Bob Vanderberg was identified for a lot of issues throughout almost 37 years on the Chicago Tribune.
A form, beneficiant and humorous colleague who might gentle up a room regardless of his soft-spoken demeanor. A gifted author and powerful, well-organized editor. A spot-on Harry Caray impersonator. A highschool sports activities professional. And a Chicago White Sox fan and historian.
Vanderberg died Oct. 27 of Parkinson’s illness whereas in hospice care in Denver. He was 74.
“He was such a great guy to work with and so much fun,” stated George Knue, who was employed on the Suburban Trib a couple of weeks after Vanderberg in September 1972 and labored with him on and off for 30 years. “He loved sports. A sports writing job or a job involved with sports, that was what Bob was made for, and if it involved the White Sox, even better because nobody knew the White Sox better than he did.”
Vanderberg, generally known as “Vandy” to buddies and colleagues, wrote three books on the Sox and 5 total, together with ” ‘59: Summer of the Sox: The Year the World Series Came to Chicago,” which chronicles the team’s American League pennant-winning season, and “100 Things White Sox Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die.”
The workforce appreciated his data of and love for the franchise.
“Bob was a terrific Sox fan, whose impact showed in his books about the team’s history and his connections to teams and players from the past,” the White Sox stated in a press release. “You usually discovered him down within the seats having fun with a Sox recreation with household or buddies. He actually was a strolling encyclopedia of Sox historical past.
“Bob was so connected to Sox alumni that we often learned of news through him, and fans could see his passion for the team and former players in the heartfelt obituaries he sometimes wrote for the Tribune’s sports pages. We will be sure to remember Bob and his love for the team on Opening Day next year.”
Born and raised in Oak Park, Vanderberg lived in suburban Chicago for many of his life earlier than he and his spouse, Pat, and son, Brad, moved to Castle Rock, Colo., in 2019.
He attended Oak Park-River Forest High School for 2 years earlier than his household relocated to Glen Ellyn and he graduated from Glenbard West in 1966.
Vanderberg earned a bachelor’s diploma in English from Hope College in Holland, Mich., in 1970, then was drafted by the Army throughout the Vietnam War. He was stationed in Fort Lewis, Wash., for 18 months, Pat stated.
After beginning his skilled profession on the City News Bureau of Chicago, Vanderberg joined the Suburban Trib — a subsidiary of the Tribune centered on protection of the suburbs. A number of years later, he moved to the Chicago Tribune and labored there till April 2009, primarily as an editor and author within the sports activities division.
Vanderberg contributed dozens of articles on the White Sox and obituaries of former personnel, from little-known gamers to superstars. Among the Sox he memorialized had been managers Al Lopez and Don Gutteridge, pitching coach Ray Berres, outfielders Johnny Callison, Tommie Agee and Pat Kelly, catcher Earl Battey, shortstop Chico Carrasquel and pitchers Johnny Buzhardt and Gerry Staley, who induced the double-play grounder to Luis Aparicio that ended the pennant-clinching recreation in Cleveland in 1959, sending the Sox to the World Series for the primary time in 40 years.
In 2004, Vanderberg chosen a 25-man All-Time White Sox roster for a Tribune story, and because the Sox and Cubs ready for his or her first interleague matchup in 1997, he wrote a short historical past of the 1906 World Series between the groups.
He additionally was on a first-name foundation with many members of the 1959 workforce by his reporting through the years. Vanderberg’s ebook ” ‘59: Summer of the Sox” is considered the definitive historical past of that season.
Vanderberg’s specialty was discovering humorous anecdotes, such because the one Lopez advised him about Sox vice chairman John Rigney bringing two Catholic monks to Comiskey Park for Game 1 of the 1959 World Series in opposition to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“He said, ‘Hey, Al, we’ve got some help here,’ ” Lopez recalled in Vanderberg’s book. “I said, ‘Thanks, John, we need all the help we can get.’ About 20 minutes later, over on the first-base side, (Dodgers owner) Walter O’Malley walks in with four priests. And I looked over at John and said, ‘John, we’re outnumbered over there.’ ”
Vanderberg devoted the ebook to the reminiscence of Sox second baseman Nellie Fox and his ‘59 teammates and likewise to his father, who he wrote “taught me to laugh at the Cubs, hate the Yankees and love God, writing and the White Sox.”
The Tribune sports activities copy desk the place Vanderberg labored throughout the Eighties and ‘90s was full of colourful characters, together with many Chicago-area natives who additionally had been die-hard followers of the native groups, a few of which they’d lined as beat writers earlier than shifting to the desk.
Vanderberg usually was seated on the sports activities rim subsequent to crusty old-timer Dan Moulton, who allegedly as soon as threw his typewriter out of the press field after a Blackhawks loss. When the rating of a troublesome Sox loss would pop up on the sports activities wire on deadline, Vanderberg would make certain to announce it simply to look at Moulton’s volcanic response.
“They were both White Sox fans, but Vandy would play the straight man,” stated NBC Sports Chicago Bulls reporter Okay.C. Johnson, then a 22-year-old engaged on the Tribune sports activities copy desk. “He had that mischievous twinkle in his eye always, and he would purposely rile up Dan — ‘What do you think about the White Sox loss?’ It was such a great education watching these guys on the sports rim.”
Vanderberg’s experience usually was useful to the Tribune’s Sox beat writers, from Andrew Bagnato to Mark Gonzales.
“He was basically our White Sox Google,” stated Tribune “In the Wake of the News” sports activities columnist and baseball author Paul Sullivan, who lined the Sox within the mid-Nineties and from 2000-02. “Whenever any of us had a question about Sox history, we’d just call the copy desk and Vandy would know the answer without looking it up.”
Vanderberg was an particularly priceless useful resource for the Tribune’s protection of the Sox’s run to the 2005 World Series title, their first since 1917.
“I remember him being on the radio (for Sox trivia), and nobody could stump him,” Pat stated. “We planned our vacations around people he wanted to interview for his books.”
In his later years on the Tribune, Vanderberg was the assistant highschool sports activities editor, serving to coordinate protection and assigning and overseeing freelance reporters to cowl video games — as many as two dozen or extra each week.
“He touched a whole lot of people who ended up going into the journalism field,” Knue stated.
Vanderberg had many pursuits exterior of sports activities. He spoke Spanish and had a ardour for American Flyer trains, Pat stated. He liked Epcot and milkshakes and hamburgers. But for many of his grownup life, if he wasn’t at house or Sox Park, he was on the Tribune.
“The core of guys he was with … they all worked together very well,” Pat stated. “They all had respect for each other. Bob was barely fact-checked because they knew he knew his material so well.”
And it went past work.
“We went to their weddings, we went to their children’s weddings,” Pat stated. “They got together outside of work. It was just a nice group.”
Besides his spouse and son, Vanderberg is survived by his brother, Bruce (Gail) Vanderberg; sisters Susan (Jim) Scherbenske and Sharon (Jeff) Park; and 7 nieces and nephews. He was preceded in dying by his brother Roger in 1978.
The household is holding a memorial service and luncheon at 11 a.m. March 25 at The Lodge at Katherine Legge Memorial Park, 5901 S. County Line Road in Hinsdale.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com