Set the volume to 0. Absolutely brutal. The man calls a play at the plate like a robot calls people for dinner.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

Can't believe Mitch didn't think Mark Grote could do better than this assembly-line cornball. AAAAH HA HA HA HA HAAAAA!

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I appreciate that Zack brings everyone here together no matter the sport

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I don't know why they couldn't have gone out and gotten Andy Masur to be the pre/post/backup. Maybe he didn't go to the legendary Syracuse, but at least he's a Cubs fan. It's like the Sox fans who wanted Dave Wills and got Connor McKnight.

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ZZ has proven years of kissing up gets you the big gig. Not everyone's path to success but one path used in many a career.

ZZ had a great call last afternoon post game. A guy starts off listing all his illnesses, giving thanks for renewed good health, than blasts Joe for a couple of minutes. ZZ went into combo doctor/Cubs apologist mode.

Thanks, Crane !

On the corporate ass kissing berating callers scale ZZ is pretty annoying but I'd give him a B-.

Now......if he really wants to get an A++++++ in this department, he doesn't need to look that far....just in the same studio.... get advice from the one and only Hub Arkush!

I hope that when the Rays finally give up on Tampa that Wills comes back to Chicago to take the White Sox radio job and retire Farmio. Wills and Andy Freed do a great job broadcasting Rays games, one of my favorite duos in the game right now.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

It's funny: Tampa actually gets very good TV/radio ratings, it's just that no one there will actually attend the games.

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

It takes time to get used to a new voice.

I wish I was as excited about baseball as ZZ.

Yep. Kenney screwed us on this one. After hearing some thoughts that ZZ was improving I listened extensively the last couple of weeks when Pat was out. Listening to understand what is actually happening in the game is harder than it should be. The cadence of what is happening real time is just not good. It's ok when the other team is at bat because he doesn't seem to try too hard. He calls the game. Too much reaching for the right word/excitement or whatever when the Cub is up to bat. Tone that down or stop doing the pbp...please.

ZZ, Coomer, Thayer were on a couple hours yesterday. I really enjoy the three together talking sports. Thayer & Coomer have tons of old stories. Coomer didn't break into the MLB until he was 28, so he has an interesting perspective. Just ban ZZ from his Cubs talk bs-ing and he's more tolerable.

lol this happened a second time at AM1000 except they got McDoink AND Len Kasper

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Stone, Kasper, and McKnight: There's absolutely no way Reinsdorf doesn't hate White Sox fans.

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I know you're kind of joking, but on some level I think that's actually true. Though "contempt" is probably a better description for what he feels than "hate".

Jerry isn't really a Sox fan, as odd as that may sound considering he's owned the team for almost 40 years. He is one of those Dodgers fans who were deeply hurt and permanently scarred when their team left Brooklyn. He can never be a fan in the same way he was again. Yeah, he still likes baseball and he invested in a team where he thought he could make money, but he isn't a fan of that team in the way that, say, Tom Ricketts is a fan of the Cubs.

His treatment of Sox fans is similar to that of a parent dismissing what he considers the outlandish and silly concerns of a child. "You don't want all these Cub guys announcing your games? Don't be ridiculous. These are professional broadcasters. In any case, the Cubs are not an enemy. They play in a different league. And Tom Ricketts has become a good friend."

It's like when some dummy comes in to coach the Bears and says that the Packers games are no different than the Lions games. It's true as far as the standings are concerned but it illustrates a shocking lack of understanding and really, a lack of preparation, for the job that you have taken. It says more about the coach than it does about the fans. And usually that lack of preparation shows itself later in poor decisions on the field.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

I think Reinsdorf is more hostile to fans than you give him credit. He had Rob Gallas as the head of PR for the first 20 years or so responding to fan letters with FU. That comes right from the top.

I seem to remember some time a kid wrote a letter to try to get a game ball and Gallas told him to get bent.

Reinsdorf is the kind of guy who is charitable to the group but he has absolute disdain for the individual. He's been that way literally since day 1 of his ownership yet some people don't want to believe it 40 years later

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

McKnight is such a minute part of that. Pregame its lineups, injury and minor league updates, and a canned pre-recorded interview or two. Post game its calls. If the Sox win, yay! If not, its drunken meatheads looking to vent.

I'm willing to give Kasper the benefit of the doubt as he switches from TV to radio, but I don't have high hopes.

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That's a bad Score narrative that tries to paint Sox fans as mentally disabled, Frank. It was never used when the same type of passionate fans called in to Doug and O'B after a bad Bears loss. In fact, Doug and O'B sounded just like the fans. I don't think that's too much to ask for- someone who can commiserate. I'm not interested in a pompous fuck like Rongey acting as if he's above it all and running interference for terrible decisions made by Sox management. It makes me want to laugh in his face as the Cubs sweep the Cardinals out of another postseason to see how he likes it.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

I get it. I also think its different as NFL is so huge and there is such a short amount of games. I get frustrated with Sox losses as much as anybody, but over the course of six months loses are going to be there. Even the 2005 club had 63 of them. I wouldn't even think to call a Sox postgame show over a single loss, but to each their own.

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2005!

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

As long as ZZ is kissing Hughes behind and laughing at his unfunny jokes every broadcast, he has a job for life.

Reinsdorf and Einhorn's takeover of the White Sox was pure New Yorkers aghast by flyover country. Didn't they make their first visit to Comiskey and immediately say they wanted "a higher class of fan"? They got rid of the "unprofessional" homer local broadcast and installed a Dodger and a Red Sock (though the latter would go on to be the most unprofessional homer of all). There's always been subtle and not-so-subtle Dodger/Yankee envy. You saw the same thing when some Jewish guy from New York bought the Devil Rays and started dressing them up in austere blue and white like the Dodgers. "Look, fawtha!"

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ZZ with Tom Thayer this morning. Legendary Les "Wack Pack" caller "I -80 Frank" called in. He asks compare Rodgers/Adams to McMahon/Gault in his Packer biased way. Thayer gives a very interesting detailed answer. ZZ dumps "i-80 Frank" saying the question is senseless. TT ignores ZZ and keeps answering to dumped "i-80 Frank" for a couple more minutes. Classic ZZ.