North's mouth not only one with foot

By John Kass
Tribune staff reporter
January 10, 2007

Mike North is the first to admit he's got a big mouth.

"I'm a loud-mouth street kid who worked his [butt] off to get somewhere," North, the morning sports-talk radio host on The Score, told me Tuesday.

"Have I said stupid things? You bet," he said over coffee at the Billy Goat. "But this one, the one I'm being accused of, I had no idea it was wrong. And that's the thing. If I offended anybody, I'm sorry. I wouldn't have said it if someone told me it was wrong."

The former Senn High School dropout has become embroiled in a ward campaign and transformed into a political football.

He is likely to be punted Wednesday night at Senn at what figures to be an emotional local school council meeting on the North Side.

The council is under pressure to reconsider an earlier vote to support naming the Senn field after North, who has avidly promoted16-inch softball into a varsity sport at the Chicago Public Schools. He played at that park as a child and later worked there with a nail on a stick, picking up litter.

"We lived right there when I was a kid. I played on that park for years," North said. "That's where I learned about baseball and sports.

And I love 16-inch softball. So when they wanted to name the field after me, I couldn't believe it. I was flabbergasted."

But last summer, he did a stupid thing. He used a derogatory term on the air in reference to an Asian pitcher on the Cubs. He's already apologized, but Chicago politics require another.
"Who was the Chinaman on the mound the other day?" North asked about Cubs pitcher Jae-Kuk Ryu.

Jae-Kuk Ryu isn't Chinese. He's Korean. Asian groups became offended, and rightly so. The word--still whispered in Chicago political circles as a non-ethnic reference to someone's political sponsor--is as offensive to Asians as the "N-word" is to blacks.

Still, the vote to support the renaming of the field after North was held and approved. Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th), whose ward contains the school, backed the measure, reasoning that with North's name on the field, he'd be committed to improving it and helping
the kids.

A few weeks ago, it became political. Jennifer Pritchard--wife of an opponent of Smith and a member of the Senn local school council--brought the issue up again.

"Some of the school council members wanted to support it, even though they didn't think this man was the most appropriate because he was a high school dropout," Pritchard said.
She's married to Christopher Persons, who until recently was campaigning against Smith. So we asked Pritchard a question: Isn't this political?

"No," she insisted. "It was motivated by the Asian American Institute bringing this information to the local school council."

The Asian American Institute and other Asian groups have their legitimate issues with North. Fine.

But don't tell me this isn't political. I've covered politics long enough that I don't believe in coincidences.

"I've been talking about this as not being the best decision," said Christopher Persons, Pritchard's husband, who will likely be removed from the 48th Ward ballot by election officials for faulty paperwork. "If it makes Mary Ann Smith look bad, then it should."

Eureka!

You've seen enough courtroom dramas. Persons' line about making Smith look bad is when I turn to the jury--like Joe Pesci in "My

Cousin Vinny"--and wink and say, "No further questions, your honor."

Naturally, the jury rules that politics are at play. The judge pounds the gavel.

And Marisa Tomei gives me a big kiss.

Still, North has offended Asians this time. Woon-Wah Siu, president of the Chicago chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans, said, "We're offended, of course, because `Chinaman' has been used as a derogatory term. ... He apologized for that comment and that was fine. But if someone who is public is to be honored by the school, the school should really look at his pastpublic behavior."

I won't minimize the hurt. But those who've never said something stupid about any group, please raise your hands. Notice how few of you there are.

Wednesday night, North will be criticized. And, he asks that his buddies supporting him--including the Asian guys he grew up with playing softball at that park--don't overreact on his behalf.

"I will go there with the mission to change the votes against me," he said. "I've got to stand up for myself. Everything I've got ispartially because of that neighborhood. I understand that most of my friends I grew up with are coming, which will be rewarding enough."

The man was a high school dropout, got his GED in the service, yet still feels an obligation to the kids at Senn.

He hopes the field is named after him, but if it isn't, who wins?

Some candidate for alderman?
I know who loses--the kids.

----------
jskass@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0701100151jan10,1,7802139.column?coll=chi-news-col Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune