm currently working on the 7th edition to be released next year on Opening Day.
I don't often post those mini bios on the blog here, but this week I will. Two legendary Cubs are celebrating birthdays this week, Gabby Hartnett (December 20) and Dave Kingman (December 21). Here are their writeups from the book...
~Gabby Hartnett 1900-1972 (Cubs 1922-1940) Gabby was one of the greatest Cubs of all-time. His real name was Charles Leo Hartnett. No surprise where that nickname came from, he was known as someone who was “constantly talking” when he was catching. Gabby is known as one of the all-time greats, probably the best catcher of the first half of the 20th century. Gabby was the National League’s catcher in the first six all-star games. He played in four World Series for the Cubs, as a backup catcher/pinch hitter in 1929, the starting catcher in ’32 and ’35 (he won the MVP that year), and in 1938, his “homer in the gloamin” won the pennant for the Cubs. He was also the manager of that team. As a player he was beloved. As a manager, he was hated. His nickname as the manager was “Drizzlepuss” or “Old Tomato Face”. He left the Cubs after 1940 and his last year was spent as a player/manager for the New York Giants. Gabby died on his 72nd birthday, and is buried in All Saints Cemetery in Des Plaines, the same cemetery as Harry Caray.
***
~Dave Kingman 1948 (Cubs 1978-1980) All the elements were in place for a wonderful long term marriage between the Cubs and Dave Kingman. He was a prodigious slugger; his home runs were already the stuff of legend. The Cubs were having trouble drawing fans, and he was the kind of player that brought people to the ballpark. In addition to that, he was a local boy (Prospect High School) returning to play in front of his home town fans. He even lived up to his billing; slugging home runs onto Waveland Avenue with regularity. Yet, by the time Kingman left Chicago, he might have been one of the most hated players in Cubs history. How did things go so horribly wrong? His first year with the Cubs (1978) he hit 28 homers, and some of them were dramatic, but his personality was already rubbing people the wrong way. His 1979 season was one of the best in Cubs history (he hit 48 homers), so his teammates and fans looked the other way as he said and did things that irritated one and all. It wasn’t 1980 that things really got ugly, and they got ugly in a hurry.
In April Kingman caused a stir when he threw a bucket of ice water on a newspaper reporter for the Daily Herald. This unprovoked attack (the reporter was interviewing someone else–Lenny Randle) led to a reprimand from the league office, but not much else.
In June, Kingman didn’t show up for a game. He had been given the previous day off to fly to San Diego after his home was burglarized, but he didn’t make it back in time for the next day’s game. The Cubs fined him for that. When he finally did show up the next day he showed up with a sore shoulder and had to be put on the disabled list. He was out for two months.
During that time on the DL, the Cubs scheduled “Dave Kingman Day” at the ballpark. They gave away 15,000 Dave Kingman t-shirts, and even though he was in town that day, he didn’t show up at the ballpark. He did a paid gig promoting Jet Skis instead.
By the end of that season people hated him. Mike Royko, who had been a Cubs fan for forty years, publicly switched his allegiance to the White Sox because he despised Kingman so much. (He called him Ding Dong instead of his previous nickname King Kong).
In the off season the Cubs did what they had to do; they traded Kingman back to the Mets. After news of Kingman’s trade became public, his teammates all expressed relief that he was gone. Royko even became a Cubs fan again.And though Dave Kingman continued to slug homers (he hit another 172 in his career), and retired with the most career homers of any player not in the Hall of Fame, he never even got a sniff from Hall of Fame voters. It’s hard to get votes from baseball writers when you’re remembered for throwing ice cold water at one of their colleagues.
The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.
Hospital Heal Thyself!
=Congratulations to Hospital Heal Thyself author Mark Taylor for winning Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year in the Indie Non-Fiction category. We are proud to have given birth to this award winner. When the book was submitted for the award, it was an Eckhartz Press book. In the subsequent months Mark's book was bought by international publisher Wiley, and we encouraged him to take the offer to get international exposure. That's how good this book is. It definitely deserves recognition as Book of the Year.
=Taylor is a veteran healthcare journalist who has covered health and medicine for newspapers and business publications for decades. He is a recipient of Kaiser and Knight fellowships and is a co-founder of the Association of Health Care Journalists. Taylor is a former steelworker, taxicab driver, waiter and lifeguard who lives in a Northwest Indiana suburb of Chicago.We applaud Mark on his accomplishment!
