Which setting is lower than low?
So long, Chip.
You’ll be missed.
In much the way that an itchy rash is fondly remembered.
Shop the Desipio/Pointless Exercise Store
Which setting is lower than low?
So long, Chip.
You’ll be missed.
In much the way that an itchy rash is fondly remembered.
At least with Chip, we knew what to expect: a full-blown assclown. But he wasn’t boring. Hopefully, Pat Hughes is his replacement…I’d like to see a Hughes/Otto team next year.
I hope the new guy doesn’t mind picking up the checks.
I will always remember you as "vaunted," assbag.
Have fun with the Battlin’ Bravos
I’ll call games for you cocksuckers!
Honey, you can have a job in Atlanta. You can work anywhere, as long as it’s still a plane ride away from our imaginary home in Orlando.
There will be a lot of us in Atlanta next year.
Don’t forget "towering line drives". Dave Otto? I’d rather have Hughes do the games alone, Vin Scully style.
Is it a known fact that I’m gone?
You can take the job in Atlanta as long as we can keep the same pool boy in Orlando.
WGN Radio reported that Sammy Sosa arrived late and left the park early without permission today. Andy Masur said Hard Bake was clearly steamed in his office after the game. It appears that Sammy has likely played his last game as a Cub, and is forcing them to trade him so his 2006 option for $18 million automatically kicks in.
As for Chip, when Steve mentioned "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" as appropriate background music for the Fan Cam segment, I knew Chippy was gone. It’s gonna be an interesting off-season. I’ll bet we’ll wish we’d get a dollar every time we’ll hear the term "Hot Stove" this winter.
Thank God Chip is gone. I really do hope Steve Stone stays. With the exception of Prior, Stone has more talent than anyone else in the Cubs organization. I’d like to see fans step up and show their support for him.
What about Larry Bowa in the booth with Stoney? He’s looking for a new job.
Early radio speculation is on Rick Sutcliffe joing the team. I’ll post whatever other rumors I hear.
If Sut joins, who does the play by the play? Can’t have 2 color guys in the booth.
Speculation would be Sut doing PBP. Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me either, but that’s what’s being said.
A wild story I’ve heard in a couple of spots is Bob Costas. The Olympics are done and he’s always wanted to do baseball for an entire season. I don’t see it happening, but you never know.
I also don’t think Stone will stick around after the crap he’s been through this year. Who could blame him? I’d say Mark Grace might be the option to replace him.
Pat Summerall and, in a limited role, Frank Gifford did play-by-play for some time after their football careers were over. However, football is much different than baseball, and probably easier to announce (More people to remember however, but only once a week).
With Chip, I didn’t think he was very good, so I’m happy in that sense he’s gone. He did get a raw deal with how poorly treated he was this season, however. But, still, I guess Chip leaving would be infinitely better than Stone leaving. I will really be upset if Steve Stone is forced out.
Costas would be interesting…what is his contract status with NBC?
I bet Stone is back. However, if he isn’t I say just move Pat and Ron into the TV booth.
I love Ron, but he needs to stay in the radio booth, he does less damage there (can you imagine the guy trying to break down a replay for us).
Sosa arrived late? I knew something weird had to be going on for Baker to actually play DuBois.
Rick Sutcliffe in the booth? NO. Find somebody else. Anybody else. What about the C-list ESPN play by play guy that e-mailed Andy one time? He’d be better than Sut.
Stone can — and has done — PBP. Here’s my plan for 2005:
TV:
Hughes PBP, Stone color (innings 1-3, 7-9)
Stone PBP, Unnamed Jock color (innings 4-6)
Radio:
Name Announcer PBP, Santo color (1-3, 7-9)
Hughes PBP, Santo color (4-6)
This keeps the Pat and Ron Show going in part, retains Stone in his valuable role, and breaks in an as yet unknown former player. The only snag is in finding a veteran radio name. Neither Santo nor Stoney will be around forever, so training another jock to do color is a good idea.
I don’t see them screwing with the radio side of things, at least as far as Pat Hughes is concerned. Hughes is a quintessential "radio guy". I don’t think his descriptive style would transfer to TV.
Pat Foley may still be out of work come March. He’d be interesting as a possible 4th-6th inning guy if they do a split-TV thing.
Could Ron actually stand six innings per game with Andy Masur announcing? I don’t know if I could.
If Stone has done PBP (I don’t recall him doing it but maybe I’m just too young or I missed it), then maybe him doing PBP with someone like a Mark Grace or Sutcliffe (I don’t think Ryno would do it, even though if he did he would become a Santo in training I guess) would work. Although a poster on here from Arizona earlier this season said Grace isn’t that good at announcing the game…
Good lord am I a dumbass for describing Chip’s leaving as a BLOCKBUSTER.
"It appears that Sammy has likely played his last game as a Cub, and is forcing them to trade him so his 2006 option for $18 million automatically kicks in."
I WISH, but wouldn’t that require, say, a willing trade partner? Who the hell would take him?
Hell, if they manage to get rid of Chip AND Sosa AND Alou (which, that one will be easy) it would be pretty damn impressive.
If the Cubs could find a taker and would agree to pay around half the remaining contract, they could spread out the money they owe him next year over two seasons and rid themselves of this jerkwad, then they’ll do it.
Their option is pay him all $17 million next year and keep him around, or pay him the same amount over two seasons and get rid of the cancer. Sosa is not guaranteed anything more than next year’s salary unless he’s dealt, which would the 2006 option guaranteed. That’s the ONLY way he’ll get paid that much in 2006.
By the way, on the pre-game special on WGN today, they had a roundtable of Cubs beat writers, and it sounds like the Jockey Paul Sullivan isn’t going to be covering the Cubs for the Trib next year. He was pretty mouthy and smart-ass regarding a "monumental choke", and he made a comment that alluded to him being done on that beat. We can only hope.
I want to come back to Chicago and continue the tradition of rooting for teams other than the Cubs in the TV booth!
Sure, we kinda broke your hearts there in the end, but look at all the good our season-ending suckage brought — Chip is gone! Paul Sullivan might be gone! Could Mariotti’s resignation loom on the horizon?
"With the exception of Prior, Stone has more talent than anyone else in the Cubs organization"
Hey, Jeff K? F YOU!
I’d settle for a dollar every time someone either says, "Trade Sammy" or "don’t trade Sammy"…
The Cubs fans did step up today. I was at Wrigley today and after the 7th inning stretch, they started chanting "Stoney! Stoney! Stoney!" and Chip eventaully pushed Steve out to wave to the crowd. Also I saw a few signs supporting Stoney such as "Thank you Stoney for saying what the fans think"
As for Sullivan I think its normal that the beat writer is rotated between the Sox and the Cubs.
#30, I’d like to be rotated between the Sox and the Cubs. My boyfriend Mike in NY, I bet he’ll join in too!
Screw you Edmonds, I am SO not gay! Why, I was just saying to the pool boy during the commercial break of tonight’s Will & Grace, that I am SO not gay! Winkie loves it when I get all tough you know.
Their announcer leaves, their beat writer quits, their biggest name doesn’t show up for the last day of work on time.
This, my friends, is the biggest disaster of a season we’re ever likely to see. Media people are dropping like flies just from covering this squad.
Yeah, #33, let’s all shed a tear for the loss of all the media morans this team scared away. Come on now — ridding us of Chip was by far the most productive thing they did.
And a 89 win season is not the biggest disaster I’ve ever seen from the Cubs.
*Breaks into song*
New York, New York!
Buddy.
Uh, I wasn’t lamenting it at all. Maybe you should work on your reading comprehension. I was simply pointing out that this season was the biggest disaster of a season since 1969, if not in team history. If you think it wasn’t, just because the team won 89 games, that’s fine. You’re wrong, but you’re entitled to that opinion. This was a high-payroll, high-expectation baseball team. They had the best rotation in the big leagues, were supposed to have one of the best lineups, and one of the best managers, and they choked. Not only did they choke, they choked HORRIBLY, maybe the worst late-season choke of any playoff contender in the last twenty years. And not only did they choke horribly, they choked horribly after spending the entire season being assholes to everyone and playing retarded, infuriating, underachieving baseball. They were so bad that the fans turned out in droves to boo them every day, even when they were in the hunt. And the fans weren’t being unfair. They were such assholes that their beat writer and their play by play guy didn’t want to cover them again. That is a disaster of a season. If they can’t sign the players they want to this offseason, because of the events of this season, it’ll just further cement this season’s legacy as the biggest mess ever.
Perhaps you were lamenting it, but you were certainly whining about it.
And of course they choked, but enough with the hyperbolic "they were such assholes, they drove their beat writers away". Wtf? You have no idea how any of them behave, just that they ultimately sucked as a team.
Their choking didn’t have as much to do with them "being assholes" as it did with more than half of them dropping 10+ points in their batting average the last 2 weeks of the season. They lost because they fucking stopped hitting period, not because they were trying to offend you personally.
The Mets are interested in Sam the man…
I saw a post-game press conference with Steve Stone in which he acknowledged it wasn’t his choice to come back for next year but also said he thought he would be back. I do hope he’s around.
Chip’s leaving was bittersweet for me. Sure, I jump in and call him an assclown like we all do, but he’s also the first Cubs announcer to whom I remember listening. Sure, I know I watched Harry as a kid, but Chip is the one about whom I’ll have the most immediate memories. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy who liked his job, and though he does have his faults, I liked him as a guy.
I saw on the news this morning that Thom Brenemen’s name was being kicked around as a replacement. This does not make me too pleased, but there’s not too much we as fans can do. Hopefully he’ll do a good job this time around.
