Editing Mike Royko (section)

==Personal life==
===Marriages===
Royko married Carol Duckman in 1954, and they had two sons, David and Robert.<ref name = Obit>{{cite news |first1 = Jerry|last1 = Crimmins|first2=Rick |last2=Kogan|url = https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-04-30-9704300351-story.html |title=Mike Royko 1932–1997: Newspaper legend Mike Royko dies, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist was the voice of Chicago for more than 30 years |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |page=1 |date=April 30, 1997 }}</ref> She suffered a [[cerebral hemorrhage]] and died on September 19, 1979, Royko's 47th birthday.<ref>{{cite news |title=Deaths last week |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |page=B17 |date=September 23, 1979 }}</ref><ref name = Obit/> He later described that time as "a period of disintegration."<ref name = Obit/> The only column he wrote during that period was a short note to readers on October 5, 1979, in which Royko wrote, "We met when she was 6 and I was 9. Same neighborhood street. Same grammar school. So if you ever have a 9-year-old son who says he is in love, don't laugh at him. It can happen."<ref name = Obit/> That column ended with a much-remembered line: "If there's someone you love but haven't said so in a while, say it now. Always, always, say it now."<ref name = Obit/>

In 1986, Royko married Judy Arndt, who had worked as the head of the ''Sun-Times'' public service office and was a tennis instructor.<ref name = Obit/> The couple lived on Chicago's Northwest Side and then on the city's North Side before moving to [[Winnetka, Illinois]].<ref name = Obit/> He and Judy had two children.<ref name = Obit/><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-03-07 |title=Chicago election results: Ald. La Spata 'encouraged' by slim margin in 1st Ward, wary of mail-ins |url=https://abc7chicago.com/daniel-la-spata-chicago-city-council-sam-royko-election-results/12924594/ |access-date=2023-03-14 |website=ABC7 Chicago |language=en}}</ref>

===Baseball and Chicago Cubs===
Royko was a fervent devotee of [[16-inch softball]] as a player and team sponsor.  After his death, he was inducted into the Chicago 16-inch Softball Hall of Fame, an honor Royko's family insists he would have considered as meaningful as his Pulitzer. In the closing seconds of ''Royko at the Goat'', the documentary by Scott Jacobs, Royko is heard saying, "The Pulitzer Prize can't compare" to hitting a home run.{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} 

Royko was a life-long fan and critic of the [[Chicago Cubs]]. Every spring he would devote a column to a "Cubs Quiz," posing obscure trivia questions about mediocre Cubs players from his youth, such as [[Heinz Becker]] and [[Dom Dallessandro]]. Just prior to the [[1990 World Series]], he wrote about the findings of another fan, Ron Berler, who had discovered a [[spurious correlation]] called the "[[Ex-Cubs Factor]]." Berler and Royko predicted that the heavily favored [[Oakland Athletics]], who had a "critical mass" of ex-Cubs players on their Series roster, would lose the championship to the [[Cincinnati Reds]]. The Reds achieved an upset outcome in a four-game sweep of the A's, with Royko's sponsorship propelling the Ex-Cubs Factor theory into the spotlight. [[Carl Erskine]] repeats Royko's claim of the Ex-Cubs Factor, and applies it to the [[1951 Brooklyn Dodgers season|1951 Dodgers]], in his book ''Carl Erskine's Tales from the Dodgers Dugout.''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n2xNTKhH1E0C&pg=PA36|title=Carl Erskine's Tales from the Dodger Dugout|first=Carl|last=Erskine|date=June 1, 2003|publisher=Sports Publishing LLC|isbn=9781582613413|access-date=July 6, 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref>