Interview #21: Rob Fedo - Joliet, IL
Ow, my bones are so brittle. But I always drink plenty of..."malk"?
Intro
Rob Fedo was born in the Chicago area in 1989, living his whole life in Joliet before relocating to Arizona after college. He’s lived here ever since, where he coaches youth hockey in his spare time when not with his wife and young son. He was part of my adult hockey league team for a few seasons before switching allegiances to a different rink, but we still keep in touch for some reason.
The first thing that jumps out is the difference between his childhood versus what his own child will have. Whereas he was a kid in the late 90s, running around with the neighborhood kids all day until the sun went down, that isn’t the case these days. He barely knows his neighbors, if he even sees them at all. Kids now have to go right into the organized sport route, and early. Which means you risk being introduced to all the asshole parents and parasitical coaches without having developed any kind of innocent love of sports beforehand.
I know the default is to blame things like iPhones, Fortnite and the Internet for why kids don’t run around anymore. But I’ve lived in a suburb in Scottsdale for 11 years now. It’s been around since the 70s, it’s got big wide streets, well-lit sidewalks, an elementary school right in the heart of the neighborhood. And I never see kids playing outside, except occasionally around the holidays when big families are out throwing a football. I swear my neighbors change monthly. The fact that 50% of the houses are short-term rentals now also hurts that neighborhood camaraderie. I know the occupants of like four houses on my street, and that’s mostly because Bauer has snuck into each of their yards at some point.
Also, while the part at the end where Rob and our waitress can’t name five baseball players, even though we’re just 4 months removed from a World Series run in this town, is hilarious, it’s also informative. A lot of Phoenix was just introduced to this group of players, basically on October 1st, 2023. The Diamondbacks weren’t going to make the playoffs most of the year before sneaking in. So now it’s on the team to build on that introduction, get some stability on the roster and make this the same kind of memorable era that older native Arizonans cherish with the ‘01 Diamondbacks.
It’s also telling how much impact kids have on a sport’s health. I’m a hockey fan, but my hockey knowledge is really, really blunted compared to what it was. I know the stars, some players from fantasy hockey and then sometimes a friend used to send me her bets with random players on it that I’d have to look up to sound informed. But Rob can rattle off players instantly, which is helped by being around kids on the ice all season, whereas his baseball knowledge is limited to whatever marketing the league manages to get through to him.
Growing up in Illinois
How far were you from Chicago? You didn't grow up in Chicago did you?
“No, I was in the Southwest suburbs, Joliet. Which is about 45 minutes from the city.”
Is that where you were born?
“Yeah.”
And then you lived there till you moved here. When was that?
“I moved here in 2021.”
You did not move here in 2021, or else you had a long commute to our hockey games in 2016.
“2011, sorry.”
Did you play baseball?
“Yeah, I played baseball until I was 14 or 15. But I was a kid who grew late, and by then the whole idea of being a professional athlete had kind of gone. I always loved playing sports. I remember running from baseball practice to football practice to soccer practice.”
You played football? In high school?
“No, not in high school. Before then. I played baseball, football, soccer, hockey. I played soccer my varsity year, played hockey my freshman and sophomore year and that was it. I was like legitimately the smallest in my class, just about at 5 feet. I grew my sophomore summer and when I came back, I had a locker next to this girl that I had gone to school with since I was in kindergarten, and she thought I was a new kid because I was so much taller. She legitimately did not know who I was when I walked up to my locker the first day.”
Any brothers or sisters?
“Nope, it's just me. Only child. I was more than enough. More than a handful.”
Who did you play sports with as an only child?
“My neighborhood, we had a kid down the corner, then the kid that lived across the street from him, and then his neighbor, a few other neighborhood kids. One of us actually had a big enough yard that we could play baseball in so we would go out there and make our own baseball games up and play for hours in the summer. His mom would come out and give us drinks. A lot of times it ended up with all the families at somebody's house, sitting there around the grill and somebody made food and that was the Chicago lifestyle.”
That's not going to be your neighborhood for your kid?
“I don't think it's like that anymore. I don't even know who half my neighbors are. Nobody's really sociable. I remember we used to have a block party every summer. I don't know if it's an Arizona thing or if it just doesn't happen anymore, but I feel like it's not as common.
I think the one thing that I've learned from being a coach and coaching other people's kids and their families is, the families that want to be around each other away from just the team’s scheduled events are the teams that get along. The families that don't like it, it shows because the families don't really like each other. They don't get along. And the kids don't like each other. They don't get along. And then everything kind of suffers from a team aspect.
