I think we all hoped that the return of Steve Stone to the Cubs broadcast booth would “save” Chip Caray. I think the opposite has happened. I think Chip’s unique brand of dimentia has worn off on Steve. Friday night’s Cubs-Astros game was a disaster from start to finish. Two topics of conversation in particular prove this point.
Aren’t you glad you have Desipio around to point this stuff out?
Early in the game, Chip dragged out the tired, 13-year old “Can you believe the Red Sox traded Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen?” That mule has been flogged more often than we care to consider.
But the irritating thing about the conversation wasn’t Chip saying he once spoke with former Boston GM Lou Gorman and Gorman defended the trade by saying, “You owe it to your organization to win when you get the chance.”
Two things about that.
1) Andersen was 5-2 in 1990 in 50 games with the Astros with a 1.54 ERA. He was 0-0 with a save and a sparkling 1.23 ERA in 15 games with Boston. The Red Sox got swept by the A’s in the playoffs.
2) Trading for Andersen was a good idea. Trading Jeff Bagwell for him wasn’t a good idea. You can’t defend the trade on merit. You just can’t.
But here’s the kicker. Check out what Steve Stone’s explanation for the trade was. This is in a word, incredible.
“The reason for the trade was that the Red Sox considered Bagwell expendable because Butch Hobson had just hit 30 homers at third base and they had a very young Cecil Cooper at first base.”
What? Huh? Let’s check that again.
“The reason for the trade was that the Red Sox considered Bagwell expendable because Butch Hobson had just hit 30 homers at third base and they had a very young Cecil Cooper at first base.”
Butch Hobson?
Cecil Cooper?
What the hell is Steve talking about?
Butch Hobson hit 30 homers for the Red Sox in Nineteen seventy-seven!
Cecil Cooper was in Milwaukee in 1977. He had left the Red Sox in 1976 and he was 28 years old!
Jeff Bagwell was NINE years old in 1977! Nine!
I can give Lou Gorman a pass on trading a nine-year-old Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen. But since Lou Gorman didn’t have a time machine, I don’t think he made the trade in 1977. It says here that he made the trade in August of 1990.
That wasn’t it for Stone on Friday, though.
First off, he ragged on the official scorer for about two and a half hours for not giving Mark Bellhorn an error in the first inning when he tried to go home on a one out grounder and couldn’t get his man. You can’t give Bellhorn an error on that play. It’s a tag play at home and he didn’t throw the ball away, he just threw it in front of home plate and Damian Miller couldn’t grab the ball and make the tag in time. That’s the exact play that the fielder’s choice was invented for. It was the pitcher in Steve coming out. He was just worried about Mark Prior’s precious ERA. Mark Prior’s precious ERA can lick my shoe.
Later in the game the Cubs had Damian Miller on third and Mark Grudzielanek on second with two out. Ramon Martinez singled to left field, scoring Miller and Grudzielanek rounded third and nearly got thrown out trying to get back. Stone and Chip went nuts. They were all over Grudzielanek. But thanks to the Fox Sports Net replay, it was obvious who the real culprit was.
None other than Wendell Kim…again.
On the replay you can see Kim waving Miller home. Here’s the thing. Miller’s on third base already. There are two outs. He’s going on anything. He can’t even see Kim. But Grudzielanek can. So he looks up about ten feet before he gets to the third base bag to see if he’s supposed to slow down and stop at third, or if he’s supposed to keep on chugging home. Kim is waving his arms, so Gruzielanek puts his head down and keeps on sprinting. Kim waits until Grudzielanek has rounded the bag before he puts up the stop sign. Kim is lucky that Grudzielanek saw him at all. As it was he had to put on the brakes and dive back in to avoid being nailed.
Chip and Steve watched the same replay and put all of the blame on Mark. In fact, they harped on it for another two innings.
If you aren’t going to explain to the audience at home what’s really going on, you might as well not announce the game at all.
Not all of the Cubs fans are as smart as our intrepid Desipio readership.
Unfortunately, those same lemming-like masses don’t get as irritated at the horrendous announcing we’re being subjected to.
Thanks for pointing out Steve Stone’s error regarding Hobson and Cooper.
But I disagree with a couple of your other points.
Regarding Bellhorn’s misplay, you can give an error on the play, and Bellhorn should have been given one. Just because Miller caught the ball doesn’t mean Bellhorn’s throw can’t be an error. Bellhorn threw way wide of the plate. If he had made a normal throw, Biggio would have been out. An analogy can be made to making a throw to first that pulls the first baseman off the bag. That’s just what Bellhorn did: he pulled Miller away from being able to make the tag.
The MLB rules specifically contemplate "wild throws" being errors. It is not necessary for a throw to not be caught in order to be classified as wild.
Regarding Kim and Grudzielanek, though Kim hasn’t done the best job this year, what he did on this play was fine. It is Grudzielanek’s responsibility to keep his eye on Kim. Third base coaches make last second decisions all the time. Grudzielanek has to be aware that Kim may change his mind. You **don’t** just lower your head after seeing the initial signal.
The rules also state you cannot assume an out. While it is far easier to give an error when a player is pulled off of a base in which a force is in effect, in order to give an error on a tag play (the most common of these is an attempted stolen base) you cannot assume every throw should be pinpoint.
Last night, Bellhorn’s "error" was a mental one. He took too long to throw home and when he did he did not make a good throw. But, for the official scorer to just automatically give him a throwing error, as Stone suggested, is incorrect.
As for Kim, there is no reason to wave Damian Miller home from third base on a single to left field. You could see Grudzielanek pick up Kim on his way to third and see him waving. Why would Kim be waving Miller who is already past him? Kim’s stop sign to Grudzielanek was too late. Plus it doesn’t help that he’s a dwarf.
Maybe not overly combative. But certainly overly boring.
Besides, you missed the whole point. The fact that Steve thought I was playing for the Red Sox in 1977 was the most assinine thing the whole night. Maybe he’s as coked up as I am!
I enjoyed being called very young, too.
The rules only state, as far as I know, that you can’t assume an out on an attempted double-play. (Can you show me otherwise?) But outside of that, we assume outs all the time on plays where errors are charged. Bellhorn didn’t have to make a pinpoint throw, he just had to make one that didn’t pull Miller aware from the plate.
I’m not sure why Kim would be waving Miller when he was already past him, and I don’t think he was (I’m not sure how I implied otherwise). Kim was definitely waving Grudzielanek. But then he changed his mind. Maybe he changed his mind too late (though I don’t think he did on that play), but it wouldn’t have "mattered" had Grudzielanek kept his head up. (I put mattered in quotes because Grudzielanek got back anyway, so it didn’t really matter.)
Again, third base coaches make last second decisions a lot. I’ve never known it to be proper protocol for players to briefly look at a base coach and then completely ignore him after that.
By the way, I enjoy your site. So I hope I don’t seem overly combative on these points.
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