Click to read each of my articles about the Hall of Fame Class of 2024.

Chiefs great, NFL Hall of Famer Will Shields cherishes Kansas ties, Kansas Sports Hall of Fame honor

Long wait ends in Olympics gold for 2024 Kansas Sports Hall of Fame inductee Erik Kynard

Mark Turgeon credits his Hayden, KU basketball roots for Kansas Sports Hall of Fame honor

Psychiatrist Walt Menninger, Pioneer in Mental Health Treatment, Publishes Memoir

Topeka Capital-Journal, Sept 22, 2024

‘This is a remarkable opportunity’: Topeka psychiatrist releases memoir

WIBW, Sept 22, 2024

I spent more than two years working with Dr. Walt to write these memoirs, and it took another year to finally bring it to the world courtesy of Flint Hills Publishing.

Please check this site and my social media accounts (follow ToddFertigWrites on Facebook please!) for updates on the promotion of the book.

I believe there is something for everyone in this book – from Kansas history to mental health self-help and from assassinations and crime to religion, from personal family tragedy to career advice. Dr. Walt shares his wisdom and experience in easy-to-read lessons while also providing a very intimate look at one of Kansas’ most important families.

I’m about to wrap up my fifth year as a freelance writer. Clients have come and gone, but somehow the bills keep getting paid (thank you, Lord!).

The biggest change of the past few years was the transition I made from the Topeka Capital-Journal to Top Sports.news in terms of local sports writing. The routine remained more or less the same, but I appreciate the opportunity Rick Peterson and TopSports offered.

I continue providing communications support to Jobs for America’s Graduates-Kansas. I love being a part of a great team and working for such a worthwhile cause.

My biggest news is that, coming soon, I will be promoting the memoir I helped Dr. Walt Menninger write. It was a great honor to work with him for the past several years to produce Like What You Do. It is the story of his life wrapped around 12 of his most profound and memorable speeches from his long and impactful career. The book will be meaningful to anyone interested in psychiatry, but will also appeal to Kansans (Topekeans, specifically) and anyone who loves history. It’s been a great pleasure to work with Thea Rademacher and Flint Hills Publishing on this project.

I’m ready for the next big endeavor, but I am relishing time to work on my own passion projects. More to come on that in due time.

I will list the stories I write here in order of their publication. Please check them out!

July 6, 2021: “Administrators, Leading the Way”

Arlington, Texas

Fort Worth, Texas

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

As the long, disappointing 2019 campaign comes to a close for the Kansas City Royals, changes are on the horizon. New ownership, a new manager and the development of minor league prospects will be all anyone will focus on from this point forward. And rightfully so. Fans will be glad to flush this 100-loss season and look to the future.

But an inventory of the 2019 season reveals some impressive – even historic – individual accomplishments that are worth celebrating. When fans look to the future, they may just find there are some high quality elements to build upon.

Most notably, Jorge Soler will lead the American League in home runs. This should not go unappreciated. Only twice in the 51 years of the franchise has a Royal even come close to this accomplishment. In 1975, John Mayberry finished third in the home run race, two behind George Scott and Reggie Jackson. In 1985, Steve Balboni came in third, four homers behind Darrell Evans. To achieve this feat in the second largest park in baseball is significant. Soler also entered the final series of the season fourth in the AL in runs batted in.

Some recommend the Royals try to trade Soler during the offseason. The logic is that his value may never be higher, and with arbitration conditions promising to push his salary up the next two years of his contract, the Royals would be better off swapping him for valuable prospects. But for now, Soler provides the kind of power potential the club has never had.

Whit Merrifield, another candidate to be traded this offseason, will lead the AL in hits for the second consecutive year. Merrifield is just the eighth Royal to record 200 hits in a season. Some argue that, like Soler, Merrifield should be dealt to build for the future. But with three years left on his contract with Kansas City, he is a Swiss Army knife the team can use all over the diamond.

Had Adalberto Mondesi not been sidelined for more than a third of a season by injury, he would have put together some remarkable speed stats. As it is, he entered the final weekend of the year leading the AL in triples, second in stolen bases, and first with a stolen-base success rate of 86 percent.

These three along with Hunter Dozier constitute an enviable foursome. Dozier entered the final weekend with 26 homers, 84 RBIs, and a .281 batting average.

This quartet gives the club hope for the future. The loss of Salvador Perez really hurt the 2019 Royals. But he appears on track for a return in 2020, and gives the Royals a fifth elite piece to build around.

Alex Gordon experienced a remarkable rebound in 2019, and currently sits at .266 with 13 homers and 75 RBIs. Fittingly, the tough-as nails outfielder is leading the American League in times hit by a pitch. The 35-year-old Gordon might return for a swan song in 2020, but it should only be on a very club-friendly contract, and expectations for him going forward should be kept low.

