TMS Endorses Keith Moreland

Let me preface this by saying I love Ron Santo. He's a Cub legend and a being a Type I diabetic myself a personal hero of mine.

That being said, it's become increasingly obvious that the time has come for Ron to step down from the Cubs radio broadcast booth.

In his current absence, Keith Moreland has filled in brilliantly as color analyst alongside play by play man Pat Hughes. He's given us good insight and analysis and compliments Pat nicely explaining various plays and calls on the field. Essentially he's doing his job as a color man, something that Ron has sadly stopped doing.

Don't get me wrong. I found Ron's homerism and heart on his sleeve attitude endearing, but it's reached a point where there's nothing of value being added to the broadcast. It's become a distraction to listeners trying to follow Pat's play by play.

Bad Kermit at HJE posted yesterday his approval of Moreland to take over Ron's spot in the booth. Today TMS is offering their endorsement* as well. Make Keith a full-time fixture on the radio.

*TMS still maintains neutrality in the ongoing Cubs of Yore Battle Royale. This endorsement of Mr. Moreland does not count towards that, unless of course he was battling against Mark DeRosa.

Love = Hate?

This is a crazy world we live in. I think I'm finally losing my mind.

I never would have guessed that it would be Chip Caray that would push me over the edge.

Allow me to explain...

I've never really been able to watch the Cubs as much as I would like to. During high school, when I began to pay attention to baseball seriously, the Cubs still played 92% of their games during the day. Being in school all day, I missed a lot of games during the tail end of the school year. During the summer, I was slaving over a hot McStove making food for others while Wrigley was rockin, so no time to watch then. After high school was college, where most of my time was spent either drunk or onstage (though never at the same time...) so I missed a lot of games during that period. Then came graduation and having to get a "real job" to pay "bills". Then I moved out to LA, the land where the Cubs are only on TV a handful of times. I couldn't even catch many games on Gamecast because even night games would start when I was still at work.

I missed the Cubs. I missed them real bad. But as Bob Dylan once sang, the times, they are a-changin'.

After my relocation to San Diego this month, I FINALLY got cable installed today while I was at work. I came home, turned on the TV, and scrolled through the channels:

1: Crap
2: Crap
3: WGN
4: Cra...

Wait...what?

Could it be?

Is this...a Cubs game?

It was a Cubs game. San Diego digital cable includes WGN. I cannot tell you what it was like watching those first few innings. Seeing all of these players I had only read about around a campfire and in box scores. As the game wore on, I knew that watching the Cubs close out the bottom of the ninth with a win was going to be like home again, like a coke fiend that does his first line after a year of sobriety.

And you know what? It wasn't like home again. At least, not as much as I expected. I knew the feeling I was looking for, and I didn't quite get it. There was something missing. And that thing was Chip Caray.

Chip was the voice of the Cubs TV games for the years I fell in love with them. Even now when I flip past Braves games on TBS and hear his voice, it takes me a second to tell my brain not to stop flipping, that it's not the Cubs playing. And that's what I was missing last night. I actually missed Chip Caray.

Here's the thing...I HATE Chip Caray.

I've hated him for years, almost as long as I've loved the Cubs. I tried to mute the TV and pick up Pat and Ron on the radio when I could, but I've never lived in a place where the reception was good enough to do this on a regular basis. I don't know what it is, but I just can't stand Chip. I can't stand his stupid voice. I can't stand his stupid announcing. And yet I miss him.

Nothing makes sense anymore. Up is down. Black is white. Dogs and cats living together...mass hysteria!

When this guy is playing first base for the Brewers, I don't know what to believe in.

And it doesn't stop there. You know when people say something that's stupid, and then you say it to mock them and be funny, which eventually leads to you using the word in everyday conversation, thus becoming the person you were making fun of in the first place? That happened to me today when I caught myself saying "Oh snap" at work today.

Trying to find some sanity, I flipped over to Sportscenter. I saw the Cardinal highlights and Mark Mulder was pitching! That's not possible! In a world where Mark Mulder pitches in a major league game, with playoff implications no less, what can I believe?

