The Cubs have signed Len Kasper, previously the play-by-play voice of the Florida Marlins, to a multiyear contract to call games on TV for them, replacing Chip Caray, who left for Atlanta. Kasper was the Cubs’ third choice for the job, after Dave O’Brien and Matt Vasgersian, neither of whom were allowed to exit their current contracts. Kasper, however, doesn’t mind, and–at least according to comments by him quoted by the Chicago Tribune’s Ed Sherman (under the roll-your-eyes headline “Kasper the friendly host")–appears to be saying all the right things.
There are several attributes nice to have in a play-by-play man working exclusively for one team.
An excitement about the job. “You need to get a break here or there in this business,” Kasper said. “I waited for the process to get played out. The names that were mentioned were terrific. I didn’t want to leave Florida, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Not becoming bigger than the game, or the color analyst. “I think the TV game in broadcasting is an analyst medium,” Kasper said. “I’m not downplaying my role in any way, but you don’t need me to tell the viewers everything they’re seeing. This opens up the field for the analyst. Bob played and managed. My goal is to let him shine.” TV is different than radio. Sometimes it’s OK to not say anything. And while the play-by-play man must be knowledgable about the game, the play-by-play man shouldn’t get in the way of the analyst.
Having a rooting interest in the team you are broadcasting for. “You’ll know I’m working for the Cubs,” said Kasper. “I try to be genuine. There have to be degrees of excitement in this game. You don’t call an RBI single in the first the same as a two-run homer that gives the Cubs the lead in the eighth. I let the moment carry my excitement.”
Cubs blogger 1060West has listened to Kasper and thinks him boring. I certainly hope he’s not too boring, but a little boring to me is OK. The product is the game. Sell the game, not yourself. There are announcers who make themselves, if not bigger than, equal to the game. I don’t want a Joe Buck. And I don’t even want another Harry Caray (as if there could be another). If Marlins fans are any indication, Len Kasper is going to do a real nice job.
ESPN has declined to release Dave O’Brien from his contract, meaning he won’t be the Cubs’ play-by-play announcer next season, reports the Tribune’s Ed Sherman.
The Chicago Tribune’s Ed Sherman reports that ESPN & New York Mets broadcaster Dave O’Brien and the Cubs have “agreed to contract terms that will enable him to join analyst Bob Brenly in the television booth for 2005.” O’Brien just needs to be released from his contracts with ESPN and the Mets, though he may continue to call college basketball games for ESPN.
The Chicago Tribune’s Ed Sherman reports that the Cubs will hire Bob Brenly as their new TV analyst for next season. The Cubs and Brenly are still declining comment. (Tip via Michael C.)
Regarding the third item—"we want to see the game"—The constant closeups of players (and fans) drives me nuts. We lose perspective. How is the defense aligned? How big of a lead does the runner have? How far in the hole did the shortstop have to range? You can’t tell, because everything’s a closeup, and when we’re in between pitches, FOX has to show closeups of fans and interview actors.
Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus has made a repeated point about this. Baseball needs a broadcast partner who will promote the game, not itself.
The Big Red C reports, and the Chicago Tribune confirms, that Steve Stone has resigned as broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs. This truly is disappointing, following a letdown of a season. Thanks, though, Steve, for the many years of excellence. God bless.
UPDATE I (9:15pm): It seems from the outside that Cubs management, including Dusty Baker, has to shoulder some—and perhaps much—of the blame for Stone’s leaving.
UPDATE III (11:45pm):Stone told the AP “that WGN wanted to bring him back next season. But after much deliberation, he said he reached a decision that was ‘probably best for all parties.’” Stone also said, “I am not retired. I am going to spend the rest of my life in baseball. I just don’t exactly know where that will be.”
It seems clear that it got to a point where this was not a happy situation for him.
Steve Stone decided to walk away from the Cubs on Thursday because he thought he couldn’t walk back into what had become a severely strained relationship with the team’s hierarchy.
. . . .
[A]ccording to Cubs and broadcast sources, Stone thought the climate had become too tense for him to operate comfortably within the organization.
. . . .
The final straw for Stone might have come on the Tuesday after the season. Hendry and Baker had teleconferences with reporters to give their side of an issue the analyst thought had been resolved. At that point, Stone reportedly began to realize there was no going back.
. . . .
According to sources, Stone also was upset the team allowed Chip Caray to leave . . . .
Sherman quotes a source saying if the Cubs had matched Chip’s offer from Atlanta, Stone definitely would have returned.
Mark Grace is out of the running for the managerial job in Arizona. Some think Steve Stone will wind up leaving the Cubs to replace Grace as a Diamondbacks broadcaster, which would make Grace a candidate to return to the Cubs, provided he and club President Andy MacPhail can repair their relationship
It’d sure be nice if he told us who these “some” are. For all we know, it could be himself and his dog.
View from the Bleachers has the details. I must say—I’m a bit shocked. I thought after Steve Stone returned last year that Chip & Steve would be with us for at least a decade, perhaps two or three. God bless, Chip.
MLB.com has an extensive report on the latest kerfuffle between Steve Stone and the Cubs. (Link via The View from the Bleachers, whic has comments on the matter.) Stone criticized the Cubs following Thursday’s 2-1 loss to the Reds, questioning Baker’s moves and stating the Cubs find blame everywhere but within. Dusty Baker and Jim Hendry took exception to Stone’s criticism as being “personal,” and Baker, Hendry, and Cubs President Andy MacPhail had a meeting with Stone today. The MLB.com article has lots of comments from Stone following the meeting. It does not appear he will be fired for his criticism.
Firing Stone—and it doesn’t appear that’s going to happen—would be extremely foolish in light of the fact that Stone is merely expressly what many Cubs fans are also thinking. Even having this meeting seems strange. Granted, Stone’s employer is the same employer of the Cubs, and they have a right to have certain expectations of him. But hiring a broadcaster is different than hiring some other employee. You hire your broadcaster to be entertaining, informative, and interesting. A broadcaster who doesn’t criticize the team who hired him when appropriate isn’t any of those things very often.
Is anyone else listening to the radio broadcast of today’s game? As it stands now, the Cubs and Braves have played seven innings, and the Braves lead 4-1. A loss will end the Cubs’ season barring a major collapse by both the Giants and Astros. Yet Ron Santo has not resorted to his usually groaning – the same kind of groaning many of us fans do – when things have gone wrong. There’s no “Ohhhh, maaaaannnnn!!! as Pat Hughes attempts to explain what’s happening. Instead, Santo appears completely resigned to what has happened the past week, and what is happening today. That this was a good team that just wasn’t quite good enough.
Chip Caray was drinking some sort of Kerry Wood is masterful kool-aid last night, repeatedly saying Wood pitched great. He did have a good game, but he also gave up three runs. Chip also said he thought Wood’s curveball was better last night than the 20K game in 1998. He needs to see a replay of that 20K game. Has a breaking ball ever had a more drastic break than Wood’s in that game?
The top of the 8th inning of tonight’s game was the most disappointing half-inning of baseball I have ever watched.
Up 3-2 in the series, 3-0 in the game, with just 5 outs to go before winning a National League pennant, and Mark Prior crusing along, everything seemed just right. Then Juan Pierre doubled to left.
Then came the fan interference – Luis Castillo hit a pop fly down the left field line. Alou reached the wall and jumped for the ball. But a fan went for the ball, too, and the fan’s hands got in the way. Alou’s glove was clearly in a position to make the play, and that would have meant 2 outs with a guy on. Instead, Castillo was given new life and drew a walk, with ball four getting past Paul Bako to put runners in first and third with 1 out.
Thom Brennaman and Steve Lyons told us for the rest of the game that you can’t blame the fan. Well, you can’t blame the fan for the Cubs’ collapse, but you can blame the fan for getting in the way, and making it harder on the Cubs. Thankfully, it sounds like Wrigley Field security did a nice job of safely escorting the fan out. Blaming the fan is one thing. Verbally and physically abusing him is another, and is much, much worse than anything the fan did to interfere with the play. It should also be noted that if that fan had not interfered with the play, there were two other fans ready and willing to do so had the actual interfering fan not been in the way. (Note: There are better pictures of the fan interference play than the one shown, but the one shown does not show the fan’s face. He likely thinks right now that it’s been shown enough.)
