The thing about North is that he's completely acceptable when he sticks to sports and has a guest on who knows their stuff. The interview with Scott Merkin on MITM was fine TV. Had Mike's ego allowed him to stick to talking sports and be paired with a strong partner, he'd still be on the Score. Kind of sad really.

Wait, you mean the same guy who didn't know who Al Jefferson was?
Or who had a man crush on Tadahito Iguchi?

Yeah, he's great when talking sports

You are on target.
Once upon a time North was a tremendous interviewer...then I guess he fell in love with his own opinions.

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There goes one over the fence..Tru Link Fence..Beauty, Privacy Security....Call Tru Link.
Murph's Union 76 Truck Stop....A great Thanksgiving Tradition!!!!

WOO LIFE!!!!

I've never listened to north so my opinion might be off, but i've always heard that north lost a lot of his audience when he started to talk about politics And social issues, so I guess he did fine with Jiggs and stuck to sports...

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

The interview with Merkin would have been much better if North would learn to shut the fuck up! He asks a question and when the person is half way through their answer, he's interupting them. Either that or talking over them with dumb ass comments that only he thinks are funny.

I do agree that when he sticks to sports, he can pull it off. He used to be better, but he can still do it. Of course he is gonna say some ignorant, uninformed shit, but there was a time when people accepted that because he was the "everyman". I think I'm one of the few people here that liked his solo 12-4 show.

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"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." ~ H.L. Mencken

Once North started to believe his own hype and advertising is when he went downhill rather quickly.

The way I look at it, it unraveled when he was inducted into the Chicago Sports Hall of Fame. Up to that point, if I can rip off a Murph line, he was a fan who talked to fans and when talking to people inside sports? Asked the questions we all wanted answered. He was a success story, who by being in the right place at the right time and not afraid to speak up; he got a shot at radio.

But once they inducted him; and that entire week love fest for him (every day the week he was inducted; at least one or two segments PER HOUR was dedicated to Pappy love;) he started to believe he was bulletproof.

We saw it when he started the fight with the Asian community here in Chicago over his "dey all look da same" crap when calling Jae Kuk Ryu a 'chinaman.'

We saw it again when he kept doing the bookie priest bit, even when Catholics started to complain (which to me, its a stupid move to do a bit about Catholics in a high Catholic population. Odds are, you're going to piss people off, and odds are, they're going to log complaints.)

We saw it again when he went to try out for Imus' gig, when the week before; he creates a situation with AJ Pierzynski, Ozzie Guillen, and himself. When he started screaming at Ozzie, "Hey, don talk to me like dat, pal!" I knew A: this was a work. This was a set up, to make it look like this was an actual situation. Probably was to Ozzie, but I would not be surprised if AJ thought this was a planned event as well, given his love of professional wrestling. The other thing I thought B: He sounded like Moe Green from the Godfather. But when he showed up in the clubhouse with a tray of fucking brownies, during the time the TV reporters were present? That was to get a few minutes of airtime; to get his name out there before heading east for a try out. Now, before you all throw this is a Sox fan speaking from my point of view, you're right. I am a Sox fan. So, allegedly; is Mike North. You'd think as a fan, he wouldn't of pulled something like that to cause trouble with his favorite team. And I would use that as an example if it was Lou Pinella and the Cubs he decided to act like an ass to.

North also ISN'T as smart about sports as he makes himself out to be. He knows what he WANTS to know; ie "His guys/teams" and forget the rest. Prime example of that? When he insulted Dominque Wilkins about the Atlanta Hawks; asking who exactly was in charge of that mess that team was in? (Dominque was the VP in charge when North asked that question.....oops!)

North, at one point in time; was a guy who knew something about local sports; and turned it into a career. Now; he's a man who has revealed he isn't all that more insightful than a common fan who calls in, thinking Sosa wasn't on the juice, Jim Thome should try and lay down bunts, Derrick Rose is a gang-banger, and Kyle Orton is a better quarterback than Jake Cutler.....

Yah, Mr. North is simply a victim of his own ego. I listened to him and Jigs from day one, and he DID bring something different. But rather than grow in his comfort zone of everydayshmoesportsfan, he felt compelled to branch out and did truly start believing in all of the hype. While he did what he had to do to get on the air, he (as many do) quickly forgot what brought him to the dance and tried to spray to all fields and surrounded himself with yes men that, most likely, never offered criticism...only pats on the back.

I liked Mike early on, but do find it amazing at how many other people started to sour on the guy as I did (probaby starting back in the late 90's. More and more it became about him and his "un-PC" ways ... and it got old. Hug a black day, Chinaman, sombrero wearing news anchors, naming a field after him, halls of fame, and his constant hard-on for "pushing the envelope" just grew completely lame.

