BY RICK TELANDER rtelander@suntimes.com November 17, 2012 1:22AM
Mike Ditka says hes fine after a mini-stroke. His health scare reinforces what an irreplaceable character he is for Chicago. | Kiichiro Sato~AP
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Updated: November 18, 2012 2:47AM
Try to imagine Chicago without deep-dish pizza or Wrigley Field or indicted aldermen. Hard to do, right?
Now try to think of our toddlin town without Mike Ditka. Impossible.
Thus, our equilibrium got shaken a bit when we heard Da Coach had suffered a minor stroke Friday. He was at his beloved Bob OLink golf club in Highland Park when he started feeling woozy and had slurred speech, and he was quickly taken to a suburban hospital for treatment.
It was a mini-stroke, or whatever you call them, he growled to sportscaster Mark Giangreco over the phone.
That reminded this scribe of the Saturday Night Live Superfans skit, wherein the roundtable panelists debate which team would win the Ditka-coached Bears or the Giants if the Bears were just 14 inches tall. Consensus: The Bears in a close one. Then this:
Todd OConner: What about Ditka? Would he be mini, too?
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TELANDER: Mike Ditka handling ‘mini-stroke’ with all the iron we’d expect