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A good 'Buddy' remembers Mike Spellman

"Hey, Buddy."

"Hey, Buddy."

Every time my phone rang and I saw it was Mike Spellman calling, a smile always came to my face.

That greeting we shared - inspired by Mr. Narwhal from the movie "Elf," when the big whale tells Will Ferrell, "Bye, Buddy. Hope you find your dad" - never got old. We'd laugh like it was the first time we'd ever said it to each other.

And that was Mike Spellman in a nutshell - somebody who was put on Earth to make a lot of people laugh.

Many readers got to know Mike, who passed away suddenly Tuesday, one day short of his 51st birthday, as an incredibly talented writer.

And he was certainly that.

Mike was that special, versatile reporter who could jump from the Masters to the NHL playoffs to the NBA playoffs to a Cubs or Sox game to a Bears game and cover each one with a special flair and unique writing style.

In a day of extremely short attention spans, my guess is more readers made it to the end of Mike's stories than anybody else on staff. His quick-hitting sentences combined with short, relevant quotes kept the reader bouncing from paragraph to paragraph with the greatest of ease.

He dragged you in and wouldn't let you go until the end.

The sign of a great writer.

He'd have problems at times stretching stories much past 12 or 13 inches (many gamers are 16-plus), and it was because he had made his point. The story was told and he saw no reason in wasting your time with extraneous stuff that didn't matter.

Once in a while, though - like his piece on Niklas Hjalmarsson two weeks ago or his Q&A with Hawks owner Rocky Wirtz on Dec. 18 - Mike would spread his wings and write a 25-30 inch piece.

The genius in those is that they still read like they were 14 inches.

Again, his versatility was second to none.

But what we'll miss most about Mike has little to do with his game stories, notebooks, features or columns.

As Barry Rozner pointed out so well, it was difficult to end a phone conversation with Mike. Under the stress of deadline with a million other things to do, there was no such thing as a two- or three-minute conversation with Mike Spellman. It was 15 minutes minimum and oftentimes up to a half-hour.

He just made you feel loved. Important. Interesting. Funny.

You never wanted to hang up.

Another spot-on comment came from Cubs writer Bruce Miles on Wednesday as he posted on Facebook: "As soon as Mike walked into a press box, everybody's day got better immediately."

The same went for the Daily Herald office and probably every other room Mike entered. I always perked up when Mike appeared, mostly because I knew I was going to laugh at some point, and also because there often was an "epic" golf story I wanted to share with him.

Nobody listened and asked more questions about my boring golf stories than Mike. He was always engaged and genuinely interested.

The two of us had just started playing a lot more together the last few years. He'd always show up about five minutes before tee time with a gigantic Dunkin' Donuts coffee in hand, tee up his ball and send it to any of 1,000 different directions.

And then we were off. Four hours on the course with Mike was the perfect tonic for whatever might be going wrong in your life. The laughs kept coming and the worries were put on the back burner.

In 15-plus years of knowing him, I never saw Mike get mad - on the course, in the office or under the rigors of deadline.

He was truly one of a kind.

"Bye, Buddy."

We're all going to miss you so much.

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Mike Spellman will be dearly missed

Spellman truly a man of the people and all sports

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  Services will be held next week for Daily Herald Blackhawks beat writer Mike Spellman, who died Tuesday. Joe Lewnard/jlewnard@dailyherald.com

Services for Spellman

Arrangements have been made to honor the life of Mike Spellman, a 23-year Daily Herald sports writer who died Tuesday.

A wake will be held from 2-9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30, at Glueckert Funeral Home, 1520 N. Arlington Heights Road, Arlington Heights.

Prayers for Mike and his family will be held at 9:15 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, at Glueckert Funeral Home, followed by a 10 a.m. Mass at St. James Catholic Church, 821 N. Arlington Heights Road, Arlington Heights. Burial will be at a later date in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Condolences may be sent to Mike's brother, Neal Spellman, at 3400 Wellington Court, Unit 301, Rolling Meadows, 60008

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