Retired WCCO sports guy R.J. Fritz battling cancer with chin up

"You know one of my friends wrote to me, 'We're all terminal. A lot of us just don't know when,' " retired WCCO-TV sports guy R.J. Fritz told me last week.

Due to a technology fail on my end, I did not hear back from Fritz last week before posting a column item about his stomach cancer diagnosis.

"My spirits are real good. I have a positive attitude," Fritz said when we talked Friday. "I was just talking to [retired WCCO-TV anchor Don] Shelby. I was telling him, 'You know one of my friends wrote to me, "We're all terminal." ' " It really feels like a blessing. How many people get to say goodbye to their people? I have done that most of my life, lived in the moment and was really happy to hear birds singing and see flowers blooming. I'm not doing anything different from [how] I have my entire life. That makes the transition a little easier," he laughed. "I think. I don't know. We'll see as it goes along here."

I told him it says something that he didn't realize he was sick until he started feeling tired on the tennis court.

"I was playing tennis right up to a couple weeks ago," Fritz said. "I've been in excellent health. As a matter of fact, the doctors tell me most people … have nine different things wrong with them, but I had nothing wrong [but this and] it's serious. If there's a positive side to all of this, I can fight it being healthy as I am." He's been a careful eater, "mainly because of Deb [his wife of 24 years]. Her family has a history of cancer. She does most of the meal planning, so we eat healthy."

Fritz seemed surprised that I wrote about him. "That was very nice of you to put that in there," said Fritz. I reminded him he was a beloved TV figure.

He wasn't all that surprised the news got to me. "First of all I sent it [e-mails] to people in Miromar Lakes, Fla.; the people I play tennis with and then, after that, I thought it's time to let my Minnesota and Wisconsin people know. There were quite a few on the list. You didn't do anything wrong. Those things have a way of leaking out. I'm old enough to know that."

It's really sad when you can't sound more insightful than Kanye West, isn't it, Kris Humphries?

The Minnesota-born NBAer tweeted an unfortunate reaction to Olympic icon Bruce Jenner's groundbreaking interview with Diane Sawyer's on ABC's "20/20." The 72-Day Husband of Kim Kardashian sounded like your archetypical Neanderthal athlete, low on intellectual wattage, about Jenner's confirmation of his transgender exploration after a lifetime of feelings that he was supposed to be female.

"Man, I'm glad I got out when I did," wrote Twitter's @KrisHumphries, adding "#Gottadoyou."

Humphries rewrote reality there. He didn't get out, he got dumped (dunked?) when Kardashian — who still looks as if she married Humphries so her E! TV camera crew would have something to do — filed surprise divorce papers.

Thanks to the swift justice of the Twitterverse, he adjusted his public remarks: "I have and always will support Bruce hence #Gottadoyou. Now recognize I was too vague and sincerely apologize for the way this came across."

"Why don't you just talk to me?" ex-mayor R.T. Rybak said Wednesday as he caught me snapping a photo. Ah, if my camera was in silent mode and I was faster punching in the code, he never would have caught me catching sight of him on Marquette Avenue because he was looking deeply into his phone.

"How are you?" he asked, giving me the time of day the way he never did when he was mayor. I asked why he retweeted my Twitter post asking whether he had lost a shoe — March 19 item: KSTP-TV's Joe Schmit reported his car was struck by a shoe left on top of Rybak's car — but ignored my tweet seeking confirmation. Rybak said he missed the latter tweet (which means he follows Twitter as poorly as I do) but yes, that was his tennis shoe and, "I thought it was funny."

C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count. Attachments are not opened.