About Mike

For the better part of three decades, including award-winning runs as Copley Newspapers columnist and Associated Press sportswriter, Mike has chronicled the acts and deeds of some of the greatest athletes and teams of all time. Some of the worst, too. (Dalibor Bagaric, we hardly knew ye.)

He's covered five Olympics - loved the McLox in Lillehammer! - as well as Super Bowls, World Series, Final Fours, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, Masters and the Bears' thrilling 1997 victory over the Rams that cost them the chance to draft Peyton Manning. (Wanny couldn't even lose right.)

Mike has had his head rubbed by Michael Jordan, his back slapped by Ron Santo and his keister pinched by Walter Payton. He's been lied to by Sammy Sosa, screamed at by Tom Kelly and pilloried by the Erin Andrews Admiration Society of Cyberspace.

Born and raised in Milford, Conn., where he'd celebrate the first day of spring by idiotically taking a dip in the Long Island Sound, Mike began his new Midwestern life as a Marquette freshman in the fall of 1978. After four years honing his craft, watching Warriors basketball, dozing through philosophy classes, finding a wife and enjoying the occasional malt beverage, Mike started his fun and rewarding 16-year career as an AP scribe.

The job took Mike from Milwaukee to Madison to Minneapolis and, in 1994, to Chicago. In 1998, Mike became Chicago sports columnist for Copley Newspapers, then one of the nation's largest family-owned media companies. Nine great years followed before Copley sadly sold most of its assets to GateHouse Media - a debt-saddled operation that sheds jobs faster than Mike sheds hair - and Mike was given a permanent vacation in January 2009. (Good news: Freed of Mike's $11.6 million annual salary, GateHouse has been able to keep its roster of executives in place.)

While he decides what he wants to be when he grows up, Mike is doing freelance work, covering sports for AP and other outlets. He continues to operate The Baldest Truth, the blog he launched just before the Bears performed so heriocally in Super Bowl XLI.

Mike lives in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood with his beautiful (and extremely tolerant) wife, Roberta. His adult offspring, Katie and Ben, are close by ... which comes in handy when they need cash, supplies, home-cooked meals and hugs. (Awwwww!)