Only a few days after suggesting Cubs fans should watch the games with the sound turned down, manager Dusty Baker insisted Saturday there’s no feud between his team and announcers Chip Caray and Steve Stone.
“To me, that wasn’t a real controversy,” Baker said. “I think that was something that, No. 1, was blown way out of proportion–[the feud] with the announcers, and No. 2, it always has been like that. You just never heard about it. It just never became public.”
But another incident occurred on the team charter to Montreal on Aug. 29, when reliever Kent Mercker began loudly berating Stone in front of his teammates while Stone was reading a book. Mercker was upset that a call he made to the press box on Aug. 27 to criticize Caray’s praise of Houston pitcher Roy Oswalt found its way to the media.
Mercker and several teammates have been upset with commentary from Stone and Caray that Moises Alou has termed “negative.”
Mercker declined to address the media Saturday, through a Cubs spokesman. Reached Saturday night, Stone declined comment.
But the charter incident already has been discussed at upper levels of WGN-TV and the Cubs, both of which are owned by Tribune Co. The Cubs are hoping things will calm down, but players continue to add to the tense atmosphere with harsh comments about the announcers in public and private. Players have been informed not to call the press box, but neither Baker nor management has put a muzzle on them.
In an interview on WSCR-AM on Thursday, Todd Walker said the players wouldn’t care what Stone or Caray said “if we didn’t have to be on the plane with them, if we didn’t have to be on the bus with them, if we didn’t have to be around them constantly.”
Walker added, “It all seems like they’re more for the other team than they are for us, and we consider them a part of our team.”
Some players and coaches contend Stone and Caray have taken cheap shots at players on the air. When Alou argued with umpire Eric Cooper after a strikeout last week, Stone remarked: “Obviously Eric had a lot to do with him missing that pitch.”
When Mike Remlinger marched out of the dugout last Sunday to scream at Houston outfielder Lance Berkman after Derrek Lee was hit by a pitch, Stone said during a slow-motion replay: “Here comes Mike Remlinger, by himself, by the way.”
“They were behind him 100 percent,” Caray added.
“Certainly,” Stone said. “And you really want to scream at the other team. That’s the way to lose three in a row.”
Asked the next day whether Remlinger was on his own, Baker replied: “Our guys ain’t never on their own, bro, so don’t listen to TV. Just watch it.”
Hurricane Frances has afforded the Cubs an opportunity to cool down. But Baker has defended his players in the past and is unlikely to change now. He said Saturday that player-announcer disputes in baseball have been going on forever.
“As long as people talk and have disagreements, second guess or whatever it is, there are always going to be things said that somebody is not going to like, especially when it’s about you,” he said.
“It was in San Francisco. It was in Atlanta. It was in L.A., sometimes even with the great Vin Scully. It was here sometimes, to my understanding, with the great Harry Caray.”
As a vocal leader back in his playing days, Baker enjoys when his players speak their minds, no matter the target.
“I always want my guys to control themselves as professionals, not doing anything to embarrass themselves, their families or their organizations,” Baker said.
“But it’s a transformation maybe the Cubs are going through sort of, too, from lovable losers to nice guys always getting pounded on all the time to guys that have some spunk and some fire about them.”
Extra innings
Todd Hollandsworth will have his second cast removed from his right leg Monday. If all goes perfectly, Hollandsworth can return for the final games games in a pinch-hitting role. . . . Kyle Farnsworth played light catch with a brace covering his right knee, which he injured while kicking an electric fan last week. Farnsworth is attempting to make it back before season’s end. . . . Mercker’s chances of lessening his three-game suspension are slim, but Baker said Mercker still may appeal it.