=Our other nominated book Last Comiskey was unfortunately in the same category as Hospital Heal Thyself. In virtually any other year, Ken Smoller would have won. His book about the last season at the original Comiskey Park has gotten great reviews, and brought him lots of attention. Just recently he appeared on Ed Lynch's podcast, Surfing Baseball with Ed Lynch.You can listen to that here.
=Last week we got the news that Dick Allen finally made baseball's Hall of Fame. Thanks to everyone who has been writing to tell us that the publication of Chili Dog MVP was actually a factor in propelling Dick into the Hall. That's nice of you to say, but I think Dick's bat had a little more to do with it. The publishers can't even take credit for the book--that credit goes to the incredible authors John Owens and Dr. David Fletcher, and to the editors George Castle and Tom Shaer. Can't wait until July. The whole Eckhartz Press crew is going to Cooperstown to be there for the induction.
=Thanks to everyone who came out to Moretti's last night in Edison Park to see Dan McNeil and buy his great book about the Bears I Bear Witness. Here are a few photos from the event.
=He has a few more signings on the schedule. Back to Bridges in Griffith Indiana this Friday (12/20) for the Indiana game. On Sunday (12/22) he'll be at Hunley's in Cedar Lake, Indiana. On Thursday (12/26) he'll be at Two Brothers Roundhouse in Aurora.
=And he appeared in this television interview with Rabbi Doug.
=And finally it was the 35th anniversary (December 20) of an event that Rick produced when he actually worked at the Loop, Steve & Garry's A Christmas Carol. The star-studded event was covered by every news outlet in town and garnered a full page story in the Chicago Tribune. This is how Loop General Manager Jimmy de Castro described it at the time...
=This was also one of the saddest weeks in Eckhartz Press history. This week in 2018 (December 16), Eckhartz Press author Mark Gelinas passed away after a valiant struggle against pancreatic cancer.
=Here is what Eckhartz Press publisher Rick Kaempfer posted after he heard the news...
My heart is heavy today. Just got the news that my good friend Mark Gelinas passed away. This photo is from his book launch just two years ago, with his wife Donna. My heart goes out to Donna and the incredible Gelinas family, particularly his son Alexander Briggs Gelinas, and Mark's parents and siblings. Mark was my roommate for a few years after college, and a friend I could always count on. I was texting with him up until just a few days ago. When he didn't respond to the last text, I feared this day was near. Miss you, buddy. I'm so happy your pain is gone.
=This week in 2022 (December 15), Chuck Swirsky appeared on Chicago Tonight (WTTW-Channel 11) to talk about his book Always a Pleasure and his 50 years of broadcasting. You can watch that here. There's also, by the way, a free excerpt of the book at that link.
=Two of the people featured in the book, Ray Meyer (December 18) and Adam Amin (December 19) were born this week as well. Chuck was one of the smart broadcasters who always remembered to get a photo, including with both of those gentlemen.
=This week in 2017 (December 17), two of our more prominent authors appeared at a book signing together, side by side, at the Orland Park Sports Collectors Show: John Records Landecker and Mitch Michaels. Here they are holding each other's books.
=This week in 2013 (December 18), a good friend of both authors, Superjock Larry Lujack passed away. Landecker devoted a good chunk of his book to writing about the legendary morning disc jockey. We published this free excerpt on our site the week Larry died.
The Balding Handbook
=This week in 2012 (December 18), Eckhartz Press threw a book launch party for David Stern's balding classic, The Balding Handbook: 5 Stages of Grieving for your Hair Loss. The party naturally drew a good number of fellow balds. As you can see, they were all still suffering through Stage 4 depression. Hopefully the book got them to Stage 5 acceptance.
=One of the reasons the Bears have been so continously bad for the past four decades is that the man who was groomed to take over for his father George, Mugs Halas, passed away before his dad did. That happened this week (December 16) in 1979. Chet Coppock devotes an entire chapter to Mugs in Your Dime My Dance Floor.
=This week in 1943, Walt "No Neck" Williams was born in Brownwood, Texas. He not only gets a mention in Chet's book, he gets this classic photo. Walt passed away in 2016. Chet passed in 2019.
=This week in 2017 (December 16), Tom Weinberg hosted a Sunday breakfast at the Book Stall in Winnetka to promote his book Chasing the Lost City. The Daily North Shore was there to chronicle the event.
