Chicago Radio Spotlight: David Kaplan

This week I spoke with WGN Sports Night host David Kaplan. We talked about his tumultuous last few months, the return to the night-time airwaves at WGN, his new and old partners, and some of his favorite sports highlights.

You can read the entire interview here.

Coming this weekend

I spoke with WGN Radio's David Kaplan this week, and he'll be this weekend's Chicago Radio Spotlight interview. He has some great stories about sports figures we all know, and the behind the scenes stories of what went wrong during the previous WGN regime. I'll be posting that on Saturday.

As for Father Knows Nothing, I was inspired by this awkward proposal tale to tell my own. I don't think I've ever written about that before. I'll be posting it on Sunday.

Sammy's corked bat gets a CAT scan

The saga of Sammy's corked bat was bound to continue when Grant DePorter bought it, and sure enough he made headlines with it yesterday and today.

He has given the bat a CAT scan.

If you'd like to know the forensics of exactly how Sammy cheated, click on the link above.

A Suburban Dad

I forgot to post a piece I wrote for my friend Kim Strickland's "A City Mom" blog at ChicagoNow earlier this week. I go by "A Suburban Dad" on her blog, and contribute a column a week.

This week's column is called "The Unwritten Rules of Valentine's Day."

You should check out Kim's site, she's really very good.

An unforgettable proposal story

Miguel Cabrera gets busted for DUI

And he did it in spectacular fashion.

The Sun Times headline really says it all: "Miguel Cabrera pulls a Ron Burgundy"

Percy Sledge

Fascinating story from 45 years ago today, courtesy of Bob Dearborn's The Olde Disc Jockey's Almanac this morning...

February 17, 1966…In Sheffield, Alabama, Percy Sledge recorded "When A Man Loves A Woman." Before the recording session, the song had no title or lyrics. The session proceeded, the instrumental track was laid down, with the expectation that Sledge would eventually reveal the lyric sheet for the vocal takes. But when it came time to record the vocals, Sledge improvised the lyrics with minimal pre-planning using the melody as a guide for rhythm and phrasing. The performance was so convincing that everyone working on the session assumed he had the lyrics written down.

Pujols to the Cubs?

His deadline passed for the Cardinals to sign him, so naturally, the subject of Pujols coming to the Cubs was the talk of Cubs camp in Mesa.

I sincerely doubt it.

Although, if there's a GM out there that would willingly overpay waaaaaay beyond his actual market value, it's Jim Hendry.

The Cubs pick Moreland

Former Cubs player Keith Moreland was named as the replacement for Ron Santo by WGN Radio today.

That's a good hire.

How many candidates could say that their name is actually in the lyrics of a Cubs song?

For those of you wondering which song, it's "A Dying Cubs Fan Last Request" by Steve Goodman.




Listen for Moreland's name...

One Bad Apple

Exactly 40 years ago today, the number one song in the country was "One Bad Apple" by the Osmonds. It wasn't just a number one hit, it went platinum. It was HUGE.

I admit I liked the song when it came out, but cut me some slack--I was seven years old at the time.

I found this priceless time-capsule on YouTube. The Osmonds performing the song at the Ohio State Fair in 1972...

E-mails, we get e-mails...

"RP" writes regarding my post about Jeopardy's Man vs. Machine...

"I saw about half of yesterday's show on DVR before I had to leave...I'll watch the rest of that and today's episode tonight. Lots of "how we did it" filler. My biggest complaint to this point regards ringing in on an answer. The show alleges that Watson has to pop the buzzer like the human contestants. They also continuously show a graph of Watson's level of confidence on an answer as it is still being read aloud (Watson gets it as a text file). Above a certain confidence threshold, Watson will ring in. I don't think I saw any answer that Watson wanted to ring in on where the humans were actually able to beat him on the buzzer. I guess that changes later on the lower levels of the board where the answers are harder, but when I had to leave, it was a slaughter. Watson had several thousand dollars, and Jennings and Rutter each had about $200. They could never get in for an answer."

