Friday, November 04, 2016

The Rally

This picture says it all...



Here are a few I took. The first three are from the corner of Waveland/Clark. The last one is from Michigan Avenue...

A Very Cool Souvenir

Here's a one-of-a-kind souvenir. My buddy Dane Placko picked it up from the floor of the Cubs locker room during the celebration and gave it to me. A cork from one of the champagne bottles. Pretty cool!



Heading down to the parade!

Thursday, November 03, 2016

Harry Caray on the Call

Minutia Men, Episode 27


A special World Series edition.

Dave reveals his inner black soul, and Rick tries (unsuccessfully) to restrain his joy.

Listen to it here.

Mom's Gift

So, we have a joke in my family. My mom always asks everyone if they need more food--before meals, during meals, after meals--every second she is around people. The only thing that can stop her is when I respond, "I could go for a pot roast." It's my way of saying enough with the food, already. Well, she just called me this morning to say that she got me a present for the Cubs championship. She didn't get me a jersey or a hat. She got me a pot roast.

Isn't that sweet? Love ya, Mom.

Tweeting the Big Moment













Da Cubs

Hard to describe what was going on in our house last night during that roller coaster Cubs game. I was so nervous before the game that I couldn't eat dinner. During the game, I was a mess...especially in the bottom of the 8th.

But then it really happened, and I couldn't have picked a better place to celebrate. At home, with my family.







Bridget and I celebrated with a shot for the man who turned me into a Cubs fan in 1968...Uncle Manny.



And then my phone absolutely exploded. I got incredibly emotional at the outreach from so many people I know or have known or never met, all saying they were thinking of me at that moment. That really touched me.

To tell you the truth, I'm getting a little emotional just telling the story right now.

Gotta go.

If you want to see the video of how my family reacted during the closing seconds, check out my facebook page. Sean was rolling tape and didn't tell me. It's a pretty awesome video memory.

Wednesday, November 02, 2016

Bobby Skafish on Acid Flashback Radio



Bobby Skafish will be on Acid Flashback Radio today at 11 AM CT for two hours as they discuss his new book "We Have Company: Four Decades of Rock and Roll Encounters."

They'll play music from some of the sixty plus guests he's interviewed over the years and talk about some of his favorite moments. Airs again on Thursday Nov 3 at noon CT, and Friday at 3 CT.

Listen to it here.

Bill Murray Gives Cubs Ticket To Random Fan

It happened last night in Cleveland. A woman from Whiting, Indiana drove to Cleveland hoping to get a seat. When she couldn't get one, Bill Murray gave her his extra ticket.

He just happened to be walking by.

What a great story.

Deal Falls Through


Gannett had agreed to purchase Chicago's Tronc (formerly known as the Tribune), but after their latest earnings report, Gannett's bank got cold feet.

The deal is dead.

God's Humor

Don't tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor. I've been waiting 50 years for this moment, and now that Game 7 is here, I have a soccer game scheduled for the exact same time tonight. I can't blow off the soccer game--I'm the coach and my son is on the team--and it can't be rescheduled because the league won't allow rescheduled games this late in the season. Oh, and the team we are playing is the best team in the league. They have scored 50 goals and given up only 6 this year. Even I can see the humor here.

LATE UPDATE:Just got the word. Because of all the rain we got today, the field is unplayable. Soccer game is cancelled!

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

Social Media Chris


He had been a featured part of the Eric and Kathy show for a few years, but now he's spreading his wings in Hollywood.

The Daily Herald today has a piece about Social Media Chris.

Patti Haze


My Illinois Entertainer column this month features an interview with the legendary Patti Haze!

You can read it here.

Good Omen?


The Cubs have never lost a game in November, going all the way back to their founding in 1871.

Sure, they've never played one, but still...

C'mon Cubs.

LATE UPDATE: I stand corrected. From Carrie Muskat's blog: "Tuesday marks a franchise record for the Cubs’ latest game by date, regular season or postseason, but the team did play games in November before. According to historian Ed Hartig, on Nov. 1-15, 1888, just 128 years ago, the Cubs played exhibition games during a world baseball tour that included stops in Australia, Egypt, Italy, England and Ireland."