Beyond that, there are a million question marks, as too many members of the club either underperformed or are still in the developmental stage. Probably the biggest disappointment with the bat was Ryan O’Hearn, who is finishing strong again this year, but will close with a batting average well below .200. Despite his total inability to hit left-handed pitchers, O’Hearn will get plenty more chances in 2020, as will recently acquired Ryan McBroom.

Others who got their feet wet in 2019 and will be given plenty of opportunities as the rebuild continues are infielder Nicky Lopez and outfielders Bubba Starling and Brett Phillips. The team’s Rookie of the Year, Lopez will finish the year with nearly 100 hits and having demonstrated an ability to excel at multiple infield spots.

As bright as some of the lights were at the plate for the 2019 Royals, the team’s pitching cast a depressing shadow over the season. The team’s best young starting pitcher, Brad Keller, wasn’t good enough to produce wins for the team. He was shut down early with a 7-14 record. His 4.19 ERA, while not horrendous, was a full run worse that last season. Leading the team in victories with nine is Jakob Junis, but that’s about the only good thing you can say about his season. Junis was lit up to the tune of a 5.24 ERA. Acquired mid-season, Mike Montgomery wasn’t any better. His ERA was 4.64, but he was inconsistent and posted a record of just 2-7 as a Royal.

Veteran Danny Duffy continued to be just good enough to keep up hopes for something better. He was 7-6 with a 4.34 ERA in an injury-shortened campaign. Whether Duffy will remain in the starting rotation, be moved to the bullpen, or traded remains to be seen.

Beyond the shaky production of that foursome, nothing good came from the current starting options. The best thing that can be said about Glenn Sparkman, Jorge Lopez and Eric Skoglund is that they were inconsistent. The only reason their audition will continue into 2020 is that the team’s collection of heralded pitching prospects is at least a year away.

If there emerged one star of the pitching staff in 2019, it was Ian Kennedy. Moved to closer primarily because he wasn’t cutting it as a starter, Kennedy found himself. He entered the last weekend of the season with 30 saves, good for fourth in the AL. His 88 percent save percentage ranks among elite closers. Kennedy may have demonstrated enough worth as a closer that the Royals will decide to trade him prior to the final year of his contract.

After Kennedy, the bullpen was a disaster. Auditions will continue in 2020, with some talented arms to work with. Scott Barlow, Kyle Zimmer, Josh Staumont, Richard Lovelady at least have youth and potential on their side.

While some impressive statistics were accumulated in 2019, the only numbers that matter are the wins and losses. And those will once again be bleak. But with some impressive individuals to build around, and a large group to audition in 2020, hopefully the new owner and new manager will have plenty to work with moving forward.

The Kansas City Royals need help. As they limp toward 100 losses, the deficiencies of the big league club are on full display.

With new ownership on the horizon, the direction of the team remains to be determined. There is but a small core with the big league club at this moment that appears to be set – Adalberto Mondesi, Hunter Dozier and Brad Keller. Jorge Soler and Whit Merrifield could be long term fixtures, or they could be trade commodities. That’s about it. Everything else seems to be unknown.

But what the Royals do have is a rapidly improving farm system that in just the last couple of weeks claimed multiple minor league championships. These titles aren’t meaningless to the franchise. In the years prior to their 2015 championship, the Royals placed a lot of emphasis on bringing up a wave of talent that won at each level as it progressed through the minors.

A new wave of talent just claimed championships in two A-ball leagues, a rookie-ball league, and in the Dominican developmental level.

The franchise is winning at the developmental level, and it is suddenly stocked with pitching. The Royals went all in on college pitching in the 2018 draft, and that investment may start paying off sooner, and with greater returns, than even the Royals could have hoped.

One thing is certain, however, about baseball prospects: few of them pan out. The Royals know as well as anyone that turning pitching prospects into productive big leaguers is not easily accomplished. The raft of studs on the farm today may not turn into a good pitching staff in the future. But for now, the Royals have an enviable collection of talent, and almost all of it came via the 2018 draft.

Brady Singer and Jackson Kowar progressed to Double-A midseason and therefore were not part of the minor league playoff hunt. But their performance this season validated the Royals’ use of first round draft choices on them in 2018. Singer and Kowar, former teammates at the University of Florida, split the season between High A Wilmington and Double A Northwest Arkansas. Singer posted a 12-5 record and a 2.85 ERA between the two stops, while Kowar went 7-10 with a 3.52 ERA.