=This week (December 16) is screenwriter Denise DeClue's birthday. Denise was a big supporter of Book of the Year winner Pat Colander and her Eckhartz Press book Hugh Hefner's First Funeral. Here's what she said about it...
Pat Colander toiled with me in the belly of the Chicago journalism beast in the 1970s and 1980s. When major stories were reported, she asked questions. When the questions were poorly answered or evaded, she asked even more questions of even more people. Then in a clear, true voice, she wrote it all down. She found the real stories behind the stories and this collection of her work is just great. She ought to be long-listed for the Man Booker prize, If I can figure out how to do it I will.
Denise DeClue, Writer of films including About Last Night, teleplays, documentaries, journalism, humor columns and a great deal of other funny stuff
=Legendary ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons is celebrating a birthday this week (December 16). Here he is with Bobby Skafish (and the other two Toppers, Frank Beard and Dusty Hill). This photo and the story of that interview is featured in Bobby's book We Have Company: Four Decades of Rock and Roll Encounters.
=This week in 1855 (December 17), the Peoria Daily Transcript was founded. It later became the Peoria Star. Even later it endorsed the Eckhartz Press book Transatlantic Passage: How the Premier League Redefined Soccer in America by Paul Banks.
“Transatlantic Passage richly details the Premier League’s wide-ranging and often complicated influence on American soccer. While others saw mostly novelty in high-profile European clubs’ US-based preseason tours, Paul M. Banks uses them as a platform to tell the stories of the game’s most captivating and accomplished stars. Mixed with memorable and hilarious anecdotes, Banks’ incisive commentary expertly illustrates the many missteps of an often soccer-ignorant American media.”
Gavin Good, sports reporter, Peoria Star
Ken Korber
=The first day of Winter is this week (December 21). Whenever we think of the first day of a new season, we think of our children's book author Ken Korber. He's literally a man for every season. That's Ken in the middle with his spring book. Rick Kaempfer is holding Ken's Winter book, and David Stern is holding Ken's Summer book. The Fall book is sitting on a table nearby.
This year marks my 20th year as a professional writer. Over the course of 2024, I'll be sharing a few of those offerings you may have missed along the way.
This week I'm posting a memory from my time at two different Hall of Fame radio shows. I was the executive producer of both the Steve & Garry show on the Loop, and the John Records Landecker show on WJMK. It was not all glamour and glitz.
But it certainly was memorable.
Sam Kinison
One of the first in-studio guests I ever booked to appear on the Steve & Garry show was Sam Kinison. I'll be honest. It wasn't exactly difficult to do. It went something like this. My phone rang.
"Hello, Steve & Garry show," I answered.
"Who is this?
"Rick."
"Rick, it's Sam Kinison. Tell them I'll be up to the studio just after 4 today."
"OK."
Booked.
Sam obviously already had a relationship with Steve and Garry before I joined the show, and it was just understood that whenever he was in town, he would come on the show. Over the next few years I got to know him about as well as any guest we had on the show. He was a warm and friendly guy--a teddy bear--not at all like his on-stage persona.
But I didn't know that the first time I met him.
In the old Loop studios, the AM 1000 air studio was only a few steps away from the receptionist's desk. The receptionist was trained not to make the really famous guests wait at all, so she would simply open the door leading to the short hallway, and the guest would bump right into the producer.
In the late 80s, at the height of the stand up comedy boom, no comedian in America was more famous or popular than Sam Kinison. He had made a big splash on his first Letterman appearance, and had stolen the scene from Rodney Dangerfield in the movie Back to School.
His star was on the rise. I thought his stand up act was just about the funniest thing I had ever seen. I taped his HBO special, invited friends over to watch it, and we watched it over and over again. It was revolutionary.
Well, that day, Sam was late. He wasn't just a little late, either. He was more than an hour late. Steve and Garry kept asking me if I had heard him correctly. After about twenty minutes or so it became another "I bet Rick screwed this up somehow" moment. In fact, I was even starting to believe it myself. Had I written it down wrong? Was it somebody just pretending to be Sam Kinison? Did I just dream the whole thing?
I was so upset about the berating I was receiving on the air, that I didn't even notice Sam walk past me. The receptionist had let him in like she was supposed to do, but because Sam was so late, he didn't bother checking in with me. He just walked right into the studio.
Not realizing he was on the air, Sam started swearing about the things that made him late. If you've ever seen his stand up act, you know what impressive tirades he could go off on. This was one of those profanity-filled tirades. Steve had to scramble to hit the delay button.