I just like being active and I think my thing with sports was just, I made so many friends from each different sport, and some of them crossed over and some of them didn't. I like the whole aspect of sports of just the competition. And you know, after the game was done, the game was done. Then we could go back to being friends and buddies. But maybe during that game, maybe you’re teammates, maybe you were opponents, but kind of treating everybody as an athlete.”
So you didn't move at all? You were with that same group for 18 years?
“No. I mean, we all would get shuffled around on the teams from year to year but we had all played together growing up.”
But you only played soccer and hockey in high school. What happened to the other sports?
“Football, I had a situation where I broke one arm playing hockey in the summer, and that was leading into my freshman year and I just couldn't play that much. I played a little bit my freshman year. I had an interception with a half-cast on towards the end of the year when I finally got back on the field. By the end of that football season, it went into hockey season and I broke my other arm.”
Do you just break all the time?
“Oh yeah I'm in shambles at this point in my life. I was not a big milk drinker. I was just really focused on hockey. And baseball season in high school was right after hockey season. So I was always kind of like battered, bruised and banged up.”
Below: Rob in elementary school
Cubs or White Sox
You've been to Wrigley Field. Did you ever hear of Cubby jail?
“I heard of it. It was for the people that were way too drunk. Which, way too drunk at Wrigley Field is pretty damn drunk. Some of those people, by the time they stopped selling beer, the 7th inning stretch was the the cut off, those people are like 8 or 9 Old Styles in and they had been drinking in Wrigleyville before the game.”
So you were never one of those people?
“Not my jam. I would always sit on the lines. I never did the buildings outside the stadium. I never really did the outfield, because those tickets are so hard to get. It's like a weird thing where everyone just likes those seats because, just the, I don't know ambience and attitude of what that like felt like to be out there.”
How many games did you go?
“I didn't go to that many games because it was always so hard to get a ticket to a Cubs game. There was the Sosa years when it was him and, I can't remember who it was, he was a left fielder. Moises Alou maybe? It was the Bartman times, when that whole situation happened, the foul ball against the Marlins. When they were good it was almost impossible to get tickets. Which was so weird because it was so different from a White Sox ticket. You could walk up to Comiskey almost 5 minutes before gametime and get a ticket. Even when they were a good team.”
But you didn't go to those.
“I would go to those with my dad. Most of my family is actually White Sox fans.”
Why aren't you a White Sox fan?
“So my dad's best friend, when I was born got me a Cubs blanket. And that was my baby blanket. So I kind of just attached to that. I know. Deep, deep reasoning.”
You never switched allegiances?
“I like to follow players. Like if you lived in Chicago, I mean, everyone knew Ryne Sandberg and everyone knew Sammy Sosa. But then on the other side, everyone knew Frank Thomas and Paul Konerko. Robin Ventura. He was more towards the Frank Thomas era. So yeah. But they were the big names that were nationally known, so they were just the hometown heroes.
Everything that I remember about, at least the White Sox guys, Robin Ventura and Frank Thomas, is they were really good and very active in the community. Everyone loved them and they loved them for good reason and they were good dudes.”
Were you still there when the White Sox won?
“What was that? ‘05? Yeah, I was still there. I mean that was an exciting time for the city. Because they had the Bulls in the 90s and the Jordan era, and then they didn't really have anything. And then the White Sox won. And then I think the Bears had their heartbreak, after that with the Colts and then that was leading into the whole Blackhawks era in Chicago.
The thing about the Chicago fans, they really like their sports teams and they're almost loyal to a fault. But it also comes with… they are extremely critical when things are not going well. It's like every radio show when they're not going well, the hosts are critical. And then the people who call in are just more critical, and everyone's an armchair GM. I mean, the Bears are going through it right now with this draft pick coming up and Justin Fields. People are laser-focused on those teams, whether they're good or bad, but you kind of get away with being mediocre.”
It seems like the Cubs fans are more impatient now that they won one, they seem more hostile to losing teams.
“Yeah, well, the Bulls were winning and they were winning big, and they were winning consistently. And then the Blackhawks started their thing, and it was kind of the same situation where they were really good for a while. But then you got to the Cubs and they won the one time and then they were OK the next year, but then they’ve just fallen off a cliff again.”
Arizona, where one thing led to another and he has a kid
Where'd you go to college?
