My first baseball story of 2022 appeared a few weeks ago in the Daily Herald, on the occasion of Miguel Cabrera’s 3,000th career hit. But its genesis can be traced to 2017. That is when statistical curiosity—one of my incurable traits—prompted me to embark me on a research path that encompasses other baseball greats of […]
Category Archives: Journalism
Nearly 20 years ago, I delivered a luncheon keynote at the Texas Press Association’s annual conference. The session flowed out of my mathematical literacy (numeracy) training called “Go Figure: Making Numbers Count.” This expertise at the intersection of data and story-telling–that realm where many journalists dread to tread–has taken me throughout the country to lead […]
Atop the front page of today’s Daily Herald is my story on a grateful–and giving–Elmhurst man, Butch Navarro. He was spared by a tornado that ripped through a small Tennessee community a week ago. In response, he is spearheading fundraising efforts for people there. As of late Friday afternoon, that gesture had spurred on more […]
As posted at Patch.com this evening…. About 200 people—students, parents, and other community members—rallied Saturday afternoon in front of Oak Park and River Forest High School to protest the cancellation of extracurricular activities for the next month. The cancellation was prompted by a recent increase in students testing positive for the coronavirus and came at […]
If you’d told me a month ago that I’d be covering a couple of the White Sox-Red Sox games at Guaranteed Rate Field, I’d have responded, “Yeah…and Leury Garcia will command one of the headlines with a walk-off home run.” Yet, there it is (below), my September 13th story in the Daily Herald on the […]
One of the perks of being a story-teller is the continual education that it provides. Over the past year, that has included writing for publications for trade associations such as the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) and the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association (ILMA). Recent case in point: writing for the June issue of Compoundings, ILMA’s magazine. […]
One of my favorite aphorisms about journalism is that it’s the first rough draft of history. True enough. Sometimes, though, it proves to be the only history, especially for local news of lesser import. And as for those stories that have follow-ups over time, the term “rough draft” may suggest that debut stories have a […]
Over the past 15 years, my writing has increasingly been outside the journalism realm. At the same time, I have characterized myself not so much as a “former journalist” but as a “recovering” one. Truth is, having begun as a 15-year-old writing for my hometown newspaper over 35 years ago, I may have largely left […]
To honor a life, it is essential to get the details right–and to do it well. And, you only get one crack at it.
Social justice warriors can be their own worst enemy, especially when they resort to crying wolf all too quickly.