I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. Kasper came up through WTMJ doing pre/post and fill-ins for Bob Uecker, just as Pat Hughes did. Working with Bob Uecker, Pat Hughes, and Jim Powell should be enough to make anyone love baseball on the radio. And radio has always been the domain of the play-by-play guy whereas TV showcases the analyst: you don't need someone to tell you what you can see for yourself.
But it was pretty clear that he was not in a good place with Marquee. My alarms went off before the channel even launched, when they were promoting Chris Myers as the fill-in guy for the long season that never happened. But Len's a workhorse; did he ever take a game off in the 15 years before that? Not in my memory. And lately, when TV had the day off, he'd do an inning of radio. So why did they need a national guy like Chris Myers to drop in and do fill-in work? That's a move you make to push someone out because you're from New York Baby and you think everyone else is small-time. I remembered this from August:
Curious Hair wrote:
Blog post about the suit thing:
http://kentsterling.com/2020/07/27/suit ... roadcasts/My suspicion is that the insistence on suits and the overstaffing of the broadcast booth are both coming from the same place, which is that executive they hired from the YES Network. YES telecasts are also ridiculously stuffed with analysts, where you have Michael Kay and a revolving cast of Ken Singleton, Al Leiter, Paul O'Neill, John Flaherty, and I think like another three or four guys I've forgotten who all cycle in and out, such that you never know who's working any inning of any game. And of course, because they're the GLAHRIOUS New York Yankees, they all have to wear suits.
Ay, oh, ooh, ayy, ohhh, wear a suit and tie to Work like a man, ay, ohh! I don't think anyone has looked to the Yankees for broadcasting greatness since Mel Allen, so I don't know why the Cubs would, except that the Cubs are kind of stupid.
So obviously it had become an unpleasant work environment.
But if Len loves radio so much and believes in the primacy of radio play-by-play in baseball, should he be bailing on the radio booth any time Jason and Stone call in sick, leaving the paintbrush of the mental picture in the hands of...Darrin Jackson? It's very strange. Marquee must really suck.
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Molly Lambert wrote:
The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.