I know he explained why. Still shocked. And I don't believe what he said in that explanation. He's a dignified guy trying to convince people that it wasn't about hating his new boss at his new network. He's just trying to be classy. I admire that.

1. Less money.

2. Less fame.

3. Smaller audience. Especially at ESPN 1000 where it doesn't carry very far.

4. No guarantee that he gets to call a World Series game.

He probably could have been the Cubs guy for another 20 years if he wanted it. In theory... but maybe not.

So despite what he has said, I think there is something more to this.

Why couldn't he have just waited a few years when Pat retires and have an agreement that he then gets to do radio for the Cubs. Pat won't do this much longer. What? 5 years tops?

Nobody in the sports media industry would quit the Cubs TV job for a radio job. He's the only one. So there had to be other reasons then what he described.

I'm thinking he saw the writing on the wall. That the Cubs were gonna get rid of him after the contract and he wanted a landing spot while his kids are still at home. It was open with the SOX, so now he made the move. He gets to stay in Chicago.

I'm also thinking he's gonna do the SOX until the radio job with the Detroit Tigers opens. Cuz that's his home town. That was his team when he was a kid. Then he'll go there. I'm not sure what their radio situation is or who does it. But I'm guessing that's Len's plan.

He did it because his boss at Marquee sucks. he's the 'hey im from new york you chicago hillbillies' type.

He had more freedom at WGN. And he bought the bullshit that Marquee and WGN would be seamlessly the same. He was too naive as anyone who's been around the block knows that's never true.

Yeah. Part of it. I heard that smarmy New Yorker on the Parkins show today. The boss of Marquee. Sounded like a Queens accent to me.

Still, you put up with that if you know you'll still have the job. You nod your head to whatever he says and at the end of the day, you just call the games the way you want.

I think that NY boss was gonna get rid of him once the contract ended. Len thought the same. I'm thinking they had some disagreements and Len had a sense it wasn't gonna last. So he bolted. Like I said, to stay in Chicago for a few more years. I assume his kids are still in school here. He didn't want to disrupt their lives. How old are his kids? Anyone know? Then, once the kids are gone, he finds his way back to Detroit. Doing the Tigers on the radio.

Boom. I've solved another one.

This just seems very odd to me. Len was a solid cookie cutter tv guy. He didn't stand out as being amazing or as being terrible. He did his job well and seems like a very likeable guy. The main issue I see is going to be the timing/game description with radio vs tv. He always seemed to react to the action instead of calling the action. That works just fine on tv but not so much on the radio. You have to paint me the picture now instead of describing the already painted picture. My advice....get some good coke.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Can't wait for Laurence to go after Kasper.

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I think this is mostly a face value kinda thing.

Especially since BD and Hawaii think it isn’t

So far hes reelly, reelly hypppy for Lynn.

Len Kasper is having a midlife crisis. Ask him. He will tell you.

Hasn't Len been extremely honest and articulate about battling depression in his life. He's got to follow his heart.

Andy “ Raw Deal “ Masur

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

What’s funny is that the media in this town are always looking for nefarious reasons why people do things but are just willing to accept an obviously bullshit explanation and not even question it from one of their own. Sure thing Meat, he left one of the premier TV broadcasts in sports because he just “ always wanted to do radio “ . Sure thing .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. Kasper came up through WTMJ doing pre/post and fill-ins for Bob Uecker, just as Pat Hughes did. Working with Bob Uecker, Pat Hughes, and Jim Powell should be enough to make anyone love baseball on the radio. And radio has always been the domain of the play-by-play guy whereas TV showcases the analyst: you don't need someone to tell you what you can see for yourself.

But it was pretty clear that he was not in a good place with Marquee. My alarms went off before the channel even launched, when they were promoting Chris Myers as the fill-in guy for the long season that never happened. But Len's a workhorse; did he ever take a game off in the 15 years before that? Not in my memory. And lately, when TV had the day off, he'd do an inning of radio. So why did they need a national guy like Chris Myers to drop in and do fill-in work? That's a move you make to push someone out because you're from New York Baby and you think everyone else is small-time. I remembered this from August:


So obviously it had become an unpleasant work environment.

But if Len loves radio so much and believes in the primacy of radio play-by-play in baseball, should he be bailing on the radio booth any time Jason and Stone call in sick, leaving the paintbrush of the mental picture in the hands of...Darrin Jackson? It's very strange. Marquee must really suck.

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I don't disagree with any of that, but I wonder if the third leg of this (first being wanting to do radio, second being Marquee) is the opposite trajectory of both franchises.

One thing I'm fairly certain of is that he will miss working with JD.

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All true. But will enjoy working with and around Benetti more than missing anyone with the Cubs.

I think Len was ready for a change, and the corporate nature of Marquee didn’t help matters.

Seems like the guy REALLY REALLY wants to call post season/World Series games and he made the move in a calculated fashion having weighed all his options. Admirable, really.

The Tigers color guy (Jim Price) retired from playing baseball several years before either Santo or Stone did. If Len really really really wanted the Tigers radio job, they would have figured something out.

He definitely does love radio. Why the fuck would he go spend all of spring training in Arizona broadcasting on a website stream with no advertisers and Mick Gillespie? And come do the 5th inning of a random Saturday afternoon or Sunday night road game because it was a national TV game?