This link has some good information about the computer's strengths and weaknesses.

Machine Gun Jack McGurn

75 years ago today he was gunned down in a North Side bowling alley.

His gruesome story, and the other reason he's remembered around Valentine's Day, can be found at Just One Bad Century.

Don't remember Jack?

He was also the owner of the Green Mill Jazz Club.

Zambrano wants opening day start

Carlos Zambrano said he's going to let his stats do the talking for him this year, but his mouth did contribute one thing before his stats told him to shut up.

He said he wants to start his seventh consecutive opening day.

Let me just say this to Carlos: "Even if you had been our best pitcher the last few years, which you clearly haven't, you still stink on Opening Day."

Do Carlos' stats want to say anything? Yes: "Your record the past six Opening Days is 1-5. Last year you gave up 8 earned runs in 1 1/3 innings."

I think I'm going to enjoy hearing from Carlos' stats this year.

Zappa on MIami Vice

25 years ago today, Frank Zappa appeared on the television show "Miami Vice". He played a drug kingpin named "Mr. Frankie."

Uh oh. Dempster's making predictions again

Ryan Dempster has been looking over the hard working Cubs pitchers and catchers their first weekend together, and he's encouraged. How encouraged?

"I like our team, and I like our chances."

Father Knows Nothing

My latest Father Knows Nothing column has been posted. This week's is called "My very own Spudnik moment" and it's about the cruel murder of a potato.

You can read it here.

The Sweetest Words in the English Language

Bill Holub worked with me at the Loop (WLUP) in Chicago. He was in the news department there for 18 years, and every year whenever he would hear or read the words "Pitchers and Catchers Report," he would say with great enthusiasm..."Those are the sweetest words in the English language."

A few years ago I asked him to write a guest blog for me about that subject matter, and it's become a tradition ever since to re-run his piece on that special day. Today is the day for the Cubs. Pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training in Mesa.


THE SWEETEST WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
By Bill Holub

“Pitchers and catchers report."

These are indeed the sweetest words in the English language. Friends have been hearing me recite this every year at this time. I once had an old poker playing friend who used to say the sweetest words have always been “I’ll play these”. This is the same friend who couldn’t win even when dealt a pat hand. That however is a story for another time and place, where an explanation of the relationship between the quantity of beer consumed, what the cards in your hand really look like and the amount of money you bet can be fully explored. It’s really something scientists should be looking at.

In the meantime, I apologize to all those who came here looking for a sentimental dialogue on romance. I’m sorry to say it but the sweetest words in the English language are not “I love you”. Now that I think of it, this may instead be a sentimental dialogue on romance and baseball.

It’s funny how the two always converge around Valentine’s Day. Spring fever is referred to as that time of year when things start to bloom as the weather changes and love is in the air. It is no coincidence that this is the same time the baseball season opens and brings hope to all of us diehard baseball romantics.

My love affair with baseball was re-ignited in 1987-88. There was only one place to catch baseball highlights from all over the major leagues back then. Once a week you could tune in to “This Week In Baseball” with good ol’ Mel Allen. During those two seasons I was hooked into witnessing two West Coast baseball Gods embodied in the forms of a young Mark Mcgwire and Jose Canseco. This is before anyone had ever heard of andro, anabolics and the other chemical cocktails that have since cast a pall over these two. Back then, I was treated week in and week out to mammoth sized home runs flying out of every ballpark in the country. The fact that these home runs were being hit by players wearing what my brother and I had always considered the coolest looking baseball uniforms in the world (the Oakland A’s green and gold) had me embracing the game I grew up on all over again.

By 1989 I was so hooked on this game I even started collecting baseball cards again, although as much as an investor as a fanboy. I also started another nasty habit that impacts my life to this day. That is when I started a fantasy baseball league with a bunch of guys at work. 1989 also happened to be a division winning season for my beloved Cubs, so I was in baseball heaven and haven’t looked back since.

