This isn’t
the first time I have written this and unfortunately it probably won’t be the
last, but Pat Hughes (radio play-by-play man for the Cubs) needs to quit or be
fired!
I hate being
negative toward someone or criticize the job someone does because I know I am
the furthest thing from perfect. But the
Cubs and/or WGN Radio keep running Hughes out to provide the radio description
of Cubs games and every year, for me anyway, it gets more and more aggravating.
When Hughes
first joined the Cubs he was partnered with Ron Santo. Hughes would handle some of the pre-game
analysis, Ron would interview the manager.
Then Hughes would do play-by-play for the entire game and handle the
post-game highlights. Not a big deal,
pretty much what every announcer does in any major league town.
During the games
with Santo he would “leave the game” and talk with Ron about everything but
baseball. Some people found that
cute. That’s ok. I never really did, but whatever. The irritating thing started when I heard
Hughes interviewed during the off-season and the interviewer commented on how
much fun he and Santo seemed to have broadcasting the games. Hughes, with an almost defiant air of
superiority, mandated “My job is to make the listener really laugh two or three
times a game.” Really? I thought your job was to describe what’s
happening on the field since I’m in my car and don’t have access to a
television. If I wanted to laugh I would
turn off the radio and pop in my Bill Cosby CDs.
But fine, you
want to talk about Ron’s toupee or your tuna sandwich, whatever. But then I was told about a conversation
Hughes had DURING THE SEASON with the
Program Director of WGN. Apparently he
said “Man I’m worn out. Any chance I can
get a short vacation?” Fortunately the
PD said “No.” But let’s look at this a
bit, shall we? The baseball season runs
from the beginning of April to the end of September (that’s the Cubs season
anyway since we don’t have to worry ourselves with post-season play). That’s six months. Spring Training begins in mid-February, but
games usually aren’t broadcast until Mid-March.
So at most he’s working six and a half months.
A baseball
game typically lasts about three and a half hours. If you’re doing pre-game and post-game stuff
you’re on the air for maybe four and a half hours. Sure there’s research and prep work to be
done, but keep in mind there are A LOT of people out there working ten hour
days unloading trucks ALL YEAR LONG!
So when
Hughes was doing all his duties for the Cubs he was working six and a half
months about five hours a day. Yes, I
know, travelling can wear you out. I don’t
travel for a living so I don’t know what effect it can have on the body. But guess what? You knew that when you applied for the
job! I help people invest for their financial
future. This would be like me saying “I
don’t mind getting paid to do my job, but could I not talk about
investments? It’s really wearing me out.”
So somehow
the Cubs/WGN have agreed to this current schedule for Hughes. He doesn’t do Spring Training games until
about a week before the regular season starts.
He doesn’t do any pre-game or post-game work. That’s handled by Keith Moreland and Judd
Sirott. He also DOES NOT BROADCAST THE 5TH
INNING OF THE GAME! He does not
broadcast one inning per game (times 162 games = 162 innings divided by 9 [standard
length of a game] =18 ) He essentially
does not broadcast 18 games a year or 11% of the season.
Last year he
missed at least seven additional games for (according to WGN) non-health
related reasons. He also missed three games
so he could be in Cooperstown to honor Ron Santo at his induction. The Hall of Fame time I totally get. He should be there. He worked with Santo for about 18 years. He absolutely needed to miss the Cubs games
that weekend and be with Santo’s family.
And all of
this other stuff would be fine (well no it wouldn’t but it would be tolerable)
if Hughes wouldn’t whine every time a game was played in less than 60 degree
temperatures or during a ten or fifteen day streak of consecutive games. The minute the temps are in the 50’s or the
Cubs play ten days in a row or 19 out of 20 games, Hughes will comment on it as
if it is personal torture.
He needs to
keep in mind that there are hundreds and thousands of people that would love to
work half a year and get paid to talk about baseball.
The sickening
thing in my mind is that if he would just do his job; forget the damn jokes,
forget the stupid ass 9th inning trivia and just broadcast the
game. If he just did that? He’s one of the best play-by-play guys I’ve
ever heard.