Joining them at the top of prospect lists are fellow 2018 draftees Daniel Lynch and Kris Bubic. The four-headed monster might start next season at Double-A, and an extreme optimist could envision it as four-fifths of the Royals starting rotation in the very near future. Lynch went 5-2 with a 3.10 ERA at Wilmington and is rated the eighth best left-handed pitcher in the minors. Bubic went 11-5 with a 2.23 ERA between the two A-ball clubs and saw his stock skyrocket.

Casual followers of minor league prospects should keep their eyes trained on this foursome. But that’s just the beginning. The A-ball teams were particularly flush with pitchers who excelled in 2019. Integral to Wilmington’s championship were two more 2018 draft picks, Jonathan Bowlan and Austin Cox. Bowlan went 11-5 with a 3.14 ERA between the A-ball teams, including a no-hitter, while Cox also split the season between the A-ball clubs, going 8-6 with a 2.76 ERA.

Guiding Lexington to its title were Carlos Hernandez, who rebounded from injuries to go 3-3 with a 3.50 ERA, and 2018 picks Zach Haake and Jon Heasley.

As encouraged as fans should be about the pitching prospects the Royals have collected, they should be just that concerned about the position prospects they were heralding a year ago. Wilmington was a deathtrap for hitters in 2019, snaring several hot prospects in disastrous seasons. 2017 first round pick Nick Pratto and second round pick M.J. Melendez crashed upon their promotion to Wilmington. Pratto finished with a .191 average and just nine homers in his sophomore season, while Melendez was even worse, hitting .163 with nine homers. Shockingly, slugging outfielder Seuly Matias was even worse in his debut at Wilmington. After crushing 31 homers in just 94 games in Lexington last year, Matias managed just a .148 average with four homers in 57 games before being shut down with injuries.

The Royals preached patience and calm with these three, but the organization will have to decide whether to promote them to Double-A despite their failures or send them back to the hitters hell of Wilmington.

Should first baseman Pratto, catcher Melendez and outfielder Matias rediscover their potential, they form a nice trio to team with 2019 first round pick shortstop Bobby Witt, Jr. Evaluations of Witt’s talent are through the roof, but he scuffled a bit in his debut in the rookie leagues, hitting just .262 with one homer in 37 games. The Royals can’t afford for many of these top draft choices to fail.

The organization’s fourth rated prospect, outfielder Khalil Lee had a decent year at Double-A, hitting .264 with eight homers and an eye-popping 53 stolen bases. The 21-year-old will be brought along slowly, but is the major league club’s best hope to improve its lackluster outfield.

Three other athletic outfielders are making their way through the lower ranks. Kyle Isbel battled injuries and put up lackluster numbers similar to the others trapped in the Wilmington black hole. Michael Gigliotti returned from knee surgery to keep his name in the prospect ring. And forcing his way into the conversation was Brewer Hicklen. A bit of a late bloomer, the 23-year-old Hicklen had perhaps the best season of any position prospect in the Royals system, batting .263 with 14 homers and 39 stolen bases for Wilmington.

These hitting prospects are light years away from the major leagues and cannot afford to scuffle the way they did in 2019. With such a drastic upgrade in their stable of pitchers, the Royals now desperately need to upgrade the talent around the diamond. They won multiple minor league championships almost entirely upon strength on the mound.

Witt may well develop into a star. But Kansas City needs its other prospects to get things going with the bat. Continued failure by Pratto, Melendez and Matias would be disastrous. And by means of the draft, trades and international signings, the club needs to add more top positional talent that doesn’t stall out in the minors.

Major League Baseball mandates that teams play out the games scheduled in September, regardless how far out of contention they are. Players are contractually obligated to play in those games.

Fans, on the other hand, are under no obligation to watch or listen to those games, check the box scores, or to give any regard whatsoever to what happens.

Most fans of the Kansas City Royals have moved on, as of last Sunday, to football season, and rightly so. But still, the baseball games go on. And a lot has happened, and will happen, this September that is worthy of note.

New Ownership:

The sale of the Royals to Kansas City businessman John Sherman requires approval at the league meeting this winter. But with that approval essentially guaranteed, Sherman can get a jumpstart this fall on deciding the direction of the franchise. He’ll certainly be paying close attention to the product on the field, as well as evaluating what help can be realistically expected from the minor league system.

Little is known about Sherman’s plans for the team as it is currently constituted. There are rumors that he’ll keep general manager Dayton Moore in some capacity. Whether or not manager Ned Yost returns for another season remains to be seen.

Sherman’s evaluation, and his philosophy toward spending on free agents (to this point unknown) will affect the futures of several current Royals. Should Alex Gordon be brought back for a swan song? Should the team lock slugger Jorge Soler up long term? Should veterans Whit Merrifield, Danny Duffy and Ian Kennedy be traded for prospects?

