Kasper unable to resist radio’s call
Listening to Ernie Harwell as a kid drew new Sox announcer to ‘purest form of baseball broadcasting’
Most baseball fans can tell you the voice of summer that seduced them.
For Len Kasper, it was Detroit Tigers radio announcer Ernie Harwell who led him to love not only the message but the medium while growing up in Michigan. The hum and pop of AM radio has proved as enduringly irresistible a siren song as Harwell’s vivid calls over time.
So Kasper, who turns 50 next month, gave up the coveted Cubs TV announcing job he held for 16 seasons to become the new radio voice of the crosstown White Sox.
“Iwant to paint the picture of the great game of baseball on the radio like he did for me growing up,” Kasper explained Friday.
Anyone have “Kasper to new Sox flagship WMVP-AM1000” on their 2020 bingo card of surprises?
“This wouldn’t really make any sense to anybody unless youwere familiar with Len,” said Mike McCarthy, generalmanager of Marquee Sports Network, the TV channel the Cubs launched this year with Sinclair Broadcast Group that featured Kasper front and center on play-by-play.
“Len’s dream was to pursue this purist view of baseball radio and he’s going to do that, and he doesn’t even have tomove to do it. So it’s pretty special for him in the way of an opportunity. We tried like heck to keep him.”
Among those surprised Kasper would consider leaving the Cubs TV booth for White Sox radio was Brooks Boyer, the Sox chief revenue and marketing officer who fielded Kasper’s inquiry about the position alongside analyst Darrin Jackson earlier in theweek.
“Iwas stunned when hewent
on to tell me that his dream was to call big-league games on radio, (which) I’m sure you’ve heard him call the purest form,” Boyer said.
Therewere tells concerning his audio affinity.
While most TV baseball announcers gladly take a day off when ESPN or Fox usurps a game fromlocal outlets, Kasper regularly helped out with an inning of Cubs radio play-by-play to spell the great Pat Hughes. Kasper also was a regular on the team’s WSCR-AM 670 pregame show.
During the postseason, when local TV announcers are shoved aside by the national networks, radio offered away for Kasper to stay connected to the team and its fans.
“Iwant to call postseason games,” Kasper said. “Iwant to be behind the microphone to call a World Series.”
That’s why the 12-year-old who dreamed of being Harwell haswon out, and the 49-year-old who wound up in TV but always thought radio would be his sound salvation is charting a new course.
“My career took some amazing twists and turns,” said Kasper, who earlier called games for the Milwaukee Brewers and Miami Marlins. “I missed that exit on the highway, and it’s been an amazing ride, culminating in the best 16 years ofmy life with the Chicago Cubs.”
Boyer said he appreciated “how gracious the Cubs were in allowing Len to pursue this dream.”
Things can get sticky. When Harry Caray left the Sox for the Cubs broadcast team in the early 1980s, ill will was thinly concealed. None of that seems to be the case here.
Early in Harwell’s announcing career when hewas calling games for the minor-league Atlanta Crackers, the Brooklyn Dodgers decided hewould be a fine backup for the ailing Red Barber in 1948.
Atlanta wasn’t going to give Harwell for nothing, however, and negotiated to get a prospect named Cliff Dapper in return.
The Cubs made no such demands in exchange for letting Kasper out of his contract.
“You don’t ever want your legacy to be you stood in theway of somebody and their dream,” McCarthy said.
Seeing as Kasper is 16 years younger than Hughes, who has called Cubs games on the radio since 1995, it’s fair to wonder whether Kasper could have waited him out.
Then again, heading into his 26th season at age 65, Hughes sounds as if he could go another 10 years or more. One never knows. About anything.
A year ago the Sox radio job belonged to Ed Farmer, a fixture with the team for almost 30 years until his death in April. Andy Masur took over last season, but the marriage didn’t last.
“If I don’t do this now… I might not ever get the opportunity to do it,” Kasper said. “I’m not the young kid anymore. I acknowledge that. I’m a kid at heart, butwe only have one shot at this thing called life. I don’t knowwhat the future is going to bring, but there are mountains to conquer, and this is the mountain I really want to climb.”
Even as he ascends in radio, Kasper isn’t abandoning TV. He’ll fill in on NBC Sports Chicago, sometimes alongside analyst Steve Stone when Jason Benetti is off working for ESPN and sometimes in place of Stone.
Benetti and Kasper also plan to collaborate on podcasts and other projects.
Ironically, a few years ago when Boyer was looking to ease a new announcer into the Sox TV booth in anticipation of Ken “Hawk” Harrelson’s retirement, he called Kasper to ask if he had any ideas for candidates who might be the next Len Kasper. Benetti was one of the names offered, suggesting the Sox noware hoarding Len Kaspers.
Meanwhile, the Cubs and Marquee are looking for a new Len Kasper to join analyst Jim Deshaies. It’s a desirable opening. As such, it comes with a great deal of scrutiny.
“We know our fans love change,” joked Crane Kenney, the Cubs president of business operations.
McCarthy appeared to shoot down reports that cited sources saying Fox Sports’ Chris Myerswas likely to be Kasper’s successor, amove that seemed to have little support on social media.
Marquee plans to announce a talk show hosted by Myers soon, according to McCarthy, which might explain the confusion. Kasper doesn’t have a bit of uncertainly about what he’s doing and why, though he did get emotional as he reflected on all he got en route to this moment from Harwell, who died in 2010 at age 92.
“Erniewas the hero who became a mentor and a good friend,” Kasper said.
“When I got theMarlins job, I got a handwritten letter fromErnie. When I got the Cubs job, I got a phone call from Ernie. You don’t knowhowmuch that means to someone likeme, and so I’m thinking about you today, Ernie.”
In memory, A Mradio’s signal is always clear.