Wow, has it
really been six and a half months since the last post? I guess it has. Well with baseball back in full swing there
is plenty to talk about. We will get
there in due time. But as is tradition
here at the Monroe Doctrine it is time to kick off the year with the 2013 CFCL
Draft In Review.
Every year
the draft brings some interesting things and this year was no exception. With three owners living out of state and an
early Easter this year, coordinating schedules was a challenge. The Ruffins were unable to make it in to
town, which sucked. Every year you can
always count on Dave’s humor to keep the draft moving along. But whenever a door closes a window opens, as
they say and our window was former Copperfield owner, David Mahlan. David had been the heart and soul of the
league for 27 years before retiring back in 2010. He has been sorely missed and we have tried
everything to get him back. Well it
finally worked. David agreed to be the
proxy for David’s Ruffins. Patched in
with a Bluetooth headset and cellphone, David was the voice for the Ruffins and
a welcome sight for the CFCL.
I just
committed the biggest sin (or one of them) in journalism. I buried the lead. The lead of the blog should be - - - THE CFCL
TURNS 30 THIS YEAR! Thirty years ago
David approached me about a little green book he found in the sports section of
the book store and the rest is history.
Actually the rest and the history is being presented on a separate
blog. For those of you so inclined, I
invite you to visit http://cfclrebelcopperfield.blogspot.com/ where you will be
able to read daily entries pertaining to the history of the CFCL. Our goal is to provide an update daily with
historical knowledge about the league, trivia, video clips and Q&A from
former and current owners.
Back to this
year’s draft. We had some interesting
things take place. The owner of The
Danger had an unavoidable conflict arise and couldn’t attend, so he sent his
brother to draft for him. So for the
first time in CFCL we had two proxies sitting in.
The Ruffins
invoked the Ruffin Privilege at 12:55pm and brought up Troy Tulowitzki and we
were off to the races.
A few hours
into the draft, for the second time ever, we had an owner depart before the
draft ended. Dan, the proxy for The
Danger, received word that he had feverish children at home. Doing the only thing he could, he left to
take care of his family. But not before
he nominated Carlos Marmol for bidding a .05.
I will grant you this is a Cub Fans League (that’s with CFCL stands for
– Cub Fan Club League), but nobody took the bait. Nine owners passed quickly and Marmol took
his seat in the Danger bullpen.
**If my
memory is right about this one, the only other time an owner left the draft
before it was over was in 2002 when the Resevoir Dogs had to leave, also due to
an ill child.**
Within six
nominations of each other, Tim Lincecum and Roy Halladay were brought up for
bidding. The strange thing this year
about that is that Halladay was brought up at the end of Round 4 and Lincecum
in the middle of Round 5. Normally they
would have gone early in Round 1. The
other crazy thing is that Halladay went for .11 and Lincecum for .10. Combined .21.
The last time they were available at the draft Halladay was taken at .37
(DoorMatts – 2010) and Lincecum went for .37 as well (Twin Killers – 2012). How quickly baseball changes. A combined .74 down to a combined .21. Rafael Soriano basically went for the same
price (.20) as those two combined.
When the
Danger Proxy left, the Danger still needed four active players and an entire
reserve list of seventeen. In what may
actually have been a first, the Danger completed their roster three days after
the draft ended. In the short run they
don’t seem to be too damaged as they are entrenched in sixth. But the Reserve List usually shows its
strength or weakness in the dog days of the season, so we’ll see what staying
power the Danger have in the long run.
The highest
player salary this year was Joey Votto (.49 to the Clowns) [Honorable Mention
to Carlos Gonzalez who went for .48 to the Danger). Most expensive pitcher was Cliff Lee (.41 to
the Beatniks). The Twin Killers picked
up the first penny player, Donovan Solana, in
the second round.
And five
hours and five minutes after the Auction Draft began, the Kenndoza Line took
Daniel Descalso to complete the draft.
