Welcome to Ibach & Associates

Bob Ibach (Chicago area) has three decades of comprehensive experience in sports journalism, public and media relations, sports marketing, promotions, and publications management.

Prior to forming Ibach and Associates, a suburban Chicago-based company with offices in Deerfield, IL and Sarasota, FL, Ibach was a senior vice president with Golin/Harris Communications in Chicago and oversaw its national sports division. Previously, Ibach was a senior vice president for Chicago-based Kemper Sports where he worked on assignments with the PGA Tour, NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL. At Kemper Sports, he coordinated media relations for a CBA franchise in Sioux Falls, SD, and directed the management and publicity for the well-known Maui Invitational college basketball tournament.

From 1981-89, Ibach served as the director of public relations/publications for the Chicago Cubs. During his tenure, he assisted in the development of the popular Die-Hard Cubs Fan Club and conceptualized and launched the Cubs monthly tabloid newspaper, Vine-Line, which has received recognition as the top publication in major league baseball for many years.

Ibach spent the first decade of his career in the newspaper and radio industry (Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia Journal and CBS-radio). He covered the Baltimore Orioles and Baltimore Colts regularly during most of the 1970s, in addition to assignments in college and the NBA. He served as the Baltimore Sun’s golf editor and also co-hosted a popular radio sports talk show, “The Main Event,” with Nick Charles, now with CNN. During that same period, Ibach hosted a weekly talk show on WTOW-AM and also did basketball play-by-play broadcasts for several Baltimore-area radio stations.

From 1978-83, Ibach authored three books, two on baseball and another entitled “Caught In The Net,” an investigative first-person expose on cheating in college basketball as seen through the eyes of Clemson University head coach Tates Locke. Presently, "Caught In The Net" is being made into a movie by screenwriters in Los Angeles. His other books are “Cub Fan Mania” and “The Comeback Kids.”

Ibach is a graduate of the University of Maryland and is actively involved in civic and church groups in his hometown of Arlington Heights, IL. He is presently on the board of the Lattof YMCA in Des Plaines, IL, and is a member of the Society For American Baseball Research (SABR), specializing in the history of baseball parks. Ibach is also a long-time member of the Golf Writers Association of America.

Marty Appel (New York) became the youngest public relations director in Major League Baseball history when he took over the assignment for the New York Yankees in 1974. Appel began his career with the Yanks in 1968 and spent 9 seasons with the ballclub.

Appel went on to serve as executive producer of the Yankees broadcasts for WPIX, where he was VP of PR and Sports, and captured an Emmy Award and five consecutive New York State broadcasters awards. He spent 11 years with WPIX-TV.

As owner of Appel Public Relations, he represents such clients as Topps, The Sporting News, the New York Yankees, the National Park Services, WeMedia.com, the New York Academy of Medicine, the Yogi Berra Museum, Leland’s Auctions, Bill Goff Fine Art, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, eBay Magazine, and others.

Appel has also served on the staff of Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, done PR for tennis stars Billie Jean King and Vitas Gerulaitis, and was VP, Public Relations for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games during the committee’s formation.

As an author, Appel has collaborated with CNN’s Larry King, Bowie Kuhn, Thurman Munson, Tom Seaver, umpire Eric Gregg, and Lee MacPhail, in addition to his award-winning book “Slide, Kelly, Slide” which was named the best baseball book of 1996. Appel’s book for Total Sports, “Now Pitching for the Yankees,” was published in the spring of 2001 and drew rave reviews. He was a consultant to the HBO film 61* based on the Maris-Mantle home run chase of 1961.

Appel is a graduate of State University of New York at Oneonta, and has served on the Commission for Cable Television in his hometown of Larchmont, NY.