“I went to a school called University of Saint Francis in Joliet. In college I got really focused on school and making sure I did well in my degree. But I would go to actually a lot more of our college games. I think like most college kids because it was just convenient and they would let you in for free. Can't beat that, but you know baseball, basketball, men, women, whatever was going on. We were just kind of going, everyone hangs out. Maybe some people more so for the social aspect than the actual sporting aspect.”
So why did you move here?
“A recruiter called me to move out here and work an IT job.”
So you left the only town you've ever known?
“Yep. Well, they called me in the middle of February and there was a blizzard outside. They said, would you like to move to Arizona? This is the pay and this is what the job responsibilities were. It was a pretty easy sell when I turned my head and I looked at the blizzard outside and then I thought of Arizona.”
Did you know anyone here?
“No, I didn't know anybody here, but I've been out here a lot when I was younger. We would actually come to a lot of spring training games. We probably came out here seven or eight years. My parents are White Sox fans, so we would go to the White Sox games. The Giants was another popular one.”
Is there any particular memory you have of spring training?
“Well, I met a lot of the Giants players when I was out here when I was 12. I was at the hotel and we were by the pool, as one does in Arizona. I made friends with another kid and that kid’s grandpa was the bench manager for the Giants. So that whole weekend, we ended up going to all the Giants games because he gave us extra tickets. I got to go into the clubhouse one game and took a ball and had a bunch of players sign it. Had the Giants logo on it and the Cactus League logo on the other side.”
“But I mean back to like the Frank Thomas thing, I remember he would get done and he would go and sit on the concourse and just sign things for people for the rest of the game. We saw him multiple times. I'm sure I have his autograph somewhere.
I was actually a big Diamondbacks fan when they came into the league. And again, this is child brain logic, but I literally just liked them because of the colors. I thought the colors were cool and snakes were cool. So there we go.”
How many games have you been to here?
“Probably been to like 10 or 12 games at Chase. I don't go that often. I think part of it was busy with work and then busy with being a 20-year-old and being away from my parents for the first time. But that kind of wore off, and then it was, you know, one thing led to another and now I have a kid. (note: that’s skipping a lot of steps between 20-year-old and a kid showing up, but carry on) So we haven't quite gotten back into going to sporting events because he's not really old enough to sit through a full sporting event, but we're getting there.”
When you moved out here and you didn't know anybody, how long did that take to get adjusted? How did you find people?
“I mean, I met a lot of people just through hockey, playing pickup hockey. That's actually how I ended up starting to coach out here, was I was playing hockey and one of our guys showed up to our game with a broken leg. I guess he slipped on a puck when he was coaching his son’s 8U team and broke his leg. He actually ended up asking me if I could come and help out while they look for another coach. So I went out and started coaching, and I had done some coaching before in Chicago. Then the hockey director asked me if I would just stay on as a coach. So I took that team over and then I'd be kind of coaching at that rink ever since.”
What about your wife? Does she like sports at all?
“She was a cheerleader. She went to a small school in Iowa so like most Midwestern people, it was football. Outside of Des Moines.”
Does she go to sports games with you?
“She goes all the time. She used to come out, before we had a kid, she would come to my hockey games all the time. (note: that poor woman. I hope she had a good book to read) We've gone to Diamondbacks games, we've gone to Coyotes games. I have never gone to a Cardinals game out here. Never gone to a Suns game. But yeah, we'll go and like the usual sports fan, grab some food, sit down with seeds, watch some of it, wander around, sit back down, wait for the end. It's just a mild part of our relationship.”
Think your kid will be into sports?
“I don't know. We'll see. He's still deep in his dinosaur phase.”
This one time, at baseball camp…
Your favorite baseball memory is...
“Baseball camp when I was a kid.”
Why?
“The guy who was the head instructor, his name was Tony Delgado. He was just so much fun. Not even being a baseball coach, but just being a positive role model for all of us. Always keeping us upbeat and entertained. You know, we would lose the summer baseball camp championship. And we would be in tears.
And he was just always there to kind of pick everybody up. Every day at baseball camp, the first song that he would turn on as we would go to warm up was “put me in coach” (note: he means Centerfield by John Fogerty). And then every Friday he would sing the national anthem without any music. He was really proud of teaching all the kids that. He was a veteran. He was just proud of the sacrifices that veterans made and what the flag means to him and being thankful for all the opportunities that we were able to have growing up.”
What year was that or what age were you?
