Len and Bob Among Baseball's Best Announers

[ryno-mvp23]

I never minded Chip as much as most people did (or so it seemed from reading these message boards), but I have always thought Len Kasper was an excellent play-by-play man. I lived in Miami for several years and always enjoyed listening to Len call a game. I'm not a huge fan of Brenly, but to be fair I probably would have felt the same about anybody else after Stone. I'm sure I'm in the minority on this, but I really think Eric Karros is going to be a good color guy with some more experience.

 

 

i agree completely....karros is doing a very good job as an analyst

[ZZ Thorn]

Speaking of criticizing the players, did anyone else hear the roasting that Santo gave Hairston during Thursday's game? I'm wondering how untouchable our lovable Ronny is...

 

Hairston sure deserved it. I swear, he must be the dumbest player to come from a successful baseball family. That guy has made WAY too many dumb plays....

[Mark Priors Calves]

Speaking of criticizing the players, did anyone else hear the roasting that Santo gave Hairston during Thursday's game? I'm wondering how untouchable our lovable Ronny is...

 

Hairston sure deserved it. I swear, he must be the dumbest player to come from a successful baseball family. That guy has made WAY too many dumb plays....

 

Moises Alou?

[treebird]

Speaking of criticizing the players, did anyone else hear the roasting that Santo gave Hairston during Thursday's game? I'm wondering how untouchable our lovable Ronny is...

 

Hairston sure deserved it. I swear, he must be the dumbest player to come from a successful baseball family. That guy has made WAY too many dumb plays....

 

Moises Alou?

 

zing

 

In other news, I'm ready to proclaim Len the greatest Cub pbp man of all time.

[ZZ Thorn]

Speaking of criticizing the players, did anyone else hear the roasting that Santo gave Hairston during Thursday's game? I'm wondering how untouchable our lovable Ronny is...

 

Hairston sure deserved it. I swear, he must be the dumbest player to come from a successful baseball family. That guy has made WAY too many dumb plays....

 

Moises Alou?

 

Considering his '04 performance on the basepaths it's hard to disagree. But my point is: Hairston is stupid. Really stupid. So stupid I can see why he's not starting. Cuz he makes a lot of stupid plays. I expected him to be smarter, since he's from the baseball Hairstons.

[LuckyPup]

Speaking of criticizing the players, did anyone else hear the roasting that Santo gave Hairston during Thursday's game? I'm wondering how untouchable our lovable Ronny is...

 

Hairston sure deserved it. I swear, he must be the dumbest player to come from a successful baseball family. That guy has made WAY too many dumb plays....

 

Moises Alou?

 

Considering his '04 performance on the basepaths it's hard to disagree. But my point is: Hairston is stupid. Really stupid. So stupid I can see why he's not starting. Cuz he makes a lot of stupid plays. I expected him to be smarter, since he's from the baseball Hairstons.

What did he do? I didn't get to see the game because WGN is stupid and doesn't show alot of games anymore-as well as the fact my wife gave me the "are you [expletive]" look when I mentioned spending 200 bucks on MLB EI's. Please fill me in?

[J.R.]

Speaking of criticizing the players, did anyone else hear the roasting that Santo gave Hairston during Thursday's game? I'm wondering how untouchable our lovable Ronny is...

 

Hairston sure deserved it. I swear, he must be the dumbest player to come from a successful baseball family. That guy has made WAY too many dumb plays....

 

Moises Alou?

 

Considering his '04 performance on the basepaths it's hard to disagree. But my point is: Hairston is stupid. Really stupid. So stupid I can see why he's not starting. Cuz he makes a lot of stupid plays. I expected him to be smarter, since he's from the baseball Hairstons.

What did he do? I didn't get to see the game because WGN is stupid and doesn't show alot of games anymore-as well as the fact my wife gave me the "are you [expletive]" look when I mentioned spending 200 bucks on MLB EI's. Please fill me in?