Who knows if we’ll see Sammy, Nomar, or anyone else on the 2004 team in a Cubs uniform again. I had the same expectations of a huge year, and I’m a little bit disappointed. At the same time, though, I love baseball. I’d watch a meaningless post-season game between the Brewers and the Single-A Kane County Cougars. Some nights, I go to the local little league fields and just watch the game. Baseball is beautiful, and I think it’s a pleasure for us all to have two (or three, if you count the Brewers) local Major League team for us to enjoy.
You’re a dope.
Can we get Elisha Cuthbert to do PBP on the TV side? That way, the cameras don’t even have to be pointed at the field…just up in the booth. Even though she’s Canadian and doesn’t know shit about baseball…who cares?
I can do play-by-play, buddy. This is my house and I am the man here and in Dominican Republic, buddy. I can play right field, hit home runs and call the game, buddy. This team needs me, buddy. Baseball’s been very, very good to me.
This team was both a disaster and a success in some ways.
Disaster evidence is obvious. Only the state of Florida has had bigger disasters this year.
Success evidence: The team won 89 games and stayed in contention into the last week after enough injuries to necessitate a full-blown *MASH unit being set up in the bullpen/foul territory. As Andy stated months ago, this team–and many other Cubs teams of the past–would’ve been buried months ago.
I think this current team and manager in are in slow, championship-building process. Unexpected success last year set expectations way too high this year. When you look back at 2003, they were lucky to win the division because no truly great team (record-wise at least) emerged from the field. The Cubs had virtually the same record and finished miles out of first in 2004. So, I think we all think we’re at a different point in our championship timeline than we really are.
Someone above also criticized the rotation. As much as I love Mark Prior and Kerry Wood–our hopes are on their shoulders–they are still very unproven, young players. To get all mad when they don’t both put up 20-win seasons during the same year is, again, lacking perspective. These guys still need a couple years hit their prime (assuming they can ever have a healthy, complete season). Is it any wonder that the veteran of the staff, Greg Maddux, was the one who won 16 games despite being thought of as the 4th or 5th guy? Of course he’s a hall of famer, but he’s still getting pretty damn old. Of course, Carlos Zambrano blows this whole theory because he’s, apparently, a stud.
But I think this whole team has some guys who need more maturity and experience, as evidenced by all the whining and agruing with umps during games when we needed them to stay cool and stay in the game.
Also, don’t forget that this team was utterly exhausted going into the final week.
One last point: Stony has to stay. We must all make sure he goes no where. Thanks Stony for having the pair of nads that this team lacked overall in many ways.
Join us for the exciting 2005 season, as the Cubs try to win the NL Central and then attempt to take the National League pennant for the first time in 60 years.
Catch all the games on either Comcast Sports Net, WCIU, or the flagship, WGN, Channel 9 as color analyst Steve Stone joins his new partner:
I’m 27 going on 28. Shouldn’t I start to become "proven" before I hit Fat Roger’s age?
Kerry, yes please. Any time now.
#39- Chip Caray’s "nice guy" rep is not really deserved. He’s not nearly the pansy he pretends to be on TV off camera, he’s not really approachable.
Not an all out prick, but far from a guy you can go up to and have a small talk chat with. Knowing him- I can say I didn’t like him as a guy. I find myself liking him better as a broadcaster then a guy. Of course, take into account how unbelievably fake he was on the air. Actually, I never recall thinking he was the least bit genuine.
Good Riddance, I say
I’d love to bring my light FM voice over to the Cubs.
Would anyone like to hear more of my classically trained voice? I’ve made a miraculous comeback since getting shot in the throat several years ago. Me and Jim Edmonds both. He still likes to get shot in the throat though.
all of a you are a bunch of HYPOCRITES….for any one of you who has ever criticized the Cubs offense, defense, or managing, then you are no better than Chip. you guys are over here talking $hit about him and how he always seems to root for the other team and shouldnt belong in the booth cuz he doenst know what he’s talking about…well, if you would all just take the time to actually shut up with all your bs and listen to what he’s saying and then compare it to what CHIP’S saying and you’ll see that he is, in reality, a reflection of all you "non-true-cub fans." I’ll admit I was angry at times with Chip for always glorifying the rival teams plays and whenever he made his annoying comments on how well the rival team has played…but then I read some of the comments on this site and its like WTF???? It’s nothing but criticism from a bunch of so called Cubs fans who like to blame others for what they’re guilty of as well. Sure many of you might say, well we tell it like is and the Cubs havent been playing good as of late, but we are true Cubs fans at heart because we criticize, but still care….well guess what fuckkers….YOUR NAME SHALL NOW BE KNOWN AS CHIP CARAY. =)
the capatalized word "CHIP’S" was actually meant to read "YOUS ARE ALL"…so children the new sentence will read: if you would all just take the time to actually shut up with all your bs and listen to what he’s saying and then compare it to what YOUS ARE ALL saying and you’ll see that he is, in reality, a reflection of all you "non-true-cub fans."
Yes. Excellent. That reads much better.
I know Ponch has been in the booth before, but can you keep us out of this?
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