Steve Stone: Cubs will run away with Central

[Sixto1979]

Hi. Long time lurker here. I want to offer this view on Steve Stone. I am a Brewer fan since 1975, grew up in Milwaukee, but now living in Chicago - and I hear Stone on the radio here all of the time. I actually think he's very good - his analysis is more thoughtful than about 98% of what you hear especially on sports radio in this town. Now as far as predicting the Cubs will run away from the rest of the NL Central. This is vintage Stone. He does that all the time. Ever since he was, along with Chip Carey, essentially forced out of the Cubs' TV booth by a whining Dusty Baker and some of his idiot players like Kent Mercker (who spent his time complaining about the content of Stone's broadcasts while the Cubs frittered away the division title in '04), Stone has consistently held that the Cubs "should" win the division every year, given their large market payroll vs. the rest of the division, and that management has no excuse not to win. This is Stone's attempt to put pressure on Cubs management, telling the fans that anything less than 1st place is a failure. Since most years they won't finish first, he's basically making Cubs management look bad to the fans by telling those very fans they have the right to expect a division champion every year. Its an odd form of revenge, but when the Cubs fail, like they did in '05 and '06, you could almost hear the glee in Stone's voice when, at season's end, he reviewed the failure of the team to perform, indicting Cubs management, the same Cubs management that ousted him. If you listened to him in '07, he did the same thing, especially early in the year when the Cubs were struggling and trailing the Brewers, often saying things such as they have no excuse for being behind a Brewer team spending a lot less. He was fair in his assessment of the Crew's good young talent, and was especially complimentary of Braun last year.

 

So yes it might sound like he's slighting the Brewers, but really is agenda is turning up the heat on his former employer by raising Cubs fans' expectations to a level that we all know is unrealistic. How is that not good? I like him.