Stone Vs. Soriano? No Question
Cubs fans should want our old broadcaster back
Soriano is not as good as Stone.
Alfonso Soriano can be a good baseball player. But Steve Stone, is a great broadcaster (and an amazing pitcher in his day), isn't feeling him.
Stony called out Soriano after he made a bad blunder of an error in left field. Instead of fielding a relatively routine A.J. Pierzynski fly ball, he tripped and fell and allowed the White Sox their big eighth inning. White Sox broadcaster Steve Stone's reaction? "That's what you get when you put a designated hitter in left field." Ouch.
In reality, Soriano is typically an underrated defensive player; his quirks usually obscure high outfield assist numbers. Stone is actually kind of wrong here. But that only hammers our point home even more: If we had a choice between Steve Stone calling Cubs games and Alfonso Soriano playing for the Cubs, we'd choose Stone. It's really not even a question.
Stone used to be the Cubs broadcaster, of course, before the organization refused to renew his contract under some relatively questionable circumstances. (There was a lot of talk about players and managers -- cough, Dusty Baker, cough -- not liking it when Stone criticized the team during the games.) Since then, Stone has gone on to do baseball analysis on local radio. Then he became the Sox's full-time radio analyst. Then, this year, he joined Hawk Harrelson in the booth, coming full circle on the South Side: the only time Cubs fans can enjoy a Steve Stone broadcast is when they're watching their hated rival.
In other words, Steve, come back! We'll trade Soriano. (Ha, right. Good luck there.) We'll fire Bob Brenly. (We actually like Brenly, but still.) We'll do whatever it takes. Just please reserve your scorn for non-Cubs. Let's bury the hatchet, huh?
Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.
Copyright NBC Owned Television Stations
Posted Friday, Sep 4, 2009 - 12:17 PM CST