Roster Expansion:

Major league teams are expanding their rosters in a big way for the last time this September. By rule, teams have been permitted to bring anyone on their 40-man roster up to the big leagues on September 1. If a club so desired, it could fill its dugout with prospects and give them a chance to gain experience on the big stage.

The tradition of roster expansion in September allows a handful of men every year to realize the dream of playing in the major leagues who would otherwise never make it. For all the players called up, the expansion allows them to showcase their abilities for future opportunities.

Backup catcher Nick Dini was called up to Kansas City earlier in the summer due to an injury to Cam Gallagher. But Dini knows what September roster expansion means to fringe players like himself.

“It’s huge. You play the whole season with the hopes of getting to play in the big leagues,” Dini said. “All the work you put in during the offseason, and during the season, it’s all for this, to get to get to the big leagues and show what you can do. September is a huge opportunity that we all want to take advantage of.”

Dini admitted part of the challenge of September call-ups is that playing time for so many players is limited. Men accustomed to playing every day suddenly find themselves sitting on the bench for days at a time.

“It’s tough but that’s part of being a professional,” the 26-year-old catcher said. “When it’s your turn to play, you’ve got to be ready to play. The days when you aren’t playing, you’ve got to put the work in to make sure you’re ready to go when your name is called.”

The rule of September roster expansion was recently amended. Starting next season, teams will only be allowed to expand their rosters to 28. Dini said this fact is well known to minor leaguers.

“Guys are aware of (the change) and how it’s going to affect opportunities. That’s 12 less slots for each team, so 12 less opportunities for guys to get called up. But that’s what’s going on. There’s nothing you can do about it. My mentality has been just to go out and prepare, and if, God willing, it happens, then you’re ready to go.”

The Royals’ September call-ups include utility player Erick Mejia and pitchers Gabe Speier and Jesse Hahn. Each has a good shot at being on the roster next summer, so this exposure should accelerate their learning curve.

Keller On Ice:

The Royals announced in late August that it would limit pitcher Brad Keller’s innings and pitch count. The team indicated that Keller still had a ways to go in the season, but it hinted at concern for the 24-year-old’s health. He got blasted on August 26, and that was all the Royals needed to immediately shut Keller down.

“It was a consensus among the coaches that it’s what I needed,” Keller said. “It sucks, from the competitive side. You always want to go out there and compete with the boys. But it’s like a stepping stone for the future. They’re looking out for my best interest, and I agree with what they’re doing. So I just have to (accept it) and keep moving forward.”

Keller’s absence in the starting rotation will open up opportunities for others. Giving starts to Jorge Lopez will open up relief opportunities for Speier, Hahn and others. The final month should see Kyle Zimmer, Josh Staumont and Eric Skoglund get a long look in the bullpen.

“I’m really excited to see how we do in September and what the other guys can do,” said Keller. “It’s a showcase. It’s going to give them a chance to get their feet wet, to get an understanding of what it’s like to play in the big leagues, on and off the field.”

Minor League Playoffs:

When the prospects that eventually won the 2015 World Series worked their way up through the farm system, a premium was placed on winning minor league championships. The franchise wanted the Royals of the future to learn to win together. New prospects, now at the lower levels of the minors, are reviving the winning tradition.

The Wilmington Blue Rocks, a club flush with premium prospects, is competing this weekend for the high A classification Carolina League championship. Meanwhile the lower A-ball Lexington Legends are playing for a South Atlantic League title. And down at the Royals Dominican Academy, a collection of Latin American prospects claimed the Dominican Summer League championship.

Fall League Action:

Some of the Royals’ top prospects in the minors will get additional seasoning in the Arizona Fall League. Brewer Hicklen and Kyle Isbel, seen by the Royals as outfielders of the future, will be joined by versatile slugger Gabriel Cancel. Pitcher Daniel Lynch, considered the Royals #3 prospect, will see some additional innings in Arizona to make up for time lost due to injury earlier in the summer. Lynch will be accompanied in Arizona by fellow pitching prospects Daniel Tillo and Tad Ratliff.

Fans of the Kansas City Royals are quite familiar with the voice of Steve Physioc. He can be heard covering their games on both radio and TV. Older Topekans recall Physioc talking about all things sports when he served at WIBW from 1979-1983. As a young reporter just out of Kansas State, Physioc showed up nearly everywhere a game was being played.

Next Saturday, the veteran sportscaster will be in Topeka to talk about something quite different. You might say it’s his dream come true.