 

For God's sake, order the damn package and make her like it. I can't fathom letting my wife treat me like some three year old ...

[Proven Veteran]

Hey, at least Brenly>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Joe Carter.

[MembersOnlyJacket]

Speaking of criticizing the players, did anyone else hear the roasting that Santo gave Hairston during Thursday's game? I'm wondering how untouchable our lovable Ronny is...

 

Hairston sure deserved it. I swear, he must be the dumbest player to come from a successful baseball family. That guy has made WAY too many dumb plays....

 

Moises Alou?

 

Considering his '04 performance on the basepaths it's hard to disagree. But my point is: Hairston is stupid. Really stupid. So stupid I can see why he's not starting. Cuz he makes a lot of stupid plays. I expected him to be smarter, since he's from the baseball Hairstons.

What did he do? I didn't get to see the game because WGN is stupid and doesn't show alot of games anymore-as well as the fact my wife gave me the "are you [expletive]" look when I mentioned spending 200 bucks on MLB EI's. Please fill me in?

 

It was only $139 if you ordered before the season began. You should buy it for the second-half of the season as I think they offer it at a discount during the free preview after the A-S Break.

 

If she still has a problem with it, well, buy it anyway.

[jabloomf1230]

Hey, at least Brenly>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Joe Carter.

 

So here's the complete equation:

 

Stone>>>>Brenly>>>>Carter>>>Otto

 

Brenly vascillates from just boring to somewhat annoying. I have MLB.TV and I've taken to listening to Pat and Ron, even though the WGN radio broadcat is out of synch with the TV.

[anemic offense]

I don't like 'em. Although you can't expect the new announcers to be very critical given the way Stoney was ran out of town, you'd think (via them of course) this team's mistakes were all due to bad luck. God I miss Stoney. At least he'd call it like he'd see it. I find myself muting the broadcasts and turning on Pat and Ron more and more. I used to think Ron was terrible because he didn't know what was going on but man he grew on me. If the world had more guys like him it'd be a much better place. It'd be great if they'd flipflop for a day and let those guys in the tv booth. That'd be one hell of a telecast!

[Soul]

Len may make fewer mistakes than Chip, but he still has his moments. Like calling "....makes the final out to end the inning" when the Cubs are hitting in a road game----and throwing false stats out there to support the erroneous notion that Hawkins was "average" in one-run games (never mind the fact that average might be fine for the Brewers, but not for a club that has playoff aspirations). Alot of folks have said they appreciate that Len appears to have baseball knowledge. That's not really all that true. He has MORE baseball knowledge than Chip, who is basically the Michael Waltrip of baseball (I don't know anything about cars, I just drive 'em). So he seems to us to have baseball knowledge when in reality his knowledge is pretty average.

 

I still liked Chip's emotion better---yes, even if it's forced it's still better than Len's generic, school-taught cookie-cutter approach.

 

Brenly will just never touch the sky 10 miles below Stoney......PERIOD. He doesn't annoy me, but that's only because it takes alot for a color guy to annoy me. I just tune him out. The Cubs were just plain wrong as hell to turn a cold shoulder on Stoney. The guy did the exact same thing he did for 20 years, and suddenly it became unacceptable for no reason whatsoever. The Cubs should be ashamed.

 

And where has it gotten us? Stoney's gone, the Cubs still stink, and we're heading for another mediocre/losing season. Plus, now the games are boring to watch. Oh yes, Stone was the problem :roll:

[rocket]

I'd venture to guess that Len Kasper knows more about baseball stastically than everyone's favorite Steve Stone.

 

And what's this nonsense about Stone not afraid of being critical of the team, while Brenly and Len aren't.

 

Whenever a Cubs player makes a mistake, I see Len and Brenly point it out. I've never heard Brenly say "Hairston got caught in the rundown...but it wasn't his fault!"

 

Same exact thing with Stoney. He pointed out mistakes when they were made, he's no different than any other announcer in baseball.

