posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 8:28 PM
by
Jim
Stone replaces Singleton for full radio slate (updated)
Yeeeeeeeeeees,
Stone Pony!
The plan had been for Steve Stone to call 13 White Sox games this season, all Friday home games.
That plan changed Tuesday, when the Sox and WSCR-AM 670 announced that Stone would replace radio color analyst Chris Singleton.
With Singleton leaving for another broadcasting job -- sources said it
was ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" -- the Sox brought in Stone to take on
the full-season gig.
Though I was
highly skeptical of the Singleton hiring, I thought Singleton
showed some promise after his first season. The pairing hit an early plateau -- Singleton's delivery never smoothed out, and his hitter-versus-pitcher baiting of Ed Farmer rarely developed into worthwhile banter, but instead terse responses that made everybody involved uncomfortable.
With Stone interested in a full-time gig, Singleton's exit was a move begging to be made, ever since the Sox picked up Singleton's option and
basically apologized to fans for doing so. It reminded me of the way Rob Gordon introduced Sonic Death Monkey toward the end of
High Fidelity:
First I'd like to introduce a band, so please [pause] don't leave until ... after they finish and we play the record.
The simple swap of Stone for Singleton should improve the Sox's radio broadcasts dramatically, but it will be interesting to see how two know-it-alls share the booth. He did work well with Hawk Harrelson, whose knowledge of the game goes undisputed (or else), but most of Hawk's baseball truisms are of the blanket variety, whereas Stone likes to delve into the particulars.
Farmer almost became a parody of himself with Singleton in the booth, perhaps because he had to steer the broadcast. His workload should be lessened since Stone is a veteran, and maybe his analysis will inspire Farmer to bring his 'A' game as well.
Or maybe Stone will dispute Farmer's claims, Farmer will get defensive and we'll experience moments of disconcerting silence. But hey, we've had plenty of that the last two years, so it's not like we haven't heard it before.