When I would talk to Zach Zaidman during those interminable wasted afternoons at Halas Hall, I would always get a kick out of the fact that after he was freed from the Bears’ gulag, his reward was calling DePaul men’s basketball games.

Think about it: in the last four seasons that Zaidman was the sideline reporter for the Bears’ flagship broadcast at WBBM-AM, the Bears lost 45 games. They were never at .500 during the three years of John Fox’s reign.

Advertisement

In that same span, the DePaul’s men’s basketball team, for whom Zaidman still calls games on the radio primarily at The Score, lost 85 games. The Blue Demons lost 85 games in the four years before that as well. And they lost…well, you get the picture. Zaidman wasn’t there for every DePaul loss, but then again, aren’t all DePaul losses equally depressing?

The Bears and DePaul. What did Zaidman do in his free time, analyze the Washington Generals?

Because of the nature of his jobs, Zaidman wasn’t able to truly use his acerbic wit to make fun of these operations on the air. He’s too professional for that, but it made him an easy target for Score hosts (where he also works) and aggrieved fans. To those who think Zaidman was a hapless Bears homer, I can confirm his Halas Hall media room monologues were lengthy and hilarious.

Now, Zaidman, the red-haired reporter from New York, finds himself as an everyday media player for the most successful team in Chicago. Well, the only successful team in Chicago these days.

Zaidman, a Syracuse alum (Class of 1996) who spent 14 years on the Bears broadcast team, joined the Cubs’ radio broadcast team this season as the pre- and post-game host in an Entercom trade with Mark Grote, who took Zaidman’s old job at Halas Hall. On Tuesday and Wednesday, as the Cubs played host to Cleveland, he filled in for Ron Coomer and served as Pat Hughes’ color man.

And of course, the Cubs got drilled 10-1 on Tuesday and lost 1-0 on Wednesday, getting no-hit into the seventh inning. Joe Maddon’s bunt call for Javy Báez with two on and no out in the seventh was akin to Marc Trestman kicking on second down. 

I caught up with Zaidman before Wednesday’s game. Just think, I told him as we walked from the press box to the clubhouse on a beautiful afternoon, you could be at OTAs in Lake Forest.

Advertisement

“That was my part of my life for a very long time,” he said. “It’s nicer to be at a game that counts.”

Being on the Cubs’ broadcast team isn’t necessarily a tough adjustment. It’s a chill, close-knit group that has worked together for years and lately, is used to a higher standard than perhaps Zaidman is used to patrolling the Bears sideline or watching the Blue Demons get worked all winter long.

“From the moment I got the job there’s an expectation, and a rightful one, that this team is expected to win and everything this organization does from top to bottom is about winning,” he said. “It’s exciting.”

Are you saying the Bears aren’t that way? Is Zaidman turning heel?

“I did not say that,” Zaidman said back, refusing to take my bait.

Of course, the Bears think they’re a winning franchise, but they’ve only made the playoffs once since their Super Bowl season in 2006-07. Which is why they fired Fox and are starting over with Matt Nagy. If the Bears return to competence this season, well, Zaidman will probably be occupied at least through part of October, so he won’t have time to be wistful.

But let’s just say Zaidman is enjoying covering Joe Maddon compared to, say, John Fox.

“He is the most fascinating sports figure I’ve covered,” Zaidman said of Maddon.

While the Bears have been awful for awhile now, Zaidman has fond memories of the good times on the beat.

“When I first got the Bears gig, it wasn’t long before Lovie Smith was hired and they enjoyed immediate success at that point of time,” he said. “I got to be on the sidelines for a Super Bowl, the only time the opening kickoff at the Super Bowl was taken back for a touchdown. That’s amazing, you know? But the sport is different and the expectations are different, because the Cubs are in a different place than the Bears are.”

Advertisement

After Bears games, Zaidman got the only one-on-one audience with Jay Cutler. While that doesn’t exactly sound like a dream gig, Zaidman became one of the only reporters Cutler really trusted and the two had a close relationship. I might just watch “Very Cavallari” to see if there are any Zaidman pictures framed in the Cutler household.

“Jay was fun,” Zaidman said. “I will say that I’m very lucky that I was able to work closely with some of the biggest personalities in Chicago and in sports with the Bears. It prepared me very well for this job because there’s nothing that I’m going to face that’s going to be tougher than, you know, if you didn’t come prepared for a Jay Cutler postgame interview, he would let you know it. It made me a better reporter. It made me a better interviewer.

“Jay is a fascinating character, when you think about it. If he trusted you and he respected the questions you asked, you would get great answers. He was willing to open up if he felt he could trust the person on the other end.”

Zaidman doesn’t get long conversations with, say, Kris Bryant after every game. But he has tried to blend into the media pack covering the Cubs, preferring to not to monopolize group interviews with questions. He’s still trying to get to know the players, which is only part of what makes this adjustment, well, an adjustment. Plus, there are all those empty stadiums just waiting for Zaidman’s keen photographical eye.