 

The difference is, Stone made things personal. I guess that's your perogative if you want to think less of Brenly because he doesn't carry over personal feuds into the booth, that's your choice. But Stone did make snide, personal remarks about players, and took things way too personally. What he did was beyond criticizing players.

[Crash]

I'd venture to guess that Len Kasper knows more about baseball stastically than everyone's favorite Steve Stone.

 

And what's this nonsense about Stone not afraid of being critical of the team, while Brenly and Len aren't.

 

Whenever a Cubs player makes a mistake, I see Len and Brenly point it out. I've never heard Brenly say "Hairston got caught in the rundown...but it wasn't his fault!"

 

Same exact thing with Stoney. He pointed out mistakes when they were made, he's no different than any other announcer in baseball.

 

The difference is, Stone made things personal. I guess that's your perogative if you want to think less of Brenly because he doesn't carry over personal feuds into the booth, that's your choice. But Stone did make snide, personal remarks about players, and took things way too personally. What he did was beyond criticizing players.

 

I couldn't agree more. I never thought Stone's knowledge of the game was any better than average. Sure he would try to predict pitches, but other than that he wasn't very indepth about his analysis.

 

And I do think some fans want the color man to be very personal in their criticism. They want the anouncers to say what a fan might yell from the bleachers.

 

Stoney is probably in the best place he could be now. He has weekly segments on a radio station built around sports broadcasting that has more to do with fans venting and personal insults than actuall analysis. Stoney is an entertainer more than he is a solid source of information.

[XZero771679666304]

I'd venture to guess that Len Kasper knows more about baseball stastically than everyone's favorite Steve Stone.

 

And what's this nonsense about Stone not afraid of being critical of the team, while Brenly and Len aren't.

 

Whenever a Cubs player makes a mistake, I see Len and Brenly point it out. I've never heard Brenly say "Hairston got caught in the rundown...but it wasn't his fault!"

 

Same exact thing with Stoney. He pointed out mistakes when they were made, he's no different than any other announcer in baseball.

 

The difference is, Stone made things personal. I guess that's your perogative if you want to think less of Brenly because he doesn't carry over personal feuds into the booth, that's your choice. But Stone did make snide, personal remarks about players, and took things way too personally. What he did was beyond criticizing players.

 

I couldn't agree more. I never thought Stone's knowledge of the game was any better than average. Sure he would try to predict pitches, but other than that he wasn't very indepth about his analysis.

 

And I do think some fans want the color man to be very personal in their criticism. They want the anouncers to say what a fan might yell from the bleachers.

 

Stoney is probably in the best place he could be now. He has weekly segments on a radio station built around sports broadcasting that has more to do with fans venting and personal insults than actuall analysis. Stoney is an entertainer more than he is a solid source of information.

 

I agree and disagree. IMO, Stone knew as much about the nuances of the game as anyone I have ever heard. But on the other hand, I enjoy Len and Bob, and they have been clearly critical of the Cubs poor play lately. I don't think Stoney made things more personal, I just think Len and Bob's jabs are far more smooth and subtle, but noticable to those who recognize the problems. I also agree that it is a real stretch to call Len and Bob homers. Their criticisms of Bakers personnel decisions and poor play have been frequent and accurate, but as I said, just more well thought out and subtle.

[Crash]

I agree and disagree. IMO, Stone knew as much about the nuances of the game as anyone I have ever heard. But on the other hand, I enjoy Len and Bob, and they have been clearly critical of the Cubs poor play lately. I don't think Stoney made things more personal, I just think Len and Bob's jabs are far more smooth and subtle, but noticable to those who recognize the problems. I also agree that it is a real stretch to call Len and Bob homers. Their criticisms of Bakers personnel decisions and poor play have been frequent and accurate, but as I said, just more well thought out and subtle.

 

I think Stone of a few years ago was better. His work last year in the booth and this year on the radio seems to be a lot more bitter and personal.

