If you grew up in Chicago in the 80’s you have been watching and listening to Steve Stone your entire life.  He left baseball in 1981, but by 1983 he was full-time in the Cubs booth paired with the legendary Harry Caray……….one side note, I know this is a White Sox blog, but when you are my age, you didn’t have a lot of choice but to watch Cubs baseball as a kid even as a Sox fan…………the Cubs played predominantly day games (during the summer when we were kids, there was no internet, so this was the best thing to watch) and when they weren’t day games, they usually started at 6pm (road games in the old NL East).  Also, all games were televised on WGN……..so you could actually watch them………..the White Sox played predominantly night games, including a big chunk of games on the West Coast and a lot of those games, I could not watch, as I did not have Sportsvision……….but I digress…….

Wherever or whenever you caught Stone doing a ball game, you were getting the best an analyst had to offer, someone who thought the game deeply and gave the fans an educational experience.  One of the most fun things about Stone is he liked to test his acumen against the actual events, by trying to predict what move or pitch would work best.  A fun game that fans generally enjoy.  He also pulled no punches, which is evidenced by him leaving the Cubs booth for good at the end of the 2004 season.  Nothing like an analyst that is willing to take some risk for his opinions (gfy ESPN analysts).

Stone has also shared the booth with two legends of the business…….two play by play guys that had unique personalities (so to speak) and has managed to weather those storms and still provide the fans with top notch analyst work.

So, happy birthday Steve Stone!!  Hope you are knocking back a stogie or two, possibly placing a wager on the ponies to enjoy your special day.

– BeefLoaf