Dollars and sense is a column about Chicago sports media and business
David Kaplan isn’t going away. He’ll still be on the radio. He’ll still be posting daily “REKAP” videos on his YouTube channel. Who knows, maybe he’ll take those horrifying shower videos to OnlyFans. (Take that, indeed.)
But Kap, Chicago’s ubiquitous, opinionated sports talk personality, is saying goodbye to his longtime home at NBC Sports Chicago. Kaplan first broke the news of his impending departure from the Chicago RSN on Thursday night.
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Three weeks ago, Kaplan, who has worked at the RSN since 2008, was offered a voluntary early retirement plan from NBC, which is, as usual, cutting costs across its TV empire. Kaplan was surprised when he was alerted to the email by his TV boss John Schippman. He called his wife Mindy, an executive with Lou Malnati’s, and then, since he was downtown, he walked over to his agent Steve Mandell’s office to discuss the idea. Mandell confirmed Kaplan’s initial thought that this buyout was a good idea.
“He said it’s not too good to be true, it’s an amazing opportunity,” Kaplan said.
The deal was so beneficial, Kaplan said, with his usual rhetorical flourish, it was as if someone were looking out for him.
“My parents are both gone, but it was like they said we’re going to hook you up,” he said.
Kaplan loves to work, but his omnipresence at the station has been limited lately. First, the Cubs departed for Marquee Sports Network after the 2019 season. But Kaplan, who had done Cubs postgame shows on TV and radio for a quarter century, re-signed with NBC instead of following his team. Then, during the pandemic, the station eliminated “Sports Talk Live,” Kaplan’s version of “Sportswriters on TV.”
On that show, Kaplan sparred with reporters and goofed around with his beloved production team, including producers Tom Cooper (who was let go by the station) and Danni Wysocki (who is leaving now). For many sportswriters, it was their only TV work, and I can say from experience it got you noticed in Chicago.
“When ‘Sports Talk Live’ went away, that hurt, that was sad,” Kaplan said. “It was awesome. It really was.”
Since 2004, SportsTalk Live has been a constant in Chicago sports fans' lives. @thekapman took over in 2008 and provided us with countless laughs, debates and takes. We appreciate all those who have watched ❤️
Tonight is our last show. We hope you'll tune in at 6 on @NBCSChicago pic.twitter.com/rRQFV4MQlp
— Unfiltered with David Kaplan (@UnfilteredNBC) August 6, 2020
In truth, “STL” had to go once it went remote because watching a discussion show via separate Zoom windows is horrible TV. Marquee has usurped the idea with a more lo-fi version, of which I’m a semi-regular guest. (Marquee also pays its panelists. “STL” used to give out restaurant gift cards until late 2016, when it stopped giving out any inducements. Though some journalists worked out small side deals to get paid for going on.)
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Kaplan got the Bears postgame show hosting job and has done a gambling “sidecast” for Bulls games, along with fill-in work on postgame shows. He also started hosting a daily show called “Unfiltered.” But he had two years left on his deal and after that, who knows what happens at NBC Sports Chicago? The remaining teams — Jerry Reinsdorf’s Bulls and White Sox and Rocky Wirtz’s Blackhawks — also have two years left on their deals with NBC. After that, they could leave to start a new RSN without NBC.
So that explains why the early retirement package was “something I could not say no to,” even though he loves the NBC Sports Chicago crew.
Kaplan will be on TV through the end of December. After that, he’ll have his morning talk show on ESPN 1000, his YouTube show and his college basketball broadcasting with the Missouri Valley Conference. But he’s not retiring from TV pontificating, he said.
Marquee would be the obvious landing spot but Kaplan said he hasn’t spoken to anyone there yet. While Cole Wright has the pre- and postgame desk, Kaplan could be of use as a host or talking head. Marquee has shown interest in expanding its offerings, while NBC Sports Chicago is focusing mostly on the games and their excellent pre- and postgame shows.
Through his many jobs, Kaplan has ties to sports gambling companies, so that partnership would seem to be a fit. His old boss Adam Delevitt has hired a host of sports radio hosts at BetRivers and Kaplan has ties to PointsBet through work and his friendship with former Tribune sportswriter turned gambling wag Teddy Greenstein.
In any event, Kaplan, who just turned 62, is open for business.
“I’m as far from retiring as a 25-year-old,” he said. “But my phone may ring, my phone may never ring.”
In the meantime, Kaplan said he’s looking forward to having more free time to spend with family. He has one grandchild nearby and another on the way. He and his wife Mindy recently bought a vacation house in Wisconsin. And then there is his son Brett, who might be the biggest beneficiary of this move.