 

But I do agree about Len and Bob. I think they do a fairly good job of pointing out a failing on the field. I have lost count of the number of times Len has referenced the Cubs troubles with getting on base. And both have bemoaned the lack of paitence some Cubs hitters have shown. But as you say, they do it in a rather subtle matter without mocking the players as I think happened to often last season.

[J.R.]

I'd venture to guess that Len Kasper knows more about baseball stastically than everyone's favorite Steve Stone.

 

And what's this nonsense about Stone not afraid of being critical of the team, while Brenly and Len aren't.

 

Whenever a Cubs player makes a mistake, I see Len and Brenly point it out. I've never heard Brenly say "Hairston got caught in the rundown...but it wasn't his fault!"

 

Same exact thing with Stoney. He pointed out mistakes when they were made, he's no different than any other announcer in baseball.

 

The difference is, Stone made things personal. I guess that's your perogative if you want to think less of Brenly because he doesn't carry over personal feuds into the booth, that's your choice. But Stone did make snide, personal remarks about players, and took things way too personally. What he did was beyond criticizing players.

 

OML, right on the money.

[Soul]

I'd venture to guess that Len Kasper knows more about baseball stastically than everyone's favorite Steve Stone.

 

And what's this nonsense about Stone not afraid of being critical of the team, while Brenly and Len aren't.

 

Whenever a Cubs player makes a mistake, I see Len and Brenly point it out. I've never heard Brenly say "Hairston got caught in the rundown...but it wasn't his fault!"

 

Same exact thing with Stoney. He pointed out mistakes when they were made, he's no different than any other announcer in baseball.

 

The difference is, Stone made things personal. I guess that's your perogative if you want to think less of Brenly because he doesn't carry over personal feuds into the booth, that's your choice. But Stone did make snide, personal remarks about players, and took things way too personally. What he did was beyond criticizing players.

 

If you mean Len spends more time with his nose in a stats book than Stone, then I agree. Stone doesn't have to---he actually LIVED the game.

 

If you are suggesting that a talking head like Kasper just plain knows more about the game than Stone, then.........not much else to say other than you are wrong.

 

I think less of Brenly because he doesn't provide nearly the insight into a ballgame that Stone does. I never said I thought less of him because he "doesn't make things personal". Au contraire. He simply doesn't do the quality job in the booth that Stone did for 20 years. And you know what? Bob would be the *first* person to tell you that. He doesn't need to be to do the job. Stone is and will remain a Chicago legend. Brenly is not. And that's really the bottom line.

 

Stone didn't start things last year. He did his job, period. And when the players couldn't handle the NON-personal criticisms of their play, THEY MADE IT PERSONAL IN THE MEDIA. Of course Stone responded. He had to. His very fibre as a person was called out by alot of players who by the way got the axe because the CUBS agreed with Stone.

[rocket]

 

If you mean Len spends more time with his nose in a stats book than Stone, then I agree. Stone doesn't have to---he actually LIVED the game.

 

If you are suggesting that a talking head like Kasper just plain knows more about the game than Stone, then.........not much else to say other than you are wrong.

 

I think less of Brenly because he doesn't provide nearly the insight into a ballgame that Stone does. I never said I thought less of him because he "doesn't make things personal". Au contraire. He simply doesn't do the quality job in the booth that Stone did for 20 years. And you know what? Bob would be the *first* person to tell you that. He doesn't need to be to do the job. Stone is and will remain a Chicago legend. Brenly is not. And that's really the bottom line.

 

Stone didn't start things last year. He did his job, period. And when the players couldn't handle the NON-personal criticisms of their play, THEY MADE IT PERSONAL IN THE MEDIA. Of course Stone responded. He had to. His very fibre as a person was called out by alot of players who by the way got the axe because the CUBS agreed with Stone.

 

Dusty Baker LIVED the game too. Better not question his baseball acumen then.

 

Just because someone played baseball doesn't mean they're more knowledgable about the sport. You can't tell me that John Kruk knows more about the game then say, Bill James.

