For a kid from Pekin – for a kid from anywhere – Jack Rosenberg led an amazing life.
Not everybody can say they helped transform televised coverage of sports. And that coverage helped transform local lovable losers into a major-league baseball franchise with national appeal.
Rosenberg died last weekend in Chicago. He was 94.
For more than 40 years, Rosenberg was sports editor at WGN radio and television in Chicago. He joined others with Peoria-area lineage in creating what became a TV sports superstation that beamed Chicago Cubs games into living rooms across the country.
Rosenberg helped Cubs voices Jack Brickhouse and Harry Caray become Baseball Hall of Fame award-winners and national personalities. Rosenberg also shepherded scores of budding broadcasters and earned a sterling reputation in his profession.