So now I'm holed up in a Motel 6 writing this from the bathtub. I refuse to leave this room until some order is restored to this planet. Someone please take a baseball bat to Mulder's shoulder and elbow so I can have some peace.


BTW...

File This Under 'You Can't Have Your Cake and Eat It Too'*

Steve Stone to sub for Darrin Jackson and announce White Sox games alongside Hawk Harrelson. That's like mixing a fine wine with horse piss.

*George Carlin: "When people say, 'Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too.' What good is a cake you can't eat? What should I eat, someone else's cake instead?"

Cubs Announcers: Friends or Foes?

Let me start this off by saying we could be a lot worse off. Anyone remember the Dave Otto Project? How about the Joe Carter Debacle? Clearly, I should be in no position to complain. And to be truthful, for the most part, I get along fine with Len and Johnny Cakes Bob.

But....let's go back to Monday night's game against the Giants. For the first time in awhile, our Cubs looked a bit flat, and we were tied up with the Giants. Will Ohman is pitching and the ump seems to be squeezing him a bit. On at least two occasions Ohman hit Kendall's mit right where he held it, yet the ump called them both balls. Len chimes in with, "That was another close pitch from Ohman." My thoughts exactly. It doesn't make a difference, but when we're watching the game on Comcast, what wrong with a little "homer" talk from our announcers. So what does Brenly (the color analyst nonetheless) chime in with? "You know, catchers can frame pitches and hold their gloves to try and convince the umpires that pitches are strikes." Gee, thanks for the support, Bob! Would it kill them to say "that pitch could easily have been called a strike"?

I realize that no one wants to hear someone as biased as the Sox's Hawk Harrelson, and I'm no different. All I want to know is that they have the team's back. They are, afterall, part of the Cub organization. You travel with the team, work in the same buildings, and interact with them all on a daily basis. A little goes a long way.

It appears that Len is starting to come around a bit. Much like Chip Caray, I despised him at first but he kind of grew on me. He's a bit goofy, but he is easily excitable, he has a decent wit about him and he can get you through a long and boring inning. Brenly, on the other hand, is exactly what I feared he would be: bland and impartial. Maybe it's because of his national announcing experience or perhaps (hopefully) he wants to get another managing job and needs to stay in good graces with the blues. Shit, maybe it was because we were playing his old team, I don't know. If he does move on, we definitely need to make a push for a quality, top-notch color guy. Maybe someone with the nickname of "Amazing"?

Santo-isms

Say what you will about how sometimes his comments distract from the ballgame, I can't count the ways that Ron Santo has brought a smile to my face while listening to Cubs games on WGN radio. I oftentimes just mute the TV and put on the radio so I can hear Pat and Ron instead of the television crew, even if it does cause there to be a delay of a second or two. It's really like listening to a grandfather share the game of baseball with you.

That having been said, I have my favorite moments where Ron has gone off on a few tangents beyond just accusing Pat of conspiring with the front office to win the guess the attendance game. He once talked about how many pillows he liked to use for sleeping saying that one big pillow is much better than two smaller pillows. One time at Cincinnati someone moved the extra fan that he used to blow air on the back of his neck and he kept going on and on about how much he missed it. Another time he tried to list off all the players he could think of with two words in their last name and his list went something like this:

1. Tom Goodwin
2. Jeff Bagwell
3. Tom Goodwin

Finally I remember Ron commenting on the seagulls buzzing around the Wrigley outfield and Pat asked him if he thought there was any chance they were the same ones that "attacked" him in San Francisco the week before. I don't know what happened on the beach but Ron really thought there was a chance that those birds had tracked him down. In light of tonight's tough loss, I thought a pick-me-up was in order so feel free to chime in with any personal favorites you might have.

You Can Put It on the Board...YEEEEESSSS!