Add in that JD is going to get bounced when his contract is up because Marquee wants two ex Cubs in the booth (Probably Dempster and Sutcliffe) and any three man booth without Ron Darling in it sucks ass, and that Len seems to like Benetti as much as he like JD, and it's not that much of a stretch upon reflection.

If anything, like Grote being bounced from the radio booth in favor of ass kisser Zach, this is on Pat Hughes for not having the decency to share.

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

I wouldn't have minded the Cubs bringing back the old middle-inning broadcaster switch. With Steve Stone and our producer Arne Harris...

Too bad Len couldn't have bailed for the Tigers when their TV guys started beating each other up and got fired for it. Could've slid into radio and moved Dickerson to TV.

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Smart post. You don't leave the Cubs for a radio job unless there is something pushing you out. Marquee seems like it has been a total disaster, and he wanted out. Love for the medium of radio is someone leaving to "spend time with their family".

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

I don't watch a lot of Cubs games, so maybe the answer to this question is obvious to those who do, but what does JD bring to the telecast exactly? I'm used to DJ, Hawk, Farmer, or Stone having comments on just about everything. JD seems to have a tendency to just sit there silently.

if he's looking for a world series contender, Tigers ain't it. Between Pizza-Pizza Guy title-chaser willing to spend anything dying and Dombrowski moving on and leaving the typical post-Dombrowski farm system wreckage behind and Cabrera having a bloated, untradeable contract that could run through the middle of the next Trump administration...Tigers best case (not gonna happen) scenario going forward is a Rays type small market strategy. More within reach is a KC/Dayton Moore approach---suck for years and collect draft picks and then put together a one-off World Series winner before tearing it all down and starting over in the basement (I guess that was also Theo's/the Cubs approach, just at 5x's the cost)

Most likely the Tigers will take the Pirates approach and mostly suck but occasionally draft good players who make them somewhat competitive for half a season before being traded to the Yankees.

wake up people. the 'i want to do radio it's my passion' is all bullshit. it's a cover story. he may believe that but he's not quitting the top Cubs TV annoucer gig unless it absolutely sucked at Marquee.

Curious Hair's long post is pretty accurate.

JD is there for the old timers. Before Murph retired, on his show he was praising JD as the new steve stone. because JD would make corny jokes about Honeymooners episodes only people over 60 would understand.

I like JD and agree w/ Murph that he took some time to get use to. But sadly i think he's gone too soon. Like Chet said, they'll follow YES and have 3 ex player shitbags on there like Dempster (who is the fucking worst).

Grace fucked himself over w/ the ex wife story but i wouldn't mind him. He's got a bit of Mike Krukow in him where he can make a 8-0 blowout fun to listen to because of the baseball stories he tells.

Len will be great on radio

Listen, I don't care about Kasper's move. It's fine. I only listen to Sox games on the radio when I'm in the car anyway. That's not that often. And the next TV guy the Cubs hire will be the same generic guy as Kasper. No big deal. Fans don't watch games for broadcasters. They watch their team.

It's just bullshit. That's all. Len wanted out from the Cubs network. That's a fact. He hated working there.

1. He has friends at the SCORE. And they're all going along with his story because that's what Kasper asked them to do. The SCORE guys would speculate more on this if he wasn't their friend.

2. Len didn't want to burn any bridges. That's why he came up with the "I want to do radio" bullshit. I don't blame him. He might want to go back to the Cubs one day. He's a classy guy. He didn't want to say that he was pissed with the new Cubs network. I get all of it.

So the truth is told here. And the SCORE will support Len's story. Cuz he was their guy for years.

Chicago sports is full of BS-ers and sidestepping the truth. But I believe Len here. A truly unique man. Very deep in his thoughts, and life goals. A true battler against his depression. Looking to constantly grow within. I don't doubt him.

I mean, Parkins literally said during their interview that Len might be the only person in the world who would choose to leave Cubs TV for White Sox radio.

And Spiegs framed the move as “crazy” but understandable.

And Mulli and Haugh were quite skeptical of the “real” motivations.

Len hated working there, saw the writing on the wall, knew his bosses would eventually fire him, had a chance at the Sox gig, and grabbed it. Because that chance wouldn't have been there when the Cubs eventually fired him.

It's that simple.

So good for Len for moving on this. Cuz he still wanted to live in Chicago. Like I said, he's probably angling to get the Detroit Tigers job for the final act of his career. He's just waiting for that to open.

Because nobody quits the TV job at the Cubs. Nobody. Unless you sense it's gonna end for you cuz you hate your boss or your boss hates you.

Radio and TV guys don't seem to jump job to job like free agents. My guess is the following things are true.

1. He has managed his money well.
2. Hated his new bosses
3. Could switch jobs without moving.

The fact he will be the TV sub makes the radio excuse a little less believable.

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Yep. Good points. What I was trying to say. But you added the fact that he will be doing some TV.

I'm sure he knows the WSox brass and also the network that is going to air their games as it was the same one for some of the cubs games before Marquee (Nbc sports right?).

This baseball broadcasting community is pretty tight since it's so small. Im sure word gets out when they meet how shitty a place it is to work for Marquee . Probably one of the guys on the inside helped Len get the job at the WSox as it was an open gig and these guys are tight.