THE NATIONAL PASTIME

I think we can honestly say that baseball is no longer the national pastime in this country. It has been supplanted by football. I can accept that. Although I would insist the true national pastime is gambling, which is the driving force that makes football the number one spectator sport in America. I suppose I could go off on a George Carlin type of rant here on the differences between football and baseball, but that’s not why I’m writing this piece.

I just want to point out there is one major difference between the two and that is commitment. I’m talking about the commitment between baseball fans and football fans. Football is a four month season requiring your undivided attention one day a week, or two if you’re both a college and pro fan. Baseball is a six month season requiring your undivided attention throughout with your favorite team(s) playing as many as five or more games a week.

Baseball is a commitment. I believe it carries as much of a commitment as love. They both require dedication and attention. They can both go awry despite the best laid plans. An early swan dive in the standings in May that ends a team’s season before it even had a chance can be just as painful as not having your phone calls returned after the second or third date. Meanwhile an October champagne shower celebrating a pennant or World Series championship is as sweet and memorable as a ‘yes’ to a question posed on one knee.

BASEBALL AND THE CINEMA

Once that warm baseball is back feeling starts sinking in every year, I like to get fully immersed by throwing myself into my favorite baseball movies before the games actually begin. This is my form of spring training.

You’ve got your “Bull Durham”, “Field Of Dreams”, “Major League” (only the first one, please), but there is one movie that hits me in the right spot. “City Slickers” is not a real baseball movie per se, but there’s one scene that remains among my all-time favorites. It’s where the three friends (Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby) are on the cattle drive and passing the time by discussing their favorite baseball memories. Billy Crystal remembers the first time his father took him to Yankee Stadium as a kid and how he had never seen grass that green before. Mickey Mantle even hit a home run that day. Daniel Stern recalls how growing up he and his father never saw eye to eye, but they could always talk about baseball with each other. “We always had baseball” he says.

As for me, one of my earliest baseball memories was getting to take the day off of school with my brother because my Dad got opening day tickets to Wrigley Field. I still remember wearing our warmest winter coats and knit hats, waiting to sit down while the Andy Frain usher brushed the snow off our seats. They don’t make Aprils in Chicago like that any more.

THE SWEETEST SOUND

There is a sound that accompanies the words “pitchers and catchers report." It is the sound of a ball popping into a mitt. The sound of a simple game of catch. It is more than the crack of a bat sound. The sound of a mitt popping brings the memories and feelings of a lifetime of baseball flooding your senses all at once. It happens every time, whether it’s major leaguers or just a game of catch with your dad or your kid. The week pitchers and catchers report there are no cracking bats, only popping mitts. The sweetest sound in the world.

“Pitchers and catchers report."

The sweetest words in the English language.

Chicago Radio Spotlight: Leslie Harris

My latest Chicago Radio Spotlight has been posted. This week I spoke with The River's Leslie Harris about her nearly twenty-plus year Chicago career.

You can read it here.

Coming this weekend

This weekend's Chicago Radio Spotlight interview will be with former WLS, The Blaze, Rock 103.5, and WCKG rock jock, and current evening personality at The River, Leslie Harris. I'll post that interview on Saturday.

Saturday is also the day that pitchers and catchers report for the Cubs in Mesa. Look for my annual Bill Holub guest blog about the special significance of that day.

This weekend's Father Knows Nothing will be about the meaningless and violent death of a potato. I'll be posting that on Sunday.

Have a great weekend!

Epiphany

My youngest son Sean was in a hurry this morning and rushing out of the house, but needed to make a pitstop first. He said: "Darnit, I just tightened this belt and closed the button. I don't have time."

I pointed to his zipper.

He looked up at me, and I could actually see the light bulb go on over his head.

"OH! That's what that's for!"

8 years. It took him 8 years.

The apple does not fall far from the tree.