Danny Clinkscale, Sports Commentator Book Launch - Leaving Cancer for the Circus

Award-winning Framingham native and Kansas City sportscaster Danny Clinkscale will give a presentation about his new memoir, Leaving Cancer for the Circus: An American Odyssey Inspired by Love and Recovery on Tuesday, January 24 at 7:00 pm at the McAuliffe Branch Library, Community Room. The most eventful year of Clinkscale’s life took the veteran sportscaster along for the exhilarating ride of the hometown Royals’ back-to-back World Series appearances. It also brought the challenge of a cancer diagnosis. Danny tells the story of his journey from diagnosis to solo road trip through the Black Hills, and flashes back to growing up with his father, local anchorman and professor Bob Clinkscale. This memoir is humorous, heartbreaking, and romantic all at once. Books will be available for purchase before and after the discussion. A portion of each sale goes to Coaches Vs. Cancer.

Book Synopsis

Danny Clinkscale takes his readers on his clandestine journey to the Black Hills (he didn’t even tell his wife he was going!) after his radiation treatments, interspersed with sports recollections throughout his career as a sports announcer.

Woven into the story are many reminiscences of his broadcast career and life, many of which have Boston area connections. Danny's father Bob Clinkscale, was a longtime television news anchorman at WBZ and WCVB among others, and was a longtime broadcasting professor at Emerson College.

Among the tales are stories of Little League baseball in Hopkinton and Framingham, early career broadcast stops in Milford and Marlboro, and many sports stories through events attended due to the connections that Bob Clinkscale had. Among those who are part of the narrative are iconic figures like Bobby Orr, Curt Gowdy, Jim Nance and others.

The story starts with the 2014 World Series and concludes with the 2015 World Series and a subsequent trip from New York to Framingham to visit family and share a special World Series momento with his father.

His presentations are riveting and humorous.

Coaches vs. Cancer, which is a nationwide collaboration between the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) that empowers basketball coaches, their teams, and local communities to make a difference in the fight against cancer. Danny was honored at their national event on Dec. 6.

"So I was sitting there in the car, and I did what you might do a few times a day-scratched a little itch on the left side of my face. But this time I felt something under the surface of the skin, a small lump. In other circumstances, I wouldn't have thought anything of it. I had led a remarkably healthy life, and seldom thought about health issues. But this time I didn't, and it was the discovery of the bump on the left side of my face that ignited the process which led to my odyssey."

Danny tells the story of a year in his life that combines discovery, surgery, and treatment of cancer, covering two World Series, and embarking on a solo trip through the upper Midwest. It was, simply, a journey at the conclusion of a journey.

In Leaving Cancer for the Circus, Clinkscale takes the reader through the struggles of his radiation treatment, its side effects, and the changes it made to his life. Throughout the ordeal, Clinkscale worked on-air, and it was during this time that he conceptualized his plan and goal of taking a trip after his health began to normalize. The solo trip is the heart of the story-tales of small towns, beautiful vistas, and the unique people and places he encountered on the way. Woven into the narrative are reminiscences of a long career in broadcasting, as well as biographical chapters highlighting important events that shaped his full life, a life forever altered by cancer.

Despite the serious nature of the inspiration for the story, Leaving Cancer is mostly an upbeat and sometimes humorous account of many places and times. It is also, at its heart, a love story, detailing the author's faith that his wife would understand his whimsy.

Danny Clinkscale is an award-winning sports broadcaster who fills various hosting and reporting roles at 810 WHB in Kansas City. He is a co-host on the highly-rated Between the Lines afternoon drive show, hosts BaseballTonight, College Football Gameday, co-host of Kansas City Chiefs postgame coverage, and is the station's main traveling reporter covering events such as the Super Bowl, Final Four, Baseball All-Star game, MLB playoffs, and World Series. He also has been a play-by-play announcer at the Division One level in hockey and basketball, MLS soccer, the Baseball Hall of Fame game, and many other sporting events and venues. A graduate of the University of Kansas, Clinkscale resides in Shawnee, Kansas. Leaving Cancer for the Circus is his first book. It is available on Amazon. Logon to the Facebook page, Leaving Cancer for the Circus or Twitter, @dcwhb.