Les Grobstein

Yes, as Danny Mac has shown, you CAN go home again I guess. I never ruled out someday returning to the Score,but after almost eight years, I had to consider it somewhat of a longshot. Then Mitch Rosen asked me if I was interested in resurrecting “Overnights at the Score”. He really didn’t have to ask me twice.

I have lived, got to School(Von Stueben ’69 and Columbia College ’73) and worked in Chicago my enitre life. After two fun years at Sportsphone, I spent 10 1/2 great years at WLS with Larry Lujack, Tommy Edwards, Fred Winston, Brant Miller, Bob Sirott and of course Steve Dahl and Garry Meier. During the 80′s, the Bears won Superbowl XX, the White Sox (1983) and Cubs (1984) both ended long playoff droughts, Lee Elia’s “Tirade Heard Round The World”, Michael Jordan became a Bull, and Denis Savard a Blackhawk.

I then spent six years at the Loop/WMVP, working with Jonathan Brandmeier, Kevin Matthews and again with Steve and Garry. I also did sports on the late Eddie Schwartz’s show which Mitch Rosen produced. In 1997, the Score became 24 hours and moved from 820-AM to 1160 and Ron Gleason hired me for overnights which went great for 4 1/2 years. We did overnight remotes from Dublin, Ireland(with the Bears), LA,New York, Boston, Tampa, during World Series, Super Bowls and of course during Bulls playoff runs in Miami, Washington, New Jersey, Charlotte, and of course Utah in both 1997 and 98.

One of my favorite Score moments was doing “Score Overnight” from the Wyndham Hotel, right across the street from the arena formerly known as the Delta Center where MJ hit the game winning bucket over Bryan Russell of the Jazz and Ron Harper may have gotten a finger nail on John Stockton’s last second try to clinch the Bulls final title to date. That all night show was a blast thanks mostly to the listeners and callers.

I also remember Summer of 1998 when I was with Jack Brickhouse for 30 minutes at a book signing he was involved in for a Harry Caray book at Harry Caray’s restaurant. “Brick” seemed fine. But a few days later, we were in the first hour of “Score Overnight” when the word came in first that Jack was rushed to the hospital, then shortly after wards, that he had passed away. Well, growing up idolizing Jack, and then being on a first name basis with him, this hit home hard. The great Score listeners-Cubs, Sox, Bears fans and more-called in non-stop all the way up to 5am with their Brickhouse memories, and that got me through a program that would have been otherwise close to impossible to do.

Since I left the Score in August 2001, the Cubs have made the Playoffs three times, blew the 2003 NLCS to Florida, and and have currently dropped nine post season games in a row. The White Sox had a 2005 run for the ages and I did get to cover them against the Red Sox, Angels and of course in the World Series vs Houston. The Bears returned to the Super Bowl in Feb 2007, but lost to the Colts, a game I will always believe they should have won. The Bulls did win one playoff series from Miami in 2007, and the Blackhawks have become relevant once again. The 2004-05 Illini under Bruce Weber were #1 all season, had a great comeback win over Arizona in Rosemont to get to the Final Four, but lost a close one to North Carolina. There was more of course.

We had fun with bits like “Bum of the Week”, And for that You Suck!”, “Tell me why”, “Musical Sports Trivia”, and on holidays, “Cast Films with Sports Personalities”. We’ll do things differently now, and perhaps bring some of these back as a “retro” segment.

I have worked for some great General Managers (such as Don Bouloukos and Kipper McGee at WLS, and Larry Wert at the Loop,) and Program Directors in addition to Mitch (John Gehron at WLS, Jack Silver and Greg Solk at the Loop), Fred Weintraub at WWME-TV, and Ron Gleason (who originaly brought me to the Score).

I still will be covering all of our local teams (Sox,Cubs,Bulls,Blackhawks and of course Bears) as always and continue in my third season of broadcasting play by play for the WNBA Chicago Sky over WNBA Full Access. This after doing Northwestrn Wildcats hoops for eight years in the 70′s, UIC Flames Basketball and hocky for 15 seasons from 1982-96, and teams like the Chicago Sting, Chicago Horizons, Chicago Hustle and others.

Bringing LOCAL-CHICAGO Overnights back to the Score is great for all our ‘Third Shift’, Truckers, and friends that are up with us. It’s our job to make this happen the right way-again, and prove once more that Chicago deserves to have a live local overnight show in which we can talk about a game that ended hours ago while it’s still fresh on Fans minds!