Sam Bee Interviews President Obama

Financial Times Endorses Hillary

The Financial Times never endorses a Democrat, but this pretty much sums up the way I feel too...

Mrs Clinton carries enough baggage to fill a Boeing 747. She is not trusted by the majority of voters. But she is manifestly more competent than Mr Trump whose braggadocio, divisiveness and meanness are on daily display. Despite her faults, Mrs Clinton is eminently qualified to be the first woman elected to the White House.

I keep thinking to myself...just imagine a President Trump. We would become the laughingstock of the world. I'm not going to criticize anyone who doesn't want Hillary. I totally get that. But the alternative is almost incomprehensively bad. He's not just mean and nasty. He doesn't just say completely unsubstantiated things and inflame hatred. I watched him give a speech yesterday. You know what he's going to replace Obamacare with? "Something really cool."

World Series Ratings

It's not just Cub fans rooting for a Game 7. The folks at Fox are opening rooting for it too. The ratings for this World Series have been tremendous. From Variety...

The Chicago Cubs fought back Sunday night to avoid losing the World Series at Wrigley Field, beating the Cleveland Indians 3-2, and Fox execs likely let out just as big a cheer as Bill Murray at the prospect of at least one more game’s worth of ad revenue. Game 5 of the Chicago-Cleveland Series brought in a massive audience of 23.6 million and a 6.7 in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic in Nielsen’s preliminary ratings. That’s a 37% improvement over Game 5 of 2015’s New York Mets-Kansas City Royals Series, which was that Series’ final game, as the Royals clinched the title with a 7-2 win. This was the biggest Game 5 audience since the 1997 Florida Marlins-Cleveland Indians World Series (24.2 million).

It's not just a huge audience. It's the right audience for advertisers.

Plus the old guys like me.

Glenn Beck

Didn't see this coming. Because Glenn Beck has openly opposed Donald Trump, his entire empire is in danger. Great piece in Rolling Stone magazine about him, that opens with this intriguing paragraph...

The way right-wing-media personality Glenn Beck sees it, no matter who wins the election, Donald or Hillary, he's done for, gone, kaput, along with all that he has built since leaving Fox News in 2011 – his websites (TheBlaze and Glennbeck.com), his radio show (The Glenn Beck Radio Program), his live-streamed online network, his status as a bestselling author in four genres.

His people are turning on him, because he's turned on the ridiculous GOP nominee.

New Boss at Hubbard Broadcasting in Chicago

Over the past year the changes made at Hubbard Broadcasting Chicago are pretty profound. Here's the latest, from Radio Insight...

Hubbard Radio Chicago has named Jeff England as its new VP/Market Manager overseeing Classic Rock "97.1 The Drive" 97.1 WDRV/96.9 WWDV, AC 100.3 WSHE, and Hot AC "101.9 The Mix" WTMX. England comes to Chicago from Hubbard's Phoenix cluster where he was Director of Sales. He previously served as Director of Sales and later Market Manager for iHeartMedia's Phoenix cluster from 2003-2012. He fills the vacancy created by John Gallagher's exit in September.

Bob Herguth

Congrats to Bob Herguth for getting a gig at the Sun Times. Robert Feder reports...

Veteran Chicago journalist Robert Herguth has returned to the Sun-Times as a part-time investigative reporter. Herguth, who most recently was director of investigations for the Better Government Association, previously worked for the Sun-Times as an assignment editor, assistant metro editor and reporter. He’ll now work three days a week with the paper’s Watchdogs unit. Herguth resigned from the BGA last June along with Robert Reed, who was director of programming, in a disagreement over changes in the organization’s structure and strategy. In September Reed joined the Chicago Tribune as a business columnist.

Here's a little known fact about Herguth. He used his time off work wisely. He has a book coming out via Eckhartz Press. Details will be announced within a week or two.

Not a Halloween Fan

When the doorbell rings 40-50 times in one night, and your job is to protect the family, and everyone at the door is wearing some scary looking costume, that's a long night's work for my dog Ivy. She'll be sleeping about 22 hours today.

Monday, October 31, 2016

Happy Halloween

From both Uncle Fester and Uncle David Stern...

Bobby Skafish Book Signing

This coming Sunday! It's his only NW Suburban book signing before Christmas. This book is a great present for anyone who loves Rock and Roll...