Unfortunately, the delay system wasn't really designed to get rid of more than one obscenity. After the button is hit, it takes another few seconds to re-engage. Until it does, you are live on the air without a safety net.
Unfortunately, Sam was so revved up about being late, and what had caused his tardiness, that it took him more than a few seconds to realize he was on the air. By then it was too late--quite a few unmentionables escaped into Chicago radios everywhere.
I think I actually saw my life flash before my eyes during those moments. I knew it was my fault that Sam wasn't stopped before he came in the studio. I began to flop-sweat. I figured that the legendary verbal beatings I had already received would pale in comparison to the one I was about to receive.
I was in the middle of composing my Last Will and Testament when something incredible happened.
Steve and Garry both laughed. Then Sam laughed. Within a minute, it was just another bit. They didn't break for a commercial for a good forty five minutes, and it was some of the most hilarious radio I had ever heard.
When they finally went to commercials, however, I stopped laughing and buckled up. I put my tail between my legs and went into the studio to accept my punishment. Before either Steve or Garry could say a single word, Sam jumped up to greet me.
"Hey, man," Sam said, "I'm totally sorry. That was completely my fault. I didn't check in with you. I was just so f***in late, and I knew these f***in guys would be pissed--I wasn't thinking."
He held out his hand, and I shook it. Steve and Garry didn't say a word.
Over the next few years as Sam's career kept rising (Wild Thing), he appeared on the Steve and Garry show probably another half dozen times. One time he brought Guns & Roses guitarist Slash with him. Another time he stayed on for almost two hours. Every time he saw me, he apologized again for almost getting me in trouble that first time.
A few years later he was gone.
I was doing an overnight shift on the FM station the night it came across the wires. Sam Kinison, a man that had lived life on the very edge of the cliff, had died outside of Las Vegas.
Sam was about as self-destructive as anyone in show business--it almost seemed like he was daring God to take him. Ironically though, when it was his time to go, it wasn't self-inflicted. A drunk driver had swerved into Sam's lane and crashed into his car head on. He never had a chance.
30 years later he's almost forgotten.
In my mind, however, he's one of the all-time greats.
***
The thing I enjoyed about being on John Landecker's show was that he really made all of us feel like we were an important part of the show. Here's a photo collection from my time on that show...
1. The Morning Show the day I began in 1993, Richard Cantu, Lonnie Martin, John Landecker, me and Vicki Truax
2. Tommy Kaempfer, age 2 months, appearing on our annual Christmas show, 1995
3. 3:30 in the morning. Not quite awake yet. 1999.
4. At Balmoral Race track for WJMK day, 1994
5. At Lambs Farm for our annual summer concert, 1997
6. Tommy Kaempfer, age 5, telling a joke live on the air in the Dominican Republic, 2001
7. Johnny Kaempfer, age 3, recording a movie review, 2001
8. The Morning Show circa 2000. Me, John, Leslie Keiling, Richard Cantu, Vince Argento
9. Bridget and I renewing our vows live on the air on our 10th anniversary, 2001.
10. Tommy Kaempfer on Take Your Kid to Work Day, 1996
11. John and I on the book tour for Records Truly Is My Middle Name, 2013
=Quite a weekend for the authors of The Flip Side.
=On Saturday a jam-packed Garabaldi's pizza in Hoffman Estates was the site for the book launch party of The Flip Side. Carl Rosenbaum flew in from Arizona to be there. Larry was there too (holding a cake below), as was Ken Churilla. A lot of former Flip-Side employees and family showed up as well, and we sold out of books entirely. What a fun afternoon.
=On Sunday, Larry Rosenbaum came to the Arcada Theater and did a chat/signing along with fellow Eckhartz Press authors Rick Kaempfer and Mitch Michaels (and Jim Summaria/Mark Plotnick from Chicago History press). You may say he's a dreamer, but he's not the only one.
=The Loop Files Author Rick Kaempfer was also at the signing at the Arcada on Sunday.
=This week in 2023 (December 12), The Loop Files had a super successful (sold out!) book signing at Uncork Unwind in Des Plaines. A bunch of former Loopers (photo below--Jim Wiser, Matt Bisbee, John Swany Swanson, and Bridget Kaempfer) came out to the signing along with a big contigent of Loop fans.
=Doin' the Cruise author Mitch Michaels was also at the Arcada signing on Sunday.
