Kaduk, Kevin 1979(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1979.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Northwest Herald Main Office, 7717 S. Rt. 31, Crystal Lake, IL 60014. E-mail—kkaduk@nwnewsgroup.com; kduck22@gmail.com.

CAREER:

Writer, sportswriter, and journalist. Kansas City Star, Kansas City, MO, sportswriter and columnist, 2001-04; Northwest NewsGroup (a chain of newspapers in suburban Chicago, IL), sports columnist; Northwest Herald, Crystal Lake, IL, sports columnist.

WRITINGS:

Wrigleyworld: A Season in Baseball's Best Neighborhood, New American Library (New York, NY), 2006.

Author of column "Duk Calls," Kansas City Star, 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kevin Kaduk is a reporter and columnist for the Chicago area's Northwest Newsgroup and Northwest Herald. A former journalist for the Kansas City Star, Kaduk is an innovative writer who often writes humorous and first-person material on many unusual aspects of sports. While at the Kansas City Star, Kaduk wrote a regular column titled "Duk Calls," in which he reported on his experiences watching a Kansas City Chiefs game with a different group of fans every week. Over the course of the popular column's life, more than 300 groups offered invitations to Kaduk, noted a biographer on the Wrigleyworld Web site.

In Wrigleyworld: A Season in Baseball's Best Neighborhood, Kaduk chronicles what, to many baseball fans, would amount to a dream assignment: watching, reporting on, and experiencing the fan-driven atmosphere of the Chicago Cubs' 2005 season. For Kaduk, the book served as a way to explore what it means to be a young fan of an old sport. After giving up his sports-writing position at the Kansas City Star, Kaduk moved to Lake View, Illinois, an area of Chicago known as Wrigleyville because of its proximity to the Cubs' home turf, Wrigley Field. Kaduk recognizes that Lake View's connection to the Cubs makes it a prime location for parties and celebrations, where the liberating atmosphere of professional sports generates an unrestricted, sometimes hedonistic college-type atmosphere. Kaduk's adventures in Wrigleyworld span sixty-two of the Cubs' eight-one home games in 2005. As an observer, he reports on the events of the games and how Cubs' dedicated fan base rallies to support their team no matter how well, or poorly, they have performed. As a participant, Kaduk describes the boozy, dreamy, atmosphere of the bars, hangouts, and party spots where Cubs fans gather in solidarity and hope for their team's better chances. He describes many of the colorful fans he meets, recounts how the celebratory spirit is often fueled by copious amounts of beer, and chips away at the truth of what creates and sustains a die-hard sports fan.

Reviewer Ram Subramanian, writing on the Curled Up with a Good Book Web site, called Wrigleyworld an "entirely irreverent and often funny look at what it feels like to be a fan of the perennial yet lovable losers otherwise known as the Chicago Cubs baseball club." Kaduk explores "how the Cubs's mystique continues to draw multitudes of fans even as the team's on-field performance languishes," Subramanian noted.