Filling in for Hughes for an inning every game has tested Zaidman’s broadcasting skills after years of building up a comfort zone doing basketball games. Calling two full games in a row was nerve-wracking.

“It’s the greatest challenge I’ve had from a broadcasting standpoint, to jump in and sound competent initially,” he said. “But it’s fun. It’s a great challenge. I’m out of my comfort zone and there’s always something takes place every game that no matter how much preparation you put in, there’s no way you could’ve prepared for that.”

In the brief snippets of the game I caught Wednesday night, Zaidman sounded a little new at times, but his comfort level grew and he’s certainly lucky to be able to work with Hughes, a master of his craft.

Advertisement

“He’s so humble, so gracious,” Zaidman said. “Pat’s been doing this for 40 years. I’ve been doing it for about 40 games and the fact that he welcomes you in and treats you like an equal, you learn so much just by osmosis, by sitting next to him. He makes it very easy for you to talk about different things. He’ll never put you in a spot where you’re going to fail. It’s very comforting for someone who’s a neophyte at this.”

Zaidman’s temporary promotion also brought the talented Laurence Holmes to the park to do Zaidman’s job. Honestly, White Sox fans could do a lot worse than a radio team of Zaidman and Holmes. Like, their current radio team.

Anyway, Zaidman, who credits his old WBBM tandem of Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer for taking him in as a young broadcaster, grew up in New York listening to Marv Albert calling Knicks games and Bob Murphy and Gary Cohen doing Mets games. Like an old-school broadcaster, Zaidman is happy that he’s been able to call three high-level sports. Well, if you consider DePaul high level.

Despite its grinding schedule, baseball is the dream job for a lot of broadcasters, particularly those who like the art of conversation. Zaidman is getting used to the everyday schedule — hey, it beats driving to Lake Forest — while also trying to be interesting on the air.

“I think I’ve handled the pacing OK,” he said. “I think the toughest thing is, the way I would put it, it’s like being the host of the Today Show. You have to know a little bit about everything.  Sometimes things that have little to do with baseball. But you have to be well-versed in current events, pop culture, sports in general, personalities. You have to be able to have a conversation that makes sense, because you never know where the flow of the game will take you, yet you always have to be ready because baseball is a very slow game until the pitcher releases the ball. Once that ball is released, there are so many possibilities.”

I got a kick out of Score host Danny Parkins and producer/host Nick Shepkowski making all of the newspapers and the AP wire with their Manny Machado sign at Guaranteed Rate Field on Monday.

A message to Manny Machado from a couple of Cubs fans at the White Sox game…

— Danny Parkins (@DannyParkins) May 22, 2018

All three local dailies used a picture of the two, with only the Tribune identifying Parkins as a radio host, and not just a Cubs fan. The Trib missed Shepkowski, while the Sun-Times and Daily Herald just ran straight cutlines. This is where I’d make a joke at the papers’ expense, except I know how understaffed copy desks are at papers across the country. Still, doesn’t anyone check Twitter 75 times an hour like me?

Advertisement

Parkins was at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, hosting his show with his partner Dan McNeil outside in the park adjacent to the stadium. McNeil sounded invigorated as his vocal cord paralysis seems to be in the rearview mirror. In his third go-round at The Score, the veteran host was noticeably upbeat.

“I think this was just what the doctor ordered for me,” he told me. “I’m surrounded by millennials who are young and still not jaded and still really tickled to be doing what they do every day and it’s been infectious. These guys really like sports. It reminds me of the time that was more innocent to me and was more fun. It’s been easy for me to get swept up in their enthusiasm. It’s Danny, it’s Nick and it’s also Chris Tannehill, who’s the old guy on the staff at 34. Next to me, of course, grandpa.”

After missing a significant amount of show time because of the vocal cord injury since going back on the air in mid-March, McNeil’s voice has returned its normal gravelly self thanks to collagen injections he described as “hellish.”

“There are very few people who I’d wish them on,” he said.

The old Danny Mac might give us a list of those people, but maybe the new one just enjoys his second, er, third, er, new chance at radio glory.

It was Star Wars Night at Wrigley Field on Wednesday. As Lauren Comitor tweeted, isn’t it time to pivot away from Star Wars and Game of Thrones for every theme night? Now, I know those nights stem from deals their respective studios or production companies make with Major League Baseball and/or the teams, but it is getting stale. Now Westworld Night, that would be intense. (No spoilers though, I’m like three episodes behind.) Todd Ricketts is probably pushing for “Fox & Friends Night.” My son, who has gone to a few Star Wars nights in his day, is really into Garfield cartoons right now. Maybe a Garfield Night with lasagna concessions? 

Speaking of Wrigley Field concessions, I ate a $12.50 cheesesteak last night as I waited for an interview, and I got to say, it was pretty good. Despite the new kitchens, the food at Wrigley remains a crapshoot, but that sandwich gets my seal of approval.

It’s a holiday weekend, but you should rest up to get ready for the massive sports media feature we’re running next week.

(Top photo: Jon Greenberg/The Athletic)