Cubs, Marquee: No decision made on Myers replacing Kasper originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Whether longtime national broadcaster Chris Myers winds up in the Cubs TV booth in 2021, the top executives making that decision said Friday they have made no commitments to anyone and had only begun the search process after Len Kasper’s decision to leave for White Sox radio was made late in the week.
“We have made no decisions on anything to do with who would replace Len, from Chris on down,” said Mike McCarthy, general manager of the Cubs’ Marquee Network.
A source said Thursday night that Myers, the Fox Sports broadcaster hired by Marquee a year ago for part-time play-by-play and hosting duties, is the network’s choice to replace Kasper, and at least one other news outlet reported Myers is a leading candidate.
Either way, the name drew immediate blowback on social media throughout the night and into Friday — including one especially stinging tweet by former ESPN colleague Keith Olbermann.
Cubs business president Crane Kenney said that by Friday morning they’d been “literally bombarded” by would-be candidates interested in the job.
Said McCarthy: “This is a plum job. It should not surprise you the amount of interest that people are expressing. Some are waiting their turn and some are a little less patient. Some are very provocative, interesting names.
“We’re going to go through a process here,” McCarthy added. “It’s a little late in terms of a perfect world, but we have plenty of time to do this right. We anticipate doing this in a way that will very much please Cub viewers and fans of the team.”
That might rule out Myers if Twitter has anything to say about that — albeit, much of the social media backlash focused more on losing Kasper, a fan favorite on the broadcast for 16 years, dating back to WGN.
Whether some of the inquiries “from folks you might be surprised we would hear from” has shifted the early thinking on filling the vacancy, McCarthy suggested an open-minded approach to the process — including the possibility of a rotation of play-by-play broadcasters.
“If it turns out to serve the fan base best that we have some kind of rotation because it’s a long season and certain folks aren’t available all the time … we’re going to look at every possibility,”McCarthy said. “I don’t think we’re ruing anything out at this stage.”
Kenney said the fan culture is a key factor they’ll consider. McCarthy put a premium on experience and said a Chicago background would be an advantage.
“The interesting thing, too, is it’s coming at a time where there is a lot of upheaval within the sports media world,” Kenney said. “ESPN’s laying off a lot of people, as is sort of every outlet — some of it brought on by the pandemic and the loss of live events, some of it brought on by cyclical changes in our business and the pay TV system.
“There is a lot of talent right now, to our benefit, that are on the sidelines or looking for moves.”
