Posted by chicagomedia.org on March 05, 2008 at 07:59:57:
A funny thing happened while Steve Stone was having lunch two days ago with Cubs general manager Jim Hendry at the team's spring-training camp in Mesa, Ariz.
He got a call from White Sox vice president Brooks Boyer, offering him the job as the Sox' full-time radio color analyst.
''It's been a whirlwind thing,'' Stone said Tuesday, hours after signing a one-year deal to replace Chris Singleton, who reportedly is leaving to join ESPN's ''Baseball Tonight'' studio show. ''I'm taking the last year of Chris' contract to work with [play-by-play voice] Ed Farmer. It's something I just thought would be a wonderful thing to do.''
The new job brings Stone, who pitched for the Sox for three seasons, back to the South Side, three years after his 19-year tenure as the Cubs' TV color analyst ended. Stone spent the last three years as a baseball analyst for WSCR-AM (670), the Sox' flagship station, and also had been working on ESPN baseball broadcasts.
Stone was going to join the Sox' radio team this season for Friday home games. But when Singleton informed the team last week about his career change, Stone became Boyer's first option.
''We are absolutely ecstatic about Steve Stone stepping in,'' Boyer said. ''It is bittersweet to see Chris Singleton leave, but we are excited for him in his new endeavor. We are equally thrilled to have a Chicago legend and professional like Steve join Ed Farmer in the radio booth.''
Singleton would say only that ''I am in talks with ESPN and have enjoyed dealing with them. We are working on details, and there's nothing to announce at this time, though I am hopeful there will be. I love the White Sox organization and am sincerely grateful to them for allowing me to pursue this opportunity.''
Stone credited Boyer and WSCR program director Mitch Rosen for accommodating some personal considerations. His wife, Lisa, has a legal practice in the Phoenix area, and Stone has split his time the last three summers between his home in Arizona and traveling for baseball assignments.
Stone also viewed the job as a chance to be closer to his father, who is 86 and lives in Cleveland.
''I looked at the schedule closely, and we open in Cleveland and we go there three times,'' he said.
''I've had a great relationship with the people on the South Side, starting with [chairman] Jerry Reinsdorf and [manager] Ozzie Guillen and [general manager] Kenny Williams and Brooks. It's a chance now to have been with both [Chicago] teams. It's going to be a real exciting season. With a couple of more moves, much more exciting than last year.
''And I love coming to the park every day. That was one of the things I really missed. I've done broadcasts from a national standpoint, and it doesn't hold as much allure. When you close the scorebook at the end of the game and don't have a rooting interest, it's not how I grew up with the game.''
Stone said he spoke with Farmer recently but not as events unfolded. Their first broadcast will be a spring-training game Friday.
''It's going to be interesting,'' Stone said. ''Ed and I pitched together in the 1980 All-Star Game. He was with the Sox, and I was with Baltimore. It's going to be fun.''
(From the Sun-Times TONI GINNETTI)