=Are you sensing a theme here? This week in 2017 (December 10), the Elmhurst History Museum did an entire exhibit about The Loop and Disco Demolition. Naturally, they invited Mitch Michaels to come out and sell his book Doin the Cruise there. We captured a bit of that history in these photos...
=We couldn't be more excited about the announcement over the weekend that Dick Allen has been elected into baseball's Hall of Fame. We have two books that prominently feature the HOFer. Of course, Chili Dog MVP is the story of that magical 1972 season. Chili Dog MVP authors Dr. Fletcher & John Owens were with Allen's family when the news came out that he was in the Hall.
=The other book that mentions Dick is the memoir To The Men I've Loved (God Help Them!) by Patricia Motto. One of the men she loved, and wrote about in the book, was Dick Allen.
=Author Ken Smoller made an appearance on the Nightside with Dan Rea program last week to talk about his obsession: Sports stadiums. You can listen to it here.
=This week in 2018, Chet Coppock appeared at a card show in Orland Park. At one point, he grabbed the microphone and charmed the entire audience there.
=This week in 2016 (December 12), Mark Gelinas held the second book release party for his cancer-journey-memoir Gel Strong. This one took place in his town of residence, Atlanta Georgia.
=This week (December 8) in 1980, the unthinkable happened when John Lennon was shot dead outside his New York City apartment building. Bobby Skafish was on the air at the time on WXRT (93.1) and wrote about the emotions that went through his head and how he handled it on the air, in his book We Have Company. =That was the story he chose to share with the people who came out to his book signing at the Blue Island Beer Company this week (December 10) in 2016.
=This week (December 12) in 2021, Randy Merkin was in the Glen Shopping Center signing and selling copies of his book Behind the Glass. It only made sense to sell a sports book in a sports store.
=Ten years ago this week (December
8, 2014), we did the launch of Father Knows Nothing. A great crowd showed up, including the three boys and a wife who are the subjects of Rick Kaempfer's humor columns over the years. Before you call it child abuse, realize that the kids love the book. Although...they refused to be photographed at the signing.
=Three days later (December 11), Rick was on WGN-TV morning show, talking about the book.
=Happy birthday this week (December 13) to Cubs Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins. Fergie was kind enough to stop by Randy Richardson and Becky Sarwate's Cubsessions book launch party back in 2018. That's fellow former Cub Rich Nye (red shirt) in the foreground.
=Another former teammate of both Cubs pitchers is former Cubs outfielder Gene Hiser. He was at the Cubsessions launch party too (shown here with publisher Rick Kaempfer). Hiser's birthday is this week as well (December 11). The launch party, by the way, was at the immortal Murphy's Pub right outside of Wrigley Field.
=The book Cubbie Blues isn't an Eckhartz Press book, but it was released this week in 2008. No fewer than four Eckhartz-press related authors appear in that book and were at the book release party this week (December 14). A photo gallery is here. See if you can find Don Evans (the editor of the book), Randy Richardson, James Finn Garner, or Rick Kaempfer in the shots from that night.
=Former Chicago Bear running back Matt Forte is celebrating a birthday this week (December 10). Joel Daly met good ol' #22 backstage at Windy City Live when both of them appeared on the same day. Joel was there promoting his memoir The Daly News.
=One of the things we love about the book Mob Adjacent is the way it mixes Hollywood with good old fashioned mobsters. This week is a great example. Two very different people born this week in history can be found in the pages of the book: Frank Sinatra (December 12), and John 'No Nose' DiFronzo (December 13). One was the Chairman of the board. The other was the Don.
=JJ Novak's book Meta-Stories is a collection of stories that help people deal with mental health issues. One of them is appropriate to feature this week because December 13 is the beginning of the Late Winter Dear Season in Illinois (One deer limit). Novak has a story called The Deer Who Couldn't Cross the Road.
=This week in 2011, Brendan Sullivan and Rick Kaempfer were on WGN Radio with Brian Noonan discussing their co-written novel (and the first book Eckhartz Press ever published) The Living Wills. You can still listen to that interview here.
Christmas Signing
=This week in 2014 (December 12), Eckhartz Press had our first group Christmas signing. This one took place in the bowels of Michigan Avenue at the Billy Goat tavern. Among the authors there: L-R Bruce Bohrer, David Stern, Rick Kaempfer, Rich King, John Landecker, Joel Daly, and Pat Colander. Pat's not in the photo because she insisted on taking it.
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