It all started in 2006 when Physioc was vacationing in Italy with his wife. Possibly due to a strange bed, too much pasta or wine, or some divine revelation, Physioc awoke in the middle of the night from a vivid and detailed dream.

“It sounds odd, but I had a dream about a great walled city and a winemaker struggling to (produce his crop) while in the turmoil of World War I. Instead of going back to sleep, I got up and wrote down the outline. And the next day I told my wife what it was about, and she said ‘That sounds really cool.’

“So we go on traveling, and a week later we’re meeting friends in this town called Lucca, Italy. And as I’m driving in, I say to my wife ‘Stacey, oh my gosh, this is it. This is the walled city that was in my dream.’ Well now I’m interested, so I buy a book about the history of Lucca.”

The eventual result of that dream is a very non-sports work of historical fiction, The Walls of Lucca. Physioc, who never considered himself a particularly good writer, will be one of the featured authors at the annual Kansas Book Festival at the state Capitol in Topeka on Sept. 14.

Now in its ninth year, the Kansas Book Festival features author presentations, book signings and vendors, and children’s activities. The festival shines a spotlight on local authors.

“I was expecting to get negative reviews, because I wasn’t a writer,” Physioc said. “So I was surprised when it got good reviews.”

The Walls of Lucca didn’t just get good reviews. It won the 2019 Reader Views Historical Fiction Award and the 2019 Tyler R. Tichelaar Award for Best Historical Fiction. A sequel to The Walls of Lucca entitled Above the Walls is now available.

Physioc may be surprised by the success of his first book, but his fellow sports broadcasters aren’t.

“I’m not surprised, because for the past six or seven years, every time we’ve gotten on a bus, every time we’ve gotten on a plane, his nose has been in his computer, and he’s been typing away furiously,” said fellow Royals broadcaster Joel Goldberg. “I knew he was working on a book, but I didn’t realize the magnitude of it. And now that it’s out, and he’s written a sequel, it makes me think of the amount of effort that he’s put into it. Which really isn’t surprising, because it’s just the same as the way he prepares for a game – 100 percent all in.

“What (those attending the book festival) are going to see is an incredible passion for the history, for the characters that he’s developed. They are going to get a lesson not in just the process (of writing the book), but in the story. They are going to be in for a treat, because he’s so passionate about it.”

A graduate of Kansas State who cut his teeth as a student broadcaster, Physioc worked his way up to WIBW, where, from 1979 to 1983, he filled just about every role imaginable. He worked about 200 events a year, providing play-by-play for high school game, and developing as a newscaster. He said working every job at the station taught him not just a variety of skills but also an appreciation for everyone working behind the scenes.

“That was the perfect job for me,” Physioc recalled. “I loved Topeka and working at WIBW because they let us do every game. I got to know every single coach. I got to know the players. You really felt like you were part of the community.”

Physioc departed in 1983 for a string of opportunities broadcasting major college and professional sports. Apart from his many professional highlights, it was during the lowest point of his career that he began writing.

“Interestingly, I wrote the bulk of The Walls of Lucca when I lost the job with the Los Angeles Angels (in November, 2009). At first my wife said ‘What cool new adventure is ahead for us?’ And one week later she said ‘You’re going to get another job. Another team is going to hire you. But in the meantime, you’ve been writing this book for three years. Now’s your time to finish it.’ And the bulk of the book was written between then and 2012, when I was hired by the Royals.

“Was it good? No it wasn’t. It took me writing it over and over and over to get it to the point where I could get it to a developmental person, who tore it to shreds. But that process got it to where it became a finished product. Because of that process, I’ve become a better writer.”

The experience produced a personal philosophy that Physioc shares with others:

“Don’t be afraid of failure. I’ve been fired before. I’ve been told that I’m not that good. But if it’s your passion, chase it. Don’t chase money, because you’ll always be ultimately disappointed. But if you are investing in your passion, eventually money will follow, because you’ll be energized by doing what you love.”

Physioc brings that same optimism to his coverage of the Royals, a team mired in a difficult rebuild that now includes a change of ownership.

“As a broadcaster, I have to be able to articulate not just what’s happening on the field, but the bigger picture. I can get disappointed, just as any fan would, but as long as they’re trying, that means a lot to me.

“I am very interested in ‘faith lost, faith found.’ I believe in the process. I believe in where we are. And I believe in General Manager Dayton Moore. They have the discipline in the process, and part of that discipline is to go through tough times as you’re building. You’re trying to build in the minor league system a core group of players. And the great thing is we’ve seen it done before.”

So as the rebuild of the Royals inches forward, Physioc continues to write. He said he is working on a baseball-themed book now, with more projects in the offing.