Quick show this morning. Billy Baker and I talked a little about the feud between Hammond mayor Tom McDermott and Whiting mayor Joe Stahura - with Pierogifest and Tom Dabertin thrown in the mix - and we also talked about our general dysfunction as an area... and then I skid addled up the Bishop Ford to Harborside Golf Course for the White Sox outing.
Our celebrity was Man Soo Lee (above)...
Let's switch from Korea to Mexico. Per usual, at the registration table when the woman handed me my drink and raffle tickets, I quickly lost track of them. That's unfortunate. Johnny Salzeider, who took me to the outing, contacted me and said they can't find the winner of the Mexico trip... and that the numbers match up so there's a good chance it's me. "Find your tickets." Yeah, fat chance about that. I don't win shit like that. I'm local radio guy.
Speaking of local radio guy... There were a ton of boys and girls walking around in WGN polo shirts. One guy walked back with Johnny and I from the driving range, so I asked him what he did for WGN.
Uh, I'm the general manager.
Can't remember his name quite yet, but he came from Cleveland recently to manage Chicago. On the television side. If you remember correctly, Tribune has newspaper, TV and radio. The perfect combination to lose your shirt if you don't know what you're doing. I speak from experience on this one. But anyways, the guy was quite cordial for a 10-minute walk and if I could remember his name I'd send him an email with my resume, tell him he may have discovered a great talent... at the driving range.
Almost done. I wanna talk about outings. In the beginning of our radio journey, I played a ton of golf outings. I carry a 10 handicap, or at least that's what it was when I played enough to care about these things, and I can hit a pretty good 8-iron and putt. So I'm mildly a sought-after scramble player. But that has nothing to do with anything except that it's difficult to stop patting yourself on the back when your arm's permanently bent from doing it all the time.
As local radio guy, you could pretty much play four or five outings a week in the summer around here - if you wanted and it helped your business. Take the first part - if you wanted to. I gotta admit that I had a pretty good time tooling around Harborside with Kenny Rescan of Griffith, another attorney from Salzeider's office, Salzeider and, of course, the always-jovial Man Soo. And I ran in to one of our clients - Jim (the dad) and Jim (the son) Shanahan from Shanahan Insurance Agency in Lansing. That was good customer relations and maybe the three of us plus my other personality will go play Lost Marsh one day. So as far as enough enjoyment to consider it a mental health cleansing day... yes.
And what about business and outings. Rick Baltenzberger of Miss Print in Munster tells me that certain outings produce more potential clients than others. He plays a lot of outings so he should know. The White Sox thing with Salzeider - yes, there's a slight business angle. But did I pick up any potential clients, which is I guess what you're supposed to do at a golf outing?
Probably not. But I did meet the GM of WGN TV, and as soon as I remember his name I'm gonna send him a resume. How's that for the golf outing jackpot?