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“The first thing Brett said is, ‘Can we rejoin the bowling league?'” Kaplan said.
Before he started hosting the football show, the Kaplans used to be in a Sunday morning bowling league. Starting in 2023, they’ll return to the lanes.
I think Joe Maddon’s next act should be as a motivational speaker. Or maybe a monologue artist like Spalding Gray.
Maddon is a winner, a baseball lifer and a World Series champion. But he’s also an elite storyteller, someone whose yarn spin rate can’t be measured by some three-quarter-zip-wearing dorks.
The question is: Does anyone want to listen to him anymore? It’s an existential quandary for Joe, the preeminent baseball philosopher this side of Dusty Baker.
When I read “The Book of Joe: Trying Not to Suck at Baseball and Life,” Maddon’s collaboration with Tom Verducci, I could hear the ex-Cubs manager’s voice loud and clear. Some of the names and stories were familiar, others were fresh. This is a book he’s been writing for years, interview by interview, anecdote by anecdote. One might say Joe has been writing his autobiography ever since he got the manager’s job in Tampa Bay.
The book is a little choppy because while Verducci does the writing in the third person, Maddon’s lengthy contributions are presented inside quotation marks. In the acknowledgments, they note that Maddon dictated his quotes, which were then transcribed. It doesn’t make for a very tight book as it runs 384 pages.
A recent managerial book I enjoyed was “Francona: The Red Sox Years,” by Terry Francona and Dan Shaughnessy. That 2014 book was also 384 pages, which must be a sweet spot in this genre.
In that book, Francona and Shaughnessy team up to write about the experience of managing in Boston during that incredible run that saw the Red Sox erase their curse and win two World Series. After reading it, particularly the parts about how involved the Red Sox owners were in day-to-day decisions, I understood why Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer appreciated Tom Ricketts’ more laid-back approach.
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“The Book of Joe” could’ve used more of that book’s structure and focus. Shaughnessy wrote about the ownership and front office and Francona’s voice came through with honest insights about the clubhouse.
It’s Maddon’s book so it’s understandable he wanted to spend a good chunk of it on his early days and how he developed his managerial style and baseball philosophy in the minors, even if it’s not as interesting to a wide audience of baseball fans.
Joe Maddon managed the Cubs to their first World Series since 1908 but that didn’t stop him from getting criticized. (Mark Brown / Getty Images)So, in that regard, I’d recommend this book to coaches of all sports trying to find their voice. Maddon is sui generis, but a lot of his thoughts on leadership could be helpful for the up-and-coming coach.
The downside of this book is that all the pontificating leaves out a lot of possibly interesting details about his major-league experience to focus on why he was almost always right.
For example, Maddon writes about a failed bunt attempt with Javy Báez in Game 7 of the World Series and marvels at his own gumption, which he says was inspired by Don Zimmer, to try it at that stage of the game. That it didn’t work, in Game 7 of the World Series, was almost immaterial. (Maddon was criticized heavily for his bullpen usage and strategy in the World Series, and not just by media and fans.)
A far more interesting anecdote comes a few pages later when Maddon went through his decision-making in Game 4 of the NLDS in San Francisco.
That’s when Maddon laid a trap against opposing manager Bruce Bochy by sending up left-handed Chris Coghlan to hit for the right-handed Addison Russell with right-hander Sergio Romo on the mound. Bochy brought in left-hander Will Smith and Maddon inserted the right-handed Willson Contreras, who tied the game with a single.
“There was nothing analytical” about that move, Maddon says in the book. It was just his gut feeling.
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There’s a lot of that push-and-pull in the book about analytics vs. the gut. Maddon, of course, is a fan of both, but if you’ve listened to or read anything from his book tour, you’ll know he’s raging against the machine.
Like Francona’s book, Maddon is telling his story from his perspective. Verducci fills in a lot of blanks and does some solid complementary reporting on both historical events and the state of contemporary managing in baseball. But the book is light on introspection and probably heavier on omission.
As you might expect, Maddon doesn’t cop to many mistakes, instead focusing his ire on the way the game has evolved around him, with front offices usurping the responsibilities (and in some cases, the fame) from experienced managers.
Over and over, Maddon reiterates how he loves information, he just doesn’t like how it’s being presented in the majors. And he’s got a point here.
Just as Epstein has moved into the baseball commissioner’s office to help “fix” the game, maybe Maddon should also serve as a consultant to Rob Manfred’s office. He’s certainly not shy about ideas.
Unfortunately for the readers, there isn’t much juicy gossip about Maddon’s and Epstein’s relationship.
But Maddon makes it known that he didn’t appreciate the Cubs’ heavy hand in his last year managing, which began with a post-2018 performance review following a sign-of-no-confidence call.
