I am a life long Cubs fan and I am really enjoying this season. So it is almost a sin that recently I have found myself listening to White Sox games on the radio when the Cubs are not on. At first I dismissed this as just noise in the background because I needed something to break the silence. But my interest has grown which could be pointed towards the fact that for the first time in my life time teams on both sides of town are winning their divisions with the great dream of an all Chicago World Series. But even with that, it still isn't a reason to listen to the game.
I listen because of Steve Stone. The former Cy Young Award winner that has much just as big of a career as a broadcaster. I grew up listening to him call Cubs games with Harry Caray and later his grandson Chip. I remember vividly his falling out with the Cubs during the 2004 season in which the club blew their chance at making the playoffs after being just 4 outs away from the World Series the year before. That is were the integrity part comes in. Steve did not shy away from his straight forward observations of the team and his disappointment (maybe disgust) for the way they avoided blame. Obviously for an organization at the time that was afraid of the truth, this caused quite a stir. Steve left the position not wanting to be a monkey on TV backing whatever the team or skipper did. But that season made Steve Stone to me and many other fans, because he wasn't afraid to say exactly what we were all thinking.
Now he is on WSCR The Score doing Sox games and will enter their TV booth next year. His knowledge of the game and situations is unbelievable. He seems to have this ability to understand the game like no one else and thus know what is going to possibly happen. There are plenty of clips that are evidence to this. I find myself listening to the Sox broadcasts just to hear what Stoney has to say and what he thinks about every team and every situation. He is my baseball guru.
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2 comments:
People, and specifically people in sports, are terrified by anyone obligated by honesty. It's a policy going the way of the harmonica. It's easy to fib, to bend the truth, to downright lie. I think the world now revolves on a social strata based on little lie after little lie. It's all in the spin.
It's the same in rooting for a team. Most people come to a point in their life where it occurs to them that one team does not behave, compete or exist really any differently from another. You listen to the Sox, cause you like Stoney. But more so, you like baseball. Subconsciously you've conceited there's no difference from baseball on the north side or south side of town. (except for the DH, which is just stupid).
In the end that is mostly the truth, I am just a baseball fan and thus Stoney is like a prophet. I will be a struggle though to watch a Sox or AL game period because of the DH. It slows the game down and takes out alot fo strategy. I mean those games in Tampa that the Cubs played were just painful.
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