The ironic thing about Steve Stone leaving the Cubs is that this is actually Chip Caray’s fault, too. Steve Stone didn’t leave the Cubs because Kent Mercker swore at him on a team flight. You don’t think he pissed off players from time to time during his 17 years on the job? He left because of the weird series of events in the final homestand of the season, and all of those could be directly tied to Steve’s weird overly emotional reaction to Chip Caray’s departure for Atlanta.
It’s what caused Steve to go off on Dusty Baker in a postgame show (I mean, really, Dusty didn’t do anything dumber in that game than he’d done all year), it’s what caused him to go off on the Cubs on SportsCentral that night, and in the end it was the reason that there was a decision to be made about coming back at all.
For whatever reason (friendship, pity, whatever) Steve was protective of his mildy-retarded sidekick. Maybe it’s the phenomenon that causes people to choose the runt of a litter of puppies and to put up with the dog crapping on the rug every day for nine years? Whatever it was, Steve took any criticism of Chip to heart and he took Chip’s joyous departure as a personal affront.
It was stated here by me, and others, over the past couple of years that Chip’s cloying, hackneyed act was starting to rub off on Stone. Steve was not as good in his second go-around as he was in the first one. The good news is that he’s not leaving this time because of some strange lung fungus. He’s healthy, he’s probably going to end up working Diamondbacks games with a reasonable facsimilie of Chip in tHom Brennaman and the Cubs will end up with Dave O’Brien and Joe Girardi in the booth.
The simple fact is that if we could put up with Chip for seven seasons, we can put up with anything. Let Chip and Steve both delude themselves into thinking that the announcers have anything at all to do with the ratings that baseball games get. It’s just further proof that in the grander scheme of things, neither one of them ever got it.
It’s true that as fans we have a vested interest in who the announcers are. For better or worse we spend three hours a day with these people from April until October. It’s why we all were so critical of Chip. It’s why we had a “Terror Alert” posted on this site for two full years, just to track what level of annoyance Chip was at that day. He made it easy for us by constantly being on SEVERE.
What’s most interesting about this is how fans on other sites (especially our short bus friends at CubsTalk.com) are acting like this is the biggest news the Cubs have had all year. Frankly, I just never found Steve all that likeable. Smug? Sure. Knowledgeable? Of course he was.
In the end, the players didn’t run Steve off. Dusty didn’t run him off. What happened was this:
He is still upset that WGN and the Cubs didn’t try harder to keep Chip. He was blind to the fact that Chip was bad and disliked. He felt like letting Chip go was a slap in his face.
He wanted a direct say in who his new partner would be and WGN and the Cubs wouldn’t give it to him. And why should they? His public campaigning for the annoying little Dave Kaplan should have sealed this fate two weeks ago.
So Steve did what he has the right to do. He left.
And the Cubs will have a fresh look in the field and in the booth. And after last year. They could use both.
———
The Tribune is reporting that the Mets are having internal discussions about deals for either Manny Ramirez (not likely that the WORLD SERIES MVP is going anywhere) or Samuel Peralta Sosa. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. People who claim there’s no market for Sammy are just, plain wrong. If the Cubs really want to trade him, and I think they do, they’ll be able to do it. He’s still a star. And as anybody who paid $500 to go see The Eagles hack their way through 25 year old “hits” can tell you, people still pay for stars.
The Jockey on Stone’s departure.
Steve says he’ll miss the fans. Well, at least somebody will miss somebody.
Rick Morrissey details the way he thinks the end of the road went. He’s probably right. But if that’s true, then it really was all about Chip. That’s just too bad.
Mariotti puts down the doughnut and blames this on…pretty much everybody.
Chip proves that he’ll just never get it. Ever.
He said this, ”I’m very disappointed for the fans of the Chicago Cubs. They’re losing the voice of the Cubs. He’s the last link to the Jack Rosenberg, Harry Caray, Jack Brickhouse, Arne Harris era.” Ooh, and what an era that was. Losing, losing and more losing.
Chip had more to say, ”Steve and I talked to John McDonough, Andy MacPhail, Jim Hendry and Dusty Baker about the treatment of a small group of players. ‘And Andy MacPhail, Jim Hendry, John McDonough and Dusty Baker met several times with those players, and the behavior didn’t change.
”That kind of behavior should never be tolerated. If the Cubs or any team want to be successful and win, then everyone from the broadcasters to the assistant trainer should be treated in a first-class way, and as an observer. Steve wasn’t treated in a first-class way by two or three players.
”It left a sour taste in everyone’s mouths.”
There’s a Biggio joke there in that last line, but just read that again. Is it the Cubs’ fault that their players gave Chip crap about bringing his guitar with him on the plane? Everything that came down on Steve was a result of him protecting his incapable booth partner. Plus, the “two or three players” include Kent Mercker and Moises Alou who will not be back in 2005. What Chip is blaming the departure on and what really caused it do not mesh.
The Wizard of Roz says we should have seen it coming. We did. But are we really supposed to care about it?
You have got to be kidding? The Astros really picked up The Beege’s option? Good news for Houston opponents.
Newsday on new Met Sammy Sosa.
The Yankees declined Jon Lieber’s option (well sure, they’ve got so much pitching) and the Twins are interested. So are the Cubs. Hmmm.
America’s finest news source gears up for Recount 2004!
I smashed the boombox.
My WAG is that Stoney wants to go for the Washington front office, either as GM or VP of Baseball Operations. Or any other front office job that opens up this winter.
In other news, even if we don’t get Beltran, a closer, or sign either Nomar or Renteria…if we can somehow lose Sosa, we’ll be better off, by default.
Except if we have to take that pudknock, Kevin Brown, as part of the trade.
Kerry you pussy, don’t take credit for other people’s work!
I think there’s a chance that Stone could end up in the front office in Arizona, now that ownership has changed.
We said Kerry did it, because all of a sudden we know somehow.
Now that Stone and Caray are both leaving, there are no real links left with the Harry Caray era. This would be an excellent time to finally retire the idiotic 7th inning stretch guest conductor thing.
Too bad I wasn’t more upset about my own fat ass having tanked it in my last three starts, with invariable Rick Ankiel spurts, to finish below .500 for the first time in my career.
I’m not one of those who are wringing their hands over the departure of Steve Stone, but it is sad that it had to get this far. There is no doubt that Baker and Hendry should’ve done more (including fining and suspending the offending players) to those who started this crap in the hotel and on the plane. But like he does with everything else, Dusty takes the players’ side and his whole approach in the clubhouse is what fosters this kind of atmosphere.
The bottom line is that both Chip and Steve will get to walk away from this mess and come away with well-paying jobs in baseball. The rest of us have to hope that Hendry gets things under control and gets rid of the turds in that clubhouse who were the trouble-makers and contributed to the 2004 collapse.
Some say this is emblematic of how I fail to manage the players. What am I doing instead? Perfecting my in-game strategic skills?
I’m on the Score right now! There are more skeletons in the closet!!! No one knows why Sandy Krum was fired!!! They’re LYYYYYIIIIINNG!!!!!
Dusty,
That’s assuming you have any in-game managing skills to perfect in the first place.
You’re right, Dave B. We have a big mess in this clubhouse, whether Stoney’s here or not. Can anyone imagine Harry blasting this club on a daily basis; especially over the last two weeks of the season?
Like Stoney or not, the Tribune has one hell of a PR nightmare as a result of his departure. Management will continue to push issues to the side, (see Greg Maddux originally signed by the Braves), allow Dusty to contunue to please everyone in the clubhouse, and relentlessly continue to be happy with underachieving on the field, as long as there are 6 million ass cheeks in the true "America’s most beloved ballpark.
You’re right, Dave B. We have a big mess in this clubhouse, whether Stoney’s here or not. Can anyone imagine Harry blasting this club on a daily basis; especially over the last two weeks of the season?
Like Stoney or not, the Tribune has one hell of a PR nightmare as a result of his departure. Management will continue to push issues to the side, (see Greg Maddux originally signed by the Braves), allow Dusty to contunue to please everyone in the clubhouse, and relentlessly continue to be happy with underachieving on the field, as long as there are 6 million ass cheeks in the true "America’s most beloved ballpark.
You’re right, Dave B. We have a big mess in this clubhouse, whether Stoney’s here or not. Can anyone imagine Harry blasting this club on a daily basis; especially over the last two weeks of the season?
Like Stoney or not, the Tribune has one hell of a PR nightmare as a result of his departure. Management will continue to push issues to the side, (see Greg Maddux originally signed by the Braves), allow Dusty to contunue to please everyone in the clubhouse, and relentlessly continue to be happy with underachieving on the field, as long as there are 6 million ass cheeks in the true "America’s most beloved ballpark.
I firmly agree with Dave B. in his statement #9. I happened to enjoy Steve Stone’s work in the booth over the past years as a Cub fan. This whole mess started because of an imcompetent manager. Dusty Baker has no idea how to manager his players on the field and he does an even worse job trying to manage them off the field. Jim Hendry is one to blame as well. He lets the idiotic moves of Dummy Dusty slip right past him. He needs to get a firm grip on that dumb bastard or things like this will happen again in the coming year. I just am beside myself about how people can actually respect a guy like Dusty Baker. I can’t even believe this guy has gotten as far as he has. Like I said before, Dusty Baker is no better then a Wendell Kim. We all know how terrible that is.
Well anyway, I’m done today on my Dusty tirade. I’m sure Steve Stone will go onto better things. At least he won’t have to put up with that piece of shit Kent Mercker anymore.
Oh boo hoo. I won’t miss Chip and Steve’s annoying gee-shucks-we’re-two-old-cheesy dorks banter at all.
I believe Kent Mercker is a free-agent, isn’t he? If not, I don’t see any way in hell he’s back, either.
Ofman said today that there were only three or four reall "bad" guys on the ’04 team, and he named Mercker, Alou, and Sosa. However, George has always had a soft spot for Gabor Bako for entertaining him with his accordion (I still crack up at the thought of that picture).
Don’t forget me. I’m a bad closer and a worse guy.
How lucky are we to have the Big Hurt and Carl Everett excerise their player options to stay with us. Good times in 2005.
Sosa and Hawkins to the Mets for Floyd and Reyes.
I’ll give Corey a rest in RF, Beltran a rest when Corey goes to CF, DLee at 1B, play a little left for whomever (Dubois?) I’ll be your $6 mildo supersub.
My body breaks in half after about 350 AB’s so, used this way, I think I’ll be able to contribute.
You want to hear something scary? Ed Sherman has a list of possible Stone replacements, and Steve Lyons is on it. Ugh.
I for one am happy to see Steve go. Let’s move away from the style of booth that has bored me to tears my whole life. Let’s get a big time Cubs fan, a Ron Santo type, and put him in a booth with straight-shooting play-by-play guy.
Oh wait, we already have that on the radio. Well, then I guess no matter who is in the TV booth next year, even if it’s not Pat and Ron (and it won’t be) I will have my safe alternative.
If they find a great pair, great. If not, oh well. Maybe I can make it through more of the game than I could with Chip and Steve.
At the very least, maybe we won’t have to hear about the ever-creeping shadows every damn inning!
There are assfaces who voted for Lyons in the chicagosports.com poll.
My vote went to Eric Karros. I really liked him in that show with the loveable, diminutive Emanuel Lewis… It’s time he gets back on TV!
Let’s see…
To get rid of:
Mercker (check)
Alou (check)
Grud (check)
Sosa ( )
To get signed:
Beltran ( )
Nomar ( )
A Closer ( )
Ramirez ( )
Corey ( )
Here we go…
My option has just been picked up!!! See you next year Cub fans.
Actually, Eric is pretty decent in the booth. He wouldn’t be a bad choice for Stone’s replacement at all. Plus, he has the advantage of recency, so maybe he could provide some insights and anecdotes about the current players. The possibilities for Dolan-isms as a result would be endless.
Terry Francona manages the World Champions. Next to Francona, Dusty looks like Buck Showalter. It’s not the conduct off the field or on the plane, it’s the conduct on the field. The only thing more ridiculous than anyone caring about Carey and Stone’s departure is taking seriously their rationalizations for leaving. IMHO, the announcers don’t belong on the _team_ charter, and if they had an ounce of the balls they claim they have now, they’d have simply paid to go commercial. Carey and Stone have exposed themselves to be just as spoiled, egocentric, whiny and petulant as the worst pro athletes. Let the Cubs win in 2005; do you think anyone will remember that these losers broadcast the 2004 Cubs’ games, let alone care? Call me when someone with talent, like Vin Scully, decides to roll out.
PS Chip, no one cares about "eras" of broadcasters. No. One. No wonder your dad abandoned you when you were born. Oh and BTW, the man’s facing his own mortality. When he says he wants to broadcast with you, it really means he doesn’t want to die realizing he neglected his own flesh and blood, it’s not about you at all.
http://www.shutuptimmccarver.com
Jimmy Piersall said that he and Harry never flew with the team–they always flew on their own.
Can you imagine a drunk Caray and a crazy Pierasal flying their own plane?
DC exile, what (who) are you talking about?
Has Eric Karros officially retired from playing yet?
We’re retiring Eric Karros by not hiring him to play baseball.
How you can let someone do a site of McCarver-isms, and not honor the Chipster’s 6-years-too-long stay with a section on the site devoted to his many annoying cliches? Come on Dolan, what do you get the big bucks for anyway??
Oh yeah, that’d be real fun to listen to Ron piss and moan and read faxes all day, and maybe weight in with one half-assed comment every four innings.
Who out there is better than Stone? Andy just waves off Stone’s departure, but he pretty much hates everybody.
What’s irritating about this it’s just another example of Dusty and the players getting what they want, when they don’t deserve it. It never should have come to Stone feeling so uncomfortable with his job that he had to leave. Somewhere, Kent Mercker is smiling, and that is what bothers me.
CBS, no one in particular, those who want to turn this into "it’s Dusty’s fault, he’s too lax with the players" in general. The PS refers to Chip’s self-serving comment on Stone’s departure.
Here, Here, #28. Alou and Mercker beat Stone.
Sick.
I worry that this team is focused on image over winning. With Alou, and likely Mercker, gone, they’ve made steps in the right direction. Stonegate reverses a lot of this. And where the fuckis McPhail in this? It’s his job, not Hendry’s, to mediate between on-field and media issues.
The shitstink from this will last a while.
Chuck, was that you yesterday that told Todd Walker not to go to New York because you don’t want to hate him. He replied I have enough enemies.
One of the main reasons people are upset about Stoney leaving is because they are all young and dumb. Pretty much the enitre fan base of Cubstalk.com is under 30. They grew up with Stoney. But the fact is HE’S JUST A BROADCASTER.
So what if the players hated him, I bet Dusty hated him and that’s why he let them do what they did. He didnt lose control, he didnt like Stone and didnt want him around, so he let the players say what they wanted to say.
The young fan base of the Cubs cant handle the fact that somebody may not like there precious stoney that they grew up with.. I’m sure peoeple didnt like Jack Brickhouse leaving either, but we got over it. .. Just Deal people.. Hell if you put Tim McCarver in the booth i could handle it as long as you put a quality team on the field….
Thanks for the company-line work of fiction trashing Stoney on the way out, Andy.
We were worried Stoney might be considered classy for leaving some things unsaid.
But you successfully showed that with a lot of imagination and fabrication, one can ignore the facts that the team was obnoxious and out-of-control for the whole season and find a way to somehow criticize Stone by way of whipping-boy Chip.
Chuck, Sloth, cubbiebluestew, #42 is right. Why can’t you young punks just get over it?
#42, that’s exactly right!
Stone has no right to broadcast what he wants to say about the team. Only the players have to right to say what they want to say, when they don’t like what someone else said.
That’s exactly right! I’m a longtime guy!
Jesus, a real crisis would be if my elbow tendon snapped this off-season, or if Carlos punched a tree and lost use of his right hand. But a chance in broadcasters? Cheer up, Cubs fans, I think somehow we’ll make it through.
The Cubs didn’t fire Stone. He quit. You can spin it any way you want, and say that the Cubs drove him out. Dan Patrick tried to get Stone to admit that today on his show and Stone wouldn’t do it.
The bottom line, and nobody’s going to convince me otherwise is that Stone is still pissed that Chip is gone and decided not to come back.
Chip told me today that some players threatened to beat Stone up. I’m sure I’ll write all about this tomorrow.
Then again Chip said he wasn’t concerned for his safety, so you know it was all bullsh@#.
Only Cubs fans would spend this much time worried about who’s sitting in a friggin’ box describing what’s happening to them.
I would have agreed at one time that "Stone was only a broadcaster", but this whole conversation seems to have put the lie to that characterization, doesn’t it?
Stone may have been just a broadcaster, and this whole mess overshadows the moves the Cubs are going to have do decide upon for 2005 and beyond.
However, for me, Stone was really my last connection to the years I had growing up watching the games, listening to Harry and Steve, with my grandfather after school. Harry is gone, Dawson is gone, Dunston is gone, Ryno is gone, Grace is gone, and now Steve is gone.
There is nothing of that time left! How in the heck do you think people my age that grew up living and dying watching the Cubs are supposed to feel? We essentially spent 3 hours a day for 6 months of at least 10 or 15 years listening to this guy!
Maybe I’m too sentimental, but I really do feel like one of the last connections I had to my younger days is gone. The Cubs are my team, I love them to death, and always will, but this does not sit well with me at all.
The team allowed a situation to develop where a guy, whose only crime was simply station his opinion (That many agreed with), didn’t feel he could continue announcing the games. And that is the shame of this whole thing.
Farewell Steve, I will miss listening to you next year and in years to come.
Sorry, "station" in the penultimate paragraph should say "stating".
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Please God, let Steve Stone come here…not for Steve Stone, but just so we here in Arizona don’t have to listen to a certain butt-kissing moran babbling on about slumpbusters and shilleaghs any longer! Sounds like Gracie isn’t going to Chicago, though, so I regret to inform all of you that you’ll somehow have to survive next season without hearing that "Anybody who’s booing Aramis Ramirez is a yard-ape" or "Corey Patterson is a gorgeous man!" Oh, the horror…
But….I AM a gorgeous man! You can say it!
That’s what you call it when a website spends a ton of time ripping on broadcasters they hate, but when a good broadcaster leaves and people are mad about it, they say it’s only a broadcaster, so who cares?
Grow the hell up. Stone is the best in the business and had been a Cub from the Lee Smith era to the Aramis Ramirez era. That’s big. That’s when the Cubs became the franchise we know them as.
And Kent Mercker and Dusty Baker and Moises Alou ended his run. Fuck all of those assholes.
Did you even read the article, #56? Stone quit, and it’s very likely he did it because they took away his BFF Chip. It’s great that you loved Steve so much, but projecting your feelings to the point that you expect the entire world to mourn is ridiculous.
Yea, bullshit. Buy the company line. Hey, and Mark Prior will only be out until early May!
But hey, that’s fine. You guys expect the entire world (which I guess means this website) to hate Chip Caray and think he’s a huge deal while he’s here, but when Stone leaves, that’s NOT a big deal. BS. You guys, in this, have just been Cubbie company men.
Good riddance to both Stoney and the Chipster! #30 & #42 have it right. Both of these egomaniacs cooked their own stew. Long live Quinlan, the best ever!
That’s right, we love Desipio because they only say nice things about us and our employees. Well put #58. You obviously have excellent comprehension skills.
I tellCorey that all the time
Does anyone want me to play for the Cubs next year? I can be Dusty’s offcial injured veteran to sit on the DL all year! Dusty would love me!
I just think a bad precedent is being set. Nomar is traded from Boston and Boston rips him on the way out to try to save face. This site then rips Boston for doing that. As it turns out, this site only did that because Nomar was becoming a Cub.
Stone resigns and what does this site do? Bashes him on his way out. For no good reason but that he’s not a Cub anymore, he left the Cubs and was right to do so. The Cubs were the bad guys in this situation, not Steve Stone. But this site bashes him and supports the franchise, even when it’s incredibly wrong to do so, because hey, Stone won’t be there next year and the Cub franchise will. It’s pathetic, and makes this site’s moral outrage against Boston seem incredibly hypocritical.
I mean hell, look at the picture Dolan chose to run with this article. The whole thing’s a cheap shot, and for no good reason. Stone was a great analyst, no matter what the 10 people here say. The masses think otherwise, and baseball people think otherwise, and TV people think otherwise. Not only was he a great analyst, but he was a quintessential Cubs guy, and losing him is just another thing that makes this team harder to fully support.
At the end of the Cubs season Andy wrote that he was going to shut down this site. I was pleased that he reconsidered. I am a transplanted Chicagoan living in LA and check in on this site daily for Andy’s humor. It has become apparent to me in reading these discussions at the end of a Daily Dose that the "Intrepid Readers" using this site as a bashing forum. Too much bickering for my tastes. I hope that this site continues although I would understand if Andy decided to close it down after receiving criticism from these posters. I would suggest to Andy that continuing the Daily Dose and eliminating the discussion availability might be the way to go. Thanks for the laughs Andy.
Yea, that’s the ticket. The site that spends most of its time criticising the newspaper articles shouldn’t allow discussion of its own articles, because some of them are critical.
Seig heil, Cub fans!
Why is it so hard to believe that Dolan honestly never really cared for Stone? There was no Stone Love-o-meter next to the Chip Terror Alert System, for crying out loud. He’s not changing any stance by bashing Stone on his way out since he never praised him, but he is calling bullshit on the whole Stone is such a martyr crap the media is spinning.
#62, not everyone here at Desipio is bashing Stone on the way out.
If he wasn’t a big fan of Stone’s work in the booth in the first place, then it kind of undermines all of his criticism of announcers. If Stone wasn’t good enough to be "liked" as an announcer, who IS? Does Dolan just want no announcers for televised baseball games? It’s a fair question.
The Cubs team won this one.
Too bad they couldn’t win down the stretch; couldn’t control their behavior despite numerous reported meetings with "management"; and too bad it’s going to affect players moves in the offseason because half the team was a bunch of assholes.
Please. Is that unworthy of saying? Go live in a cave, because many Cubs fans think this team got out of control. I love this site — and I’ve supported this site — but if it’s going to shut down because people hate the fact that Stone got run out of town by a bunch of hacks and has-beens who won’t be around next year, then go sob in your urine-soaked Cubs unis and root for Bob Brenly to take over.
Part of the reason it matters is because they lost. D’OH!!!!!
Is this the new "take a long walk off a short pier"?
I really wish that #56, 58, 62, 64 and 67 would actually read the article. At what point do I bash Steve’s broadcasting abilities, or say that I’m glad that he left? I must have missed that when I wrote it.
If anything, upon re-reading the article myself (so I’ve read it twice as many times as the aforementioned reader(s)), it’s just me bashing Chip again.
I blamed him for Steve’s annoyance level increasing in the past two seasons. It’s pretty clear what my take on this is, so I’ll just state it again, then I’ll be off to Tribune Tower so I can get the company line from a company for which I do not work.
It’s my assertion that Steve quit because he felt the Cubs betrayed him by not trying to re-sign Chip. If you really think that this year’s team was the first to ever criticize Stone you obviously don’t have either foot in reality. Steve didn’t leave because a couple dimwitted players had a problem with him. One of the reasons he’s been one of the best analysts in baseball for nearly 20 years is because he doesn’t care what the players think.
62 seems to think our art department picked a cruel photo of Steve to run with the article. You know as opposed to all of the other flattering photos we run of people. Like this one we enjoy using of Greg Maddux.
Last I checked, we were still pretty pro-Greggie.
Anyway, here’s one for good old 62:
I’m not Dolan, but I know there were many times that I would have preferred no announcers for the games if it meant I wouldn’t have to listen to Chip. I like Stone myself, and I appreciated his insight, but many times I found I would rather watch the game with the mute button on than hear "line drive down the line by Alou. If it’s fair, it’s trouble." yet again. Hey Chip you moran, if a Cub hits it down the line, we want it to be fair, so it’s not trouble from our end. Besides, for those of us that have been Cub fans for awhile, do we really need announcers to tell us what we can see?
I wrote this, I ACTUALLY WROTE THIS: "The Cubs could have announced they were sending Aramis Ramirez and Mark Prior to the Twins for Augie Ojeda and Terry Mulholland and the outcry would have been muted compared with the hoo-hah that greeted Thursday’s announcement of Stone’s farewell."
That might be the most ignorant hyperbole ever.
Hey, Cubbies! I’m on the Free Agent Market!!!!!!!!!!!
Stone was a decent commentator, BFD. There are dozens of other ex-ballplayers that can do just as good a job given the chance and a couple years experience. Eric Karros is one guy I see moving up to the bigtime soon–he’s full of anecdotes without being full of crap or full of himself; he was a decent to good ballplayer for roughly a decade; he has recency working for him, particularly with the Cubs; and he seems like a glib, fun guy.
Stone could be a bit pompous and full of himself, I liked him, but he was hardly worthy of the adulation the teenagers here seem to want to give him. Lighten up already. Chip sucked, and frankly, some of it wore off on Stone. We enjoyed the years, good luck in Arizona, now get the hell out and let’s shutup over this.
Keep on truckin’ Andy.
BTW, our beloved Moran picture we have seen so many times–what’s up with the liberal cropping? Who’s responsible? I have a funny feeling there are more things worthy of derision in that picture than what we’ve seen to date.
How about the goober directly behind, and partially obscured by, our friend? What’s that t-shirt say on the fat loser just over our friend’s left shoulder? How about the red t-shirt wearing Fredbird fanatic over his right shoulder?
It’s a conspiracy, I’m telling you! What did Dolan know, and when did he know it??
"Stone could be a bit pompous and full of himself, I liked him, but he was hardly worthy of the adulation the teenagers here seem to want to give him. Lighten up already."
Yep, it’s all teenagers. Who knew that 90% of Cub fans were teenagers? Only Desipio!
How was all of your weekends? My, oh my. Steve Stone left the Cubs. Life will go on. It was unfortunate that the parting was on such bad terms, but life will go on.
Andy is right. Even the great realtor Calvin Schiraldi fought with Steve Stone. He stuck around long after Schiraldi left. I think it had to do with Chip Caray leaving. Stone was very close to Harry Caray, and when Harry died, Chip and him could at least relate Harry stories to each other. They were very close. Stone didn’t want to be Matt Vasergian’s or Daron Sutton’s sidekick. He could very well wind up Joe Buck’s color commentator on Fox as soon as they figure out where to send Tim McCarver (maybe he can call Montgomery Biscuits games with Tocco).
Anyway, who cares? It’s just an announcer. Are we going to be subject to this hand-wringing whenever the Bears can Hub Arkush, who’s been with the Bears from the Jim McMahon-Richard Dent-Mike Ditka era into the Craig Krenzel-Nate Vasher era?
For me, announcers are like umpires. You only notice them when they are really bad. That’s why I disagree with #56, who called Andy a hypocrite. As long as Stone isn’t replaced with an annoying jerk-off, this is no big deal. Stoney was good, but did anyone really still find it insightful when he said "Another slider down and away should get him here" after the batter had already flailed helplessly at two of them?
Did anyone catch Ronnie Woo-Woo on the Bears game last night? ESPN showed him shaking hands with some guy. Looked like Ronnie had his blue Cubs jersey on with a Bears helmet.
I had the misfortune of being on the road the last two afternoons and had to listen to Glen Kozlowski on WGN. He is awful Further proof that any Bear from the last 20 years can get a broadcasting job.
In reference to #79: For every one of the "insightful sliders low and away" comments, there were 10,000 different references to situational baseball. Young players who tuned in to the broadcasts could learn tons about the game listening to Stoney. In an era when little leaguers and high schooler’s knowledge of the game is limited to what they have learned from Playstation, the insightfulness is refreshing to me.
I didn’t have them damn playtendo contraptions, and I learned the game without listening to Stone. You kids today are useless!
I was going to center the Dose around this again today, but I just don’t care enough to do it.
I do find this interesting though. Just as I predicted when I heard it on Friday, Mariotti is running wild with Chip’s flipant comment that Steve was threatened with violence by at least one of the Cubs. Even though Chip immediately started backpedaling after he said it.
What he was referring to was the shouting match that Mercker and Stone had on the charter and then in an elevator. But also on Friday Chip said this,
"It’s sad because not one time did any of the players have the guts to come to us and talk about what disagreements they had with us. Not one time."
Sounds like they did it at least once, eh, Chippy?
Fortunately, even a cropped Morans Guy is still effective…
Physically threatened by just ONE of us, Chip says? He must have forgotten the post loss ritual of the game’s SP chasing him down, and the then each position player giving him a swirly.
Oh, and Dusty knew! Dusty liked to watch. We were a pack of sadistic bastards. people. Believe it. Chip said!
I’ve thought a lot about Stone’s leaving. It’s depressing. Does it matter as to whether the Cubs win or lose? No, despite the moranic claims of Jay Mariotti (read him again. He says no team that loses Stone can win the World Series. Huh?). But I enjoyed Steve’s calling the games. I associate a lot of my youth to watching Cubs games, and part of that association was with Stone. As to what made him leave, part of it was Chip. That’s foreshadowed in his sports central rant. But part of it was that the Cubs players acted like dicks, and the Cubs didn’t put a stop to it. Fine, I’ll still watch the Cubs because I’m a fan, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck that he’s gone.
Chip, we should get together some time.
A classic example today on The Score of Boers and Bernstein backing down when confronted. All morning, they had been making fun of Dan McGrath and his editorial in Sunday’s Trib about the Stone fiasco. They were obviously pissed that he made some reference to their repeated cracks about Dusty saying "Dude" all the time and how he uses Darren as a shield in press conferences. Well, McGrath called in around 1:45 and Bernstein welcomed him to the show. McGrath told him he didn’t need to be "smarmy" and to "stop patronizing" him. The boys mentioned a few of their alleged problems with his article, but all in all, they sure seemed to back down.
I am the new Diamondbacks manager!
Where’s Desipio’s RSS link?
Dave B,
did they mention Chip Caray? Because I’m really interested in Chip’s totally unbiased opinions on the team that he no longer works for. He sure has a lot to say about them now. I wonder why he never mentions the fact that he has now been given 2 high profile announcing jobs based solely on his DNA.
For every one of Stoney’s insightful "0-2 slider" comments, there were 10,000 tidbits about fundamentals, strategy and the game in general. What a great resource he has been for young Cub fans who are trying to learn the game. Stony’s daily analytical prowess was a refreshing alternative for youngsters who are trying to learn baseball from hours of playstation.
By the way, Didn’t Leo Durocher once refer to Jack Brickhouse as a "mental midget?" Food for thought when analyzing Manager/Announcer relations.
Did Sosa get along with Riggleman? I am thinking he did. And the Mets have interviewed Riggs for the manager position. Sounds like a good fit to me. Also wonder if Hidalago wouldn’t be a bad choice next year. Maybe sign him to a one year deal for about 3 or 4 million. He was a Cub killer just like Mosies.
Riggleman was the first to publicly call Sammy "selfish." It came when Sammy was running on his own during his 30-30 season. So I don’t think you’ll see a Sammy-Riggleman reunion.
Thanks Andy, I couldn’t remember for sure. Sounds like Sosa should just be a player manager then. If that would be the case trade him to the Cards.
How about Beltran, Troy Percival, and dumping Sammy. Great offseason!
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