“I am happy the White Sox were interested in having me handle their play-by-play responsibilities, and I am appreciative that the Cubs were willing to let me leave that organization on such great terms. “Broadcasting baseball on the radio has always been my dream,” Kasper said. Update (9:15 a.m.): The White Sox made it official with a press release, and Kasper is indeed sticking to his story. Very happy for a pure baseball fan, a good friend, and a great professional.- December 4, 2020 I hope he gets to call lots of them for years to come. I’ve been with him during playoff games, when he was dying to be part of the action any way he could. Is it possible that this move is just that pure? We’ll have to wait to hear otherwise. Or, maybe Kasper really just wants to do radio for the foreseeable future, and Pat Hughes isn’t leaving Wrigley Field anytime soon. Perhaps the 50-year-old Kasper isn’t there to usurp the 37-year-old Benetti, but rather to be on hand should Benetti’s ESPN work land him more prominent jobs. Benetti looks like the team’s choice for the long haul, and Benetti has cited Kasper as a mentor. In this case, Kasper doesn’t seem like he’d have designs on the Sox’s TV gig. Hawk Harrelson had Jackson as a partner at the time, but it sure seemed like Jackson’s days were numbered, and sure enough, Stone graduated to the TV booth after the season. TV is generally seen as the more prime gig, and the natural order needed little time to take hold when Steve Stone joined the White Sox as an analyst alongside Farmer in the radio booth for the 2008 season. Sharma’s sources indicated no bad blood between Kasper and Marquee Sports Network, but Marquee didn’t have the easiest debut season, what with the pandemic, the dress code and Mark Grace. It’s hard to imagine being so passionate about radio that one would go from the Cubs’ TV booth to the White Sox’s radio network. That will give Chris Myers an opportunity to a few games. Just to keep your brain fresh and challenged. Pat (Hughes) misses about a dozen games, so I may hop over to radio and do a small handful of radio games with Ron Coomer just to mix it up. Hopefully, maybe in the 10-12 (game) range with Fox. I’ve always thought it would be fun to do a Cardinals-Red Sox interleague game or a Dodgers-Braves game. I’ve dabbled in doing two or three Cubs Fox games over the years. LK: Yeah, I think Marquee wanted to have a little flexibility, which I understand. Is that just to spread the wings a little bit? SS: You’re going to do some more Fox games. Sharma says Kasper “has always been passionate about radio,” and there’s a foreshadowing of it in a conversation between the two in February: Kasper had been the TV voice of the Cubs since 2005, and while a check-in with Bleacher Nation shows Kasper had some detractors, it’s in the similar vein of people who can’t get used to Jason Benetti’s more standard delivery in the wake of an idiosyncratic, Frick-winning legend. Sharma says the Cubs are looking at veteran national broadcaster Chris Myers as Kasper’s replacement, while Jim Deshaies will remain in the analyst chair across town. Kasper will team with color analyst Darrin Jackson, who returns for his 13th season in the radio booth and his 22nd overall with the team. The move will be officially announced Friday morning on ESPN 1000, the new radio home of the White Sox. After 16 years as the team’s TV play-by-play man, Len Kasper has decided to leave for the vacant White Sox radio job, according to multiple sources. Sahadev Sharma broke the story on The Athletic.Īs the Cubs start a busy offseason, one of the biggest departures is coming from the broadcast booth. Well, Len Kasper is coming over from the Cubs’ TV booth to call White Sox games on the radio alongside Darrin Jackson, and it’s hard to think of a bigger change in Chicago broadcasting than that. Yet between the passing of Farmer, the broadcasters’ inability to travel with teams during the pandemic, and then the shift from WGN 720 to ESPN 1000, the White Sox radio booth didn’t quite feel like Masur’s for good, and the absence of a named radio pairing during the flagship reveal suggested a bigger change in store. When the White Sox announced ESPN 1000 as their new flagship station, I noticed that they hadn’t announced the actual announcer along with it.Īndy Masur had done a capable job stepping into the booth in relief of an ailing Ed Farmer, both on a fill-in basis in 2019, then as the everyday announcer after Farmer’s death in April.
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