 

Stone was a fine color man. But I can't say I enjoy Cubs broadcast less because he's gone. Kasper and Brenly do a fine job, and frankly I don't miss Stone all that much.

 

Though I admit a Stone/Kasper booth has interesting possibilities.

[Soul]

 

If you mean Len spends more time with his nose in a stats book than Stone, then I agree. Stone doesn't have to---he actually LIVED the game.

 

If you are suggesting that a talking head like Kasper just plain knows more about the game than Stone, then.........not much else to say other than you are wrong.

 

I think less of Brenly because he doesn't provide nearly the insight into a ballgame that Stone does. I never said I thought less of him because he "doesn't make things personal". Au contraire. He simply doesn't do the quality job in the booth that Stone did for 20 years. And you know what? Bob would be the *first* person to tell you that. He doesn't need to be to do the job. Stone is and will remain a Chicago legend. Brenly is not. And that's really the bottom line.

 

Stone didn't start things last year. He did his job, period. And when the players couldn't handle the NON-personal criticisms of their play, THEY MADE IT PERSONAL IN THE MEDIA. Of course Stone responded. He had to. His very fibre as a person was called out by alot of players who by the way got the axe because the CUBS agreed with Stone.

 

Dusty Baker LIVED the game too. Better not question his baseball acumen then.

 

Just because someone played baseball doesn't mean they're more knowledgable about the sport. You can't tell me that John Kruk knows more about the game then say, Bill James.

 

Stone was a fine color man. But I can't say I enjoy Cubs broadcast less because he's gone. Kasper and Brenly do a fine job, and frankly I don't miss Stone all that much.

 

Though I admit a Stone/Kasper booth has interesting possibilities.

 

Yeah, but Dusty's a buffoon. Stone's got a sharp mind & quick wits, plus he lived baseball on the field for many, many years. You're missing the point--Stone is a rare player with alot of intelligence. Len doesn't even do the same job Stone did, so frankly I'm at a loss why you even thought there was value in drawing a comparison between the two.

[rocket]

 

Yeah, but Dusty's a buffoon. Stone's got a sharp mind & quick wits, plus he lived baseball on the field for many, many years. You're missing the point--Stone is a rare player with alot of intelligence. Len doesn't even do the same job Stone did, so frankly I'm at a loss why you even thought there was value in drawing a comparison between the two.

 

Because if we're comparing Len to Chip, there is no comparison to speak of. I think someone in this thread was talking about how Stoney had these huge balls and wasn't afraid to criticize any player (probably not in those words), while Len and Bob do nothing but tow the company line and never criticze players.

[Soul]

 

Yeah, but Dusty's a buffoon. Stone's got a sharp mind & quick wits, plus he lived baseball on the field for many, many years. You're missing the point--Stone is a rare player with alot of intelligence. Len doesn't even do the same job Stone did, so frankly I'm at a loss why you even thought there was value in drawing a comparison between the two.

 

Because if we're comparing Len to Chip, there is no comparison to speak of. I think someone in this thread was talking about how Stoney had these huge balls and wasn't afraid to criticize any player (probably not in those words), while Len and Bob do nothing but tow the company line and never criticze players.

 

Yeah, and I'm with you there. Len & Bob do criticize the players when they deserve it. And that's good. They do it with more tact than Stone----AFTER he was called out by some of the players. Certainly.

[Brian]

I'm definately on the Len BandWGN.... but I must know when him and Bob go out to dinner WHO PICKS UP THE CHECK????

 

Someone should honestly e-mail them and ask them that would be great!

[ZZ Thorn]

A big difference between Stone and Dusty is that Stone was a pitcher and pitchers/catchers are generally much smarter regarding baseball than position players. Not unlike QBs in football.

[imb]

yeah man len Sox he doesnt even watch the games lol moneyball, he prolly tried to write that book like billy beane anyway and failed and thats why hes so miserable all the time.