That job review, which stemmed from interviews with players and also illustrated the front office’s growing frustration with Maddon, stated that the Cubs’ young players needed more structure and “routine-oriented work,” that there was a “communication deficit” with Maddon and the players, that the players felt Maddon shared too many one-on-one conversations with the media and that his T-shirt shtick was “all about you.” Ouch.
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There was also a complaint about complacency in the clubhouse, which called for “an enhanced sense of urgency.”
“Theo needed to do something else,” Maddon writes in the book. “He needed to become more involved.”
In his memo, Epstein wrote these were the players’ feelings and that they needed to find some solutions. That he didn’t offer Maddon a contract extension showed how the front office felt about Maddon’s tenuous future with the club.
Maddon felt the complaints and memo were “a bunch of BS” and that while he felt optimistic that he could fix things, “the more I thought about it, I really got more upset because I knew how disingenuous and incorrect it was.”
I think that’s relatable to anyone who’s ever had issues with their bosses or felt disrespected as a cog in a corporate machine.
Maddon makes it known that as his run ended in St. Louis in 2019, he and Epstein made their peace. But the separation didn’t happen out of the ether. What the book is missing is more detail on how things soured with the organization in 2017 and 2018 and how the frustrations with Maddon during the World Series were shared by players and front-office executives. Anyone who covered that team knew the issues were bubbling up.
But it’s “The Book of Joe,” so it’s the story from his perspective.
Jeff Pearlman didn’t make a lot of friends in Chicago with his book on Walter Payton, but he’s back again with a book on another sensational running back with Chicago ties. No, it’s sadly not “Ultraback: The unauthorized biography of Raymont Harris.”
Pearlman, the reliable sports biographer, has a new book on Bo Jackson, who, of course, had a brief, but memorable, tenure with the White Sox.
When I bought “The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson,” I thumbed through the White Sox years and tweeted out a snippet that put Frank Thomas in a bad light. For some reason, this went viral, resulting in a wave of aggregation. (A New York Post writer just rewrote the page I screenshot.)
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This book has an easy appeal to Gen X readers. As a teenager in Ohio, I was obsessed with Jackson. Who wasn’t? I can vividly remember Jackson and Wade Boggs homering back-to-back to lead off the 1989 All-Star Game and of course, the “Bo Knows” ads. Details about both the reality and the advertising fiction of Jackson abound in the book, as does a thorough look at how Jackson grew into a superstar. (And yes, there are stories about his Tecmo Bowl prowess.)
Jackson was part of the reason I bought that iconic White Sox hat. Pearlman, as expected, does a fine job exploring Jackson’s time with the White Sox. My muddled memory had Bo getting his hip replacement before signing with the Sox, but the book reminded me the surgery came after Jackson tried to play on a rehabilitated hip that was destroyed in a Raiders game. (Longtime trainer Herm Schneider comes off good here for his work with Jackson.)
Pearlman has his formula down with these kinds of books, so it’s an easy read. It’s a good holiday gift for the sports fan in your life. Particularly if they rocked a pair of Nike cross-trainers in the mid-’90s.
The New York Times, which as you might’ve heard owns The Athletic, published a must-read series of stories about sports gambling on Sunday. If you’ve read my work or followed me on Twitter, or know me IRL, you’re aware I’ve made a bet or two in my day.
In my hometown of Steubenville, Ohio, and the towns nearby where I grew up, you could walk into bars, newsstands, cigar stores, and even one old guy’s pungent apartment, and place bets. As high schoolers with limited money, we would bet $5 or $10 parlays. Nothing that could get us in trouble. But once I got to college, I heard stories about guys who owed big money to bookies and that rightfully scared me. I’ve always been able to control my gambling, but others cannot.
That’s why I regularly point out how obnoxious (and misleading) the advertising blitz on sports radio and game broadcasts are. Parlays are for broke kids and suckers. That’s why every sports betting company encourages you to make them. Anyone who tells you it’s easy to pick winners is lying to you.
The chasm between reality and fantasy in this industry is why these stories are so important. I’m all for legalized sports gambling, but there needs to be oversight and regulations. For one, colleges shouldn’t be doing business with sports-betting companies. College students (and high schoolers) are the demographic I’ve worried about since legalization began. I hope the Times’ story on how some colleges are encouraging gambling leads to restrictions from states and both private and public universities. Everyone worries about the possibility of college athletes fixing games, but the real danger comes from students, many of whom have already signed off on exorbitant loans, going into more debt because they’re encouraged that you have to bet to enjoy sports.
(Photo: David Kaplan (left) with Todd Hollandsworth and Theo Epstein / Courtesy NBC Sports Chicago)
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