The Pinker

I've been on the radio with Geoff Pinkus (known as "The Pinker") once before when my book "$everance" came out. This is the picture they took at the studio that day. (Pinkus and I are the on the far right.)


On Sunday night I'll be on with him again. This time Brendan Sullivan will be joining me, and we'll be discussing our latest book "The Living Wills".

Tune us in at 7pm on WIND (AM 560)

Yu Darvish

The Cubs are interested in Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish. From the LA Times...

"Bidding for Darvish, 25, closed Wednesday, and the Nippon Ham Fighters, his Japanese team, have until Tuesday to decide which bid to accept. The bidding process allows major-league teams to send a blind, one-time-only bid to the Fighters to be the only team to negotiate a contract with Darvish. The winning team has 30 days to come to an agreement with the pitcher.

The posting fee, which is paid in addition to whatever contract the team and Darvish settle on, will be paid only if an agreement is reached. If a contract is not agreed on between the player and the highest-posting team, the money is returned. The highest bid in history for a Japanese player was made by the Boston Red Sox, who bid $51 million to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Red Sox's general manager at the time was Theo Epstein, who now serves the same role with the Cubs.

Darvish was 18-6 with a 1.44 ERA and a league-leading 276 strikeouts last season."

Hmmm. Sounds interesting. Obviously the last time it didn't work out so well for Theo. Dick K has been hurt for the last few years. And last time it also didn't work out for the Cubs, Kosuke was nowhere near the player the Cubs thought he would be.

Overheard at Target

I was doing a little Christmas shopping at Target last night and overheard a hilarious conversation. (At least I thought it was hilarious.)

A man was holding up a pair of "Grinch" boxer shorts to his wife, and in a perfect British accent said: "Some say his heart-on grew three sizes that day."

Shore Magazine on The Living Wills

Thanks so much to Shore Magazine editor Pat Colander for writing this in her blog today...

"Rick Kaempfer just twittered out yesterday that John Records Landecker will be back on WLS-FM starting this Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Rick was John's producer over 10 years at the legendary Landecker's morning show. And Rick is working with John on his autobiography. I met Rick by telephone when he was the producer of the morning show and I was a listener and a fan. (I had listened enough to know that John lived and loved living near Michigan City in LaPorte County, where I was working at the time.) So Rick and I were soon communicating regularly as we coordinated a Landecker profile and photos. At some point, Rick asked about the possibility of freelancing for our magazine and he had a lot of good ideas and that's what happened. (Rick is a columnist and frequent contributor to Shore and also writes a blog, Father Knows Nothing, about being a stay-at-home Dad with three sons.) Rick also began writing books; one was a novel called Severance about the ramifications of hiring and firing in the world of broadcast. If Severance is a comedy of manners in an insane industry, then Rick's new book written with a partner Brendan Sullivan is something entirely different.


Rick and Brendan developed the story using an improv form called the Harold, created by long-time Second City director the late Del Close when he was a member of a troupe called The Committee in San Francisco in 1967. According to the cover notes the story is about a life-changing decision made by one Henry Stankiewicz and the ramifications over the next 30 years. If you want to find out more about The Living Wills, Rick and Brendan will be on WIND Radio on Sunday, December 18th, at 7 p.m. (easy to remember, only one week before Christmas Day) or visit Rick's website.

That's Why They Call it Scam "Artist"

I just posted my weekly Suburban Dad contribution to the City Mom blog at ChicagoNow. This week it's about a gifted scam artist from my childhood, and his unfortunate protege living in my house.

You can read it here.

Not Being Koyie

The Koyie Hill era is officially over in Chicago too.

He was not offered a contract by new Cubs management.

Totally understandable, if you ask me. When your starting catcher is suspect, at the very least you need a Major League worthy backup. Click on the link above and read the breakdown of his numbers by the Bleed Cubbie Blue website. It's not a pretty sight.

But my son will be bummed. Koyie once gave him a game-used baseball at a Cubs game.

Aramis

The Aramis Ramirez era is officially over.

The cock-fighting enthusiast is now a Brewer.

He can still hit, but I really thought he would end up in the American League. He's been absolutely horrible at 3B for a few years now.

"The Living Wills" on the Radio

If you were listening to FM News 101.1 over the weekend, you may have heard this brief news story about a new book called "The Living Wills".

That author's name and voice sound familiar to me, but I can't quite place it.

Thanks to Rob Hart for doing the interview.

The Prince of Wrigley?

This little nugget was in Joel Sherman's column in the New York Post over the weekend...

"In canvassing executives, the Cubs were generally viewed as the most likely landing place, mainly for two reasons: 1) A belief that new team president Theo Epstein wants to make a statement sign in his first year and 2) Epstein recognizes the dearth of power in the game and sees Fielder as one of the few bona fide sluggers who will be available over the next few years."

I'm torn. I'll be OK with it as long as it's not one of those ridiculous ten year contracts. But six years? That's something I can live with when you're talking about a 27-year-old.

I'm of the opinion that the Angels are really going to regret that deal with Pujols by year four or five. He'll be 42 when that contract ends. That's just crazy.

Father Knows Nothing

This week's Father Knows Nothing column is entitled "Washing Machine Repairman"

You can read it here.