rogers park bryan wrote:
Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
Beardown wrote:
I don't think Cubs fans loved him when he was with the Cubs.
You must have forgotten how many of them called in saying he was "the best in the business" and talking about how great his "first guesses" were.
He was good and he did first guess quite a bit compared to most color guys.
He first guessed Dusty through the entire choke job of 04.
I wouldnt pitch to Valentin (while he's in the on deck circle in the 10th of a tie game the cubs desparately need....4 minutes later....double to take the 2-1 insurmountable lead)
He was also incredibly able to predict pitch sequences somtimes 2 or 3 pitches down the line
I know those are just a couple examples but he
was good. I dont think cub fans are biased towards their home announcer as much as you are against anything Cub JORR.
Like all those Cub fans that said Lee waa better than Pujols? Come on Son! If anybody said that they should have been dismissed as not a baseball fan. Dont pretend actual cub fans thought that.
Stone has lost a bit with time, probably because he's old and just doesnt care as much anymore.
Predicting a pitching/play situation is the aspect of him as a broadcaster that I respected. Up to a point he was almost uncanny, then he let things get personal. If he wanted to be a GM there were other opportunities aside from lobbying for the Cub job from the broadcast booth.
As a Score expert he is a one trick pony, Cub bashing. Anything else about MLB he'll all but admit he doesn't see/know, or he recites ESPN.
Working with Hawk almost makes me have a degree of sympathy for him. Harrelson's cornpone act has grown so worn and tired that it has become a "spin the wheel of cliches" to describe a game. How can a color man want to talk when he's being set up with references that date back to when he was playing little league? The requisite fellating of Mantle and "Yaz" or identifying one of the current players on this .500 team as the best he's seen at doing something leaves no room for discussion. There isn't a broadcast booth big enough for anyone working with Hawk and to see he and stone sit while touching opposing walls in a booth is illustrative of this.
Jerry Reinsdorf likes it this way with his teams, blatant homerism with a heaping helping of corn. It's why Ed Farmer makes my ears bleed. Why Stacy King has gone from being a credible coach/analyst to a bojangling fool. Why Bill Wennington has become a poor man's imitation of King. Why a Jim Durham can go to the Hall of Fame
after being let go by Reinsdorf.