Nothing like a sweep against the ole' crosstown rivals, who just happen to be the most pathetic bunch of losers in the majors, to get back on track. Sure, sweeping the light hitting White Sox is an accomplishment on par with finding out that you are HIV positive, but don't actually have AIDS yet ('heeeeyyyy, Magic!'), but I'll take it.

The White Sox are so bad that once we got the lead in each game, even if by only one run, I felt like we had shut the door on them. And being a Cubs fan, that feeling doesn't come around too often.

The best was in the series finale today. There was a 10 minute delay where the umps discussed that insane play on the basepaths that resulted in two Cubs being tagged out, but it was all negated because Juan 'I've More Than Likely Shanked People In My Home Country' Uribe interfered with Angel Pagan on the basepaths. So instead of man on second, two outs, we had the bases loaded, NO outs.

I continued to flip between Len and Bob on WGN, who clearly knew what was going on, and the White Sox bumbling idiots on Comcast, who were up in arms. Ken 'The Hawk' Harrelson (your War Criminal time will come you fucker) sounded like he was suffering a massive heart attack. "This is BS!" the crotchety old fuck yelled, over and over. "This is BS!" Him and Darrin Jackson (worst Cub ever?) could not understand what was going on. To them the play was 'cut and dry' as they said over and over. They could not possibly understand what the umps were discussing.

This delay was 10 minutes long. Clearly, one would assume that one of their producers would just TELL them about the interference so that they wouldn't sound like such uninformed jackasses. The classic is, they couldn't even tell there was interference after replaying the same play over and over...and over! "This is BS!" I was so pissed at Hawk that I screamed at the TV. "You stupid fuck, it was interference! I hope you get hit by the team bus you incontinent douchebag!'

Whatever. Hawk, your team is a bunch of white trash, light hitting, washed-up nobodies and has-beens. I revel in your frustrated silences. Now it's back to drawing less than 20,000 fans a game and getting your asses handed to you by the Omaha Royals. Or is it Kansas City?

I gone.

Bleacher Bums

Just wondering: What ever happened to calling a game from the bleachers? I distinctly remember as a wee lad, sitting in our basement on a bed of red and black shag carpet, surrounded by Transformers and He-Man action figures, watching Harry Caray and Steve Stone drunkenly call a game from the bleachers. The bleachers! The more you think about that, it is just classic. It's ballsy, spontaneous, fun, ill-advised and something you would only see at Wrigley Field. I suppose it was, in essence, 'vintage Harry', but what I wouldn't give to listen to Pat Hughes and Ron Santo call a game from the (Bud Light...eck) bleachers. Harry even upped the ante by doing it shirtless once. What a stalwart. What a stallion. Let it be said, that if in this post-9/11 society that we live in, Bob Brenly and Len Kasper were to call a game from the bleachers (Brenly being the shirtless one, clearly), it would change the face of the game in a way unseen since Jackie Robinson. That may be an blatant exaggeration, but I will do anything to prove my point. America needs many things, but shirtless, drunken announcers is at the top of the list.

Billy Packer to 'Fag Out' on Sleepover at Tim Hardaway's House

Oh Billy Packer. You've always had a curious way with words now haven't you? While I do think that his transgression was probably fueled more by a poor and rather outdated vocabulary rather than menace, this is as good of a reason as any for CBS to fire him and promote everybody's favorite mama's boy, Gus Johnson.

Check out Gus' greatest hits from this year's tourney. Boom goes the dynamite.

Steve Lyons Fired: PC Terrorists Win

Dodgers' out of division road color man and weekend Fox network broadcaster was fired by Fox for what is being called a racially insensitive remark.

USA Today gives a recap of the incident & I'm still trying to figure out what was offensive about it.

The exchange about lost wallets between Lyons and likely Cubs manager Lou Piniella was bizarre sure, but didn't amount to anything. If anything, Lyons was suggesting Piniella had stolen his wallet, not this hypothetical spanish speaker.

We've all lost an interesting guy. Lyons' dry style with pop culture references left and right would be right at home here at Thunder Matt's. I now have to hope the PC thugs don't convince the Dodgers to let Lyons go.