After that, an 0-2 curve to Pudge Rodriguez didn’t break a whole lot, and Rodriguez lined it into left to make the score 3-1. Then Alex Gonzalez dropped an easy grounder, loading the bases. Then Derrek Lee doubled to left, scoring 2 to tie the game. Prior was pulled for Kyle Farnsworth. After Farnsworth intentionally walked Mike Lowell, Jeff Conine hit a deep sac fly to right. For some unknown reason, Sammy Sosa threw toward the plate, allowing the runner on first to go to second, removing the force play and putting another runner in scoring position.
Then, after an intentional walk to Todd Hollandsworth, Mike Mordecai nailed a double to left-center. Mike Mordecai. Of course.
Farnsworth exited for Mike Remlinger, who allowed a single to Pierre to score Mordecai.
8-3. Game over.
And then Thom Brennaman starts talking about the goat curse. There’s nothing like listening to an announcer avoid talking real baseball in favor of an irrelevancy after your favorite team has just allowed 8 runs in an inning to lose Game 6 of a league championship series.
Again, the most disappointing half-inning I have ever watched.
If the Cubs come back from this tomorrow, Dusty Baker (and probably Kerry Wood, tomorrow night’s starter) deserves a lot of credit. The Cubs fell apart after the fan interference play. Of course, just because one thing follows another does not mean there is a cause-effect relationship. But it’s possible. And it’s possible it will carry over into tomorrow. The realist in me says that’s silly, that you can’t put that much meaning into one game.
The Tribune evaluates the four Chicago baseball broadcast teams – Cubs and Sox, TV and radio. The review of Chip and Steve is mostly filled with suggestions for them, though the reporter – Alan Solomon – appears to like them well enough.
I like them both.
I do think this is a legitimate question for Chip, though: “And Chip, is it really a great at-bat anytime a hitter fouls off three pitches – two of which were lollipops he should have sent screaming down Kenmore Avenue?”
Solomon also tells them both that it’s OK to have a little silence, especially when they’re giving us information like “Moises Alou was 0 for 5 against X pitcher in April 2002.”
Mr. Solomon also informs Steve that he doesn’t “have to think out loud with whomever is calling a pitch before every pitch, because an awful lot of the time – and I don’t care if you’re Larry Rothschild – you’re going to be wrong.” I disagree with this criticism. Steve is right more than the average analyst. And even when he’s wrong, I find his opinion interesting in deciding whether the Cubs should have thrown something else.
The Cubs have signed Len Kasper, previously the play-by-play voice of the Florida Marlins, to a multiyear contract to call games on TV for them, replacing Chip Caray, who left for Atlanta. Kasper was the Cubs’ third choice for the job, after Dave O’Brien and Matt Vasgersian, neither of whom were allowed to exit their current contracts. Kasper, however, doesn’t mind, and–at least according to comments by him quoted by the Chicago Tribune’s Ed Sherman (under the roll-your-eyes headline “Kasper the friendly host")–appears to be saying all the right things.
Then came the fan interference – Luis Castillo hit a pop fly down the left field line. Alou reached the wall and jumped for the ball. But a fan went for the ball, too, and the fan’s hands got in the way. Alou’s glove was clearly in a position to make the play, and that would have meant 2 outs with a guy on. Instead, Castillo was given new life and drew a walk, with ball four getting past Paul Bako to put runners in first and third with 1 out.
After that, an 0-2 curve to Pudge Rodriguez didn’t break a whole lot, and Rodriguez lined it into left to make the score 3-1. Then Alex Gonzalez dropped an easy grounder, loading the bases. Then Derrek Lee doubled to left, scoring 2 to tie the game. Prior was pulled for Kyle Farnsworth. After Farnsworth intentionally walked Mike Lowell, Jeff Conine hit a deep sac fly to right. For some unknown reason, Sammy Sosa threw toward the plate, allowing the runner on first to go to second, removing the force play and putting another runner in scoring position.