The ironic thing about Steve Stone leaving the Cubs is that this is actually Chip Caray’s fault, too. Steve Stone didn’t leave the Cubs because Kent Mercker swore at him on a team flight. You don’t think he pissed off players from time to time during his 17 years on the job? He left because of the weird series of events in the final homestand of the season, and all of those could be directly tied to Steve’s weird overly emotional reaction to Chip Caray’s departure for Atlanta.

It’s what caused Steve to go off on Dusty Baker in a postgame show (I mean, really, Dusty didn’t do anything dumber in that game than he’d done all year), it’s what caused him to go off on the Cubs on SportsCentral that night, and in the end it was the reason that there was a decision to be made about coming back at all.

For whatever reason (friendship, pity, whatever) Steve was protective of his mildy-retarded sidekick. Maybe it’s the phenomenon that causes people to choose the runt of a litter of puppies and to put up with the dog crapping on the rug every day for nine years? Whatever it was, Steve took any criticism of Chip to heart and he took Chip’s joyous departure as a personal affront.

It was stated here by me, and others, over the past couple of years that Chip’s cloying, hackneyed act was starting to rub off on Stone. Steve was not as good in his second go-around as he was in the first one. The good news is that he’s not leaving this time because of some strange lung fungus. He’s healthy, he’s probably going to end up working Diamondbacks games with a reasonable facsimilie of Chip in tHom Brennaman and the Cubs will end up with Dave O’Brien and Joe Girardi in the booth.

The simple fact is that if we could put up with Chip for seven seasons, we can put up with anything. Let Chip and Steve both delude themselves into thinking that the announcers have anything at all to do with the ratings that baseball games get. It’s just further proof that in the grander scheme of things, neither one of them ever got it.

It’s true that as fans we have a vested interest in who the announcers are. For better or worse we spend three hours a day with these people from April until October. It’s why we all were so critical of Chip. It’s why we had a “Terror Alert” posted on this site for two full years, just to track what level of annoyance Chip was at that day. He made it easy for us by constantly being on SEVERE.

What’s most interesting about this is how fans on other sites (especially our short bus friends at CubsTalk.com) are acting like this is the biggest news the Cubs have had all year. Frankly, I just never found Steve all that likeable. Smug? Sure. Knowledgeable? Of course he was.

In the end, the players didn’t run Steve off. Dusty didn’t run him off. What happened was this:

He is still upset that WGN and the Cubs didn’t try harder to keep Chip. He was blind to the fact that Chip was bad and disliked. He felt like letting Chip go was a slap in his face.

He wanted a direct say in who his new partner would be and WGN and the Cubs wouldn’t give it to him. And why should they? His public campaigning for the annoying little Dave Kaplan should have sealed this fate two weeks ago.

So Steve did what he has the right to do. He left.

And the Cubs will have a fresh look in the field and in the booth. And after last year. They could use both.

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The Tribune is reporting that the Mets are having internal discussions about deals for either Manny Ramirez (not likely that the WORLD SERIES MVP is going anywhere) or Samuel Peralta Sosa. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. People who claim there’s no market for Sammy are just, plain wrong. If the Cubs really want to trade him, and I think they do, they’ll be able to do it. He’s still a star. And as anybody who paid $500 to go see The Eagles hack their way through 25 year old “hits” can tell you, people still pay for stars.

The Jockey on Stone’s departure.

Steve says he’ll miss the fans. Well, at least somebody will miss somebody.

Rick Morrissey details the way he thinks the end of the road went. He’s probably right. But if that’s true, then it really was all about Chip. That’s just too bad.

Mariotti puts down the doughnut and blames this on…pretty much everybody.

Chip proves that he’ll just never get it. Ever.

He said this, ”I’m very disappointed for the fans of the Chicago Cubs. They’re losing the voice of the Cubs. He’s the last link to the Jack Rosenberg, Harry Caray, Jack Brickhouse, Arne Harris era.” Ooh, and what an era that was. Losing, losing and more losing.

Chip had more to say, ”Steve and I talked to John McDonough, Andy MacPhail, Jim Hendry and Dusty Baker about the treatment of a small group of players. ‘And Andy MacPhail, Jim Hendry, John McDonough and Dusty Baker met several times with those players, and the behavior didn’t change.

”That kind of behavior should never be tolerated. If the Cubs or any team want to be successful and win, then everyone from the broadcasters to the assistant trainer should be treated in a first-class way, and as an observer. Steve wasn’t treated in a first-class way by two or three players.

”It left a sour taste in everyone’s mouths.”

There’s a Biggio joke there in that last line, but just read that again. Is it the Cubs’ fault that their players gave Chip crap about bringing his guitar with him on the plane? Everything that came down on Steve was a result of him protecting his incapable booth partner. Plus, the “two or three players” include Kent Mercker and Moises Alou who will not be back in 2005. What Chip is blaming the departure on and what really caused it do not mesh.

The Wizard of Roz says we should have seen it coming. We did. But are we really supposed to care about it?

You have got to be kidding? The Astros really picked up The Beege’s option? Good news for Houston opponents.

Newsday on new Met Sammy Sosa.

The Yankees declined Jon Lieber’s option (well sure, they’ve got so much pitching) and the Twins are interested. So are the Cubs. Hmmm.

America’s finest news source gears up for Recount 2004!