For full disclosure I am a much bigger North fan than many of you and listened to his shows on a consistent basis for years.

I'll tell this: North doesn't know sh* about sports. He likes the idea of talking about them but the thoughtfullness of the narrative he has to offer is below that of the blabber emanating from a drunk at a corner bar somewhere in Canaryville, who may have watched a Sox game or two in Frank's heyday. North is a character, akin to the one known as Clyde on Roe's show. The only difference is that Clyde is served in controlled portions and didn't have a multimillion contract with a media conglomerate. You can let North out to press conferences every now and again to ask people about their hair, do a man on the street type reporting, do a TV version of Stella's gossip pieces, etc. That's it. North being this great sports talker is a BS that has contaminated the brain of the masses for too long.

Again, I think there is a time and place for him in Chicago media and it's not necessarily in sports. But that time and place has to be controlled by production crew in power to suspend or get rid of him altogether the moment his toe goes across the lines in which he is required to operate in.

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"It's not exactly a rocket surgery." D.J.

Sorry, it doesn't matter how much North knows about sports, the moment the guy opens his mouth he fails. When speaking is your profession you probably should get some speech therapy and training so that you stop constantly stuttering or using ummm or daaaaaa between every other word. I turned North off long before he became the jag bag he is today for the simple fact that I wanted to eat a gun every time I had to listen to his voice for more than 5 minutes. So these days, the fact that he's become such a self-aggrandizing prick, coupled with his voice and added to the ability to see his absolutely vacant yet spasmodic facial expressions on Comcast REAAAAALLLLLYYYY makes avoid him at all costs. I understand who he was and what he did to become successful, and I applaud it, I just can't stomach the guy. Never have, never will.

North started losing it when he thought his audience would care about his nights on the town, his life as much as they cared about his opinion on sports. I could almost hear him: "da everyday guy don't get to Gibson's or Jillies(sp?), dey'll love my stories Be." No, no he won't and as the ratings showed he did not.

And after his new-found celebrity and nights on the town he started mailing in his radio show. (I remember when the Packers were in the NFC Championship Game, he and Dan took calls that whole week from meatball Bears fans on whether it was ok or not to root for the Packers. Just terrible radio, but hey it was easy.) You know he didn't watch the previous night's game. How could he form an opinion on something he didn't see? After awhile of this, his opinion just became the opposite of whatever the heavy fuel crew's was. I stopped listening to Mike because it became clear to me that he stopped working to put on a good sports talk show.

Yeah North knows his sports, like last year when he said he would rather have Derron Williams than Lebron. That Mike North sure is a smart one.

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You've got to give North credit for at least knowing who Williams is. Mr. NBA sure doesn't know many young players in the league.

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Pete Rose never gambled on baseball...Tom Dreesen is a great comedian.....Phil Jackson is an overrated Coach...Scottie Pippen is not in the top 50 of N.B.A. players historically....

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There goes one over the fence..Tru Link Fence..Beauty, Privacy Security....Call Tru Link.
Murph's Union 76 Truck Stop....A great Thanksgiving Tradition!!!!

WOO LIFE!!!!

Walk off home run.

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There goes one over the fence..Tru Link Fence..Beauty, Privacy Security....Call Tru Link.
Murph's Union 76 Truck Stop....A great Thanksgiving Tradition!!!!

WOO LIFE!!!!

Let's not forget that North would put Ditka over Lombardi, Landry, Vermeil, and Bellicheck as a top motivational coach of all time....

His best (worst) NBA thoughts of all time to me are:

1. Doesn't know if he'd take Lebron over Deron Williams.

2. Didn't know who Al Jefferson was

3. Said that Joakim Noah could be a "Tayshaun Prince" kind of player.

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Luol Deng is a Top 5 NBA player

He was also in favor of trading key components of a championship team back in the early 90's for Harold Minor (aka Baby Jordan).

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“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

I remember one show where he admitted he would come in hungover to the morning show with Jiggs and mail it in. also, when he got released by the score and went on CH11, he said he had quit drinking. Is that still true? Or was that just a ploy to get a new radio gig? I am guessing he said that since he may have a reputation in the radio biz that he's a drunk, not sure.

I also did like him when he was new and fresh, but like you guys said, he got too much into himself and forgot what made him a success.

He said last week that he "hasn't had a drink in two years...and that if the whole webio failure thing didn't drive him to drink, nothing will......"

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Dick Jauron is a great coach, and got a raw deal.

Hester should be the quarterback.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way