“I went to baseball camp every year probably from when I was 7 to 14. And then every Friday, during, they did snack time before we would play our games. He would leada rendition of the ‘Who's on 1st’ skit (by Abbot and Costello). And that was so much fun just for everyone. I saw that skit four times a year every year. And it never got old. Always exciting, it was always funny. He always made sure it was a good time.
I would go to baseball camp, I would do the morning session and I would do the afternoon session. And then I would do both weeks of it. It was always a good time. He was a treasure in the whole town. Everybody knew who he was if you were involved in athletics. You couldn't not know who Tony Delgado was. It was impossible if you were a Joliet native. He had been involved in the athletic scene in that city since the 70s.”
Rob and the waitress try to name current players
So you're not as big a baseball fan these days, then? How fast can you name five active players? Clock’s ticking.
“Easy one this season is Ohtani. And then from Ohtani, I'll go to Mike Trout. Bryce Harper. And then there's Madison Bumgarner.”
❌
“Is he gone?”
Yeah. You’re at three and we're almost at a minute.
“And then Diamondbacks that I can remember… I don’t even know if he still plays but Paul Goldschmidt?”
Tell me what team he’s on.
“I have no idea what team he’s on now.”
OK, that doesn't count then. ❌
“I know he was on the Diamondbacks for a while, and now he's not.”
✅
“I have no idea where Goldschmidt is.”
(the waitress returns) Are you a baseball fan?
Waitress: I like to watch baseball. I don't who's on what team and all that.
How fast can you name five players? It took him 3 minutes and he’s only at three.
Waitress: I can name old players.
No, no. They gotta be playing today.
Waitress: I watched all the Diamondbacks last season.
There’s 26 of those guys.
Waitress: I can do this. I also haven't eaten in like, 15 hours. My brains starting to go a little. Frickin’ A. There's like the guy… that looks like…
Rob: I know there's a guy from the Diamondbacks from out here, but I don't remember his name. I could picture his face.
Waitress: I can pick out faces. Yes, yeah.
You mean the one who looks like the guy from There's Something About Mary?
Waitress: Or the guy from Scary Movie that, like, sticks his hand in the turkey.
Rob: His good hand! He sticks his good hand in the turkey.
Waitress: Yes, the pitcher looks like that guy.
Yeah, he went to high school here. I know who you're talking about but I'm not gonna say it. What if I gave you faces? Would that help?
Waitress: I can picture faces.
shows them this picture:
Rob: Oh yeah, that's the guy who I'm thinking of!
That doesn’t look like a guy from a movie.
Rob: He's the one from Arizona, right?
Well he’s in Arizona currently, but he’s from Seattle.
Waitress: Can you give us the initials?
That would give it away.
Rob: Probably still wouldn't get it. He’s from Seattle? He’s like super young. Didn’t he win Rookie of the Year?
Waitress: Yeah he was awesome to watch!
Do you want another picture?
Rob: I don't know his name. Couldn't tell you.
His initials are C and C.
Rob: I have no idea.
Waitress: Curtis? Damn, I feel like I failed.
❌
Waitress: Who’s like the redheaded pitcher? He's got red hair or blonde. He looks like the actor.
You mean this guy?
Waitress: Yeah, him!
What’s his name?
Waitress: I don’t remember.
Rob: He’s a pitcher right? Right. Yep. I'm like, I'm like halfway there.
Yep.
Rob: I’m like halfway there. I can’t finish building the bridge though.
Merrill Kelly. The first one was Corbin Carroll.
Rob and Waitress: Oh yeah! I remember now.
waitress exits stage left, with 30% tip
OK, so that was sad. That was 9 minutes. Okay name 5 active hockey players.
“You got Connor Bedard in Chicago. Trevor Zegras. And then there’s Chicago team dad Nick Foligno. Anze Kopitar, still around in LA, somehow, with Drew Doughty. You know, the dynamic duo that kind of carried that team, through the mid-2010s.”
So why can you list 5 obscure active players so quickly in hockey but not even 5 stars or hometown players in baseball? Nobody cares about Trevor Zegras anymore.
“Except for small children. Small children love Trevor Zegras.”
So you think it's from being around kids who watch hockey?
Yeah, because every every time I would go to practice, they'd be like, ‘Coach! Coach! Coach! Did you see what Zegras said last night?’ And I'm sitting there in my coaching hat and I'm like, ‘I 100% saw it. And if you ever do that during a game, I don't know what I will do.”