Have the Cubs Filled Their Broadcast Booth?

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Nov 16, 2004 4:09PM

As Chicagoist reported previously, the Cubs had a couple high profile vacancies in their broadcast booth to fill this off-season after both Chip Caray and Steve Stone.

Last week, the Cubs hired Bob Brenly as their TV analyst. The former Fox baseball broadcaster and Arizona Diamondbacks manager has a long friendship with Cubs manager Dusty Baker going back to their playing days. Brenley also served on Bakers staff when he managed the Giants. But Brenley claims he won't let his friendship affect his commentary. Guess we'll have to wait and see whether he'll tell it like it is as Stone did or whether he'll be Baker's lap dog.

Filling the other chair in the booth will be Dave O'Brien -- provided he gets the OK from both ESPN and the New York Mets. He's under contract with both for one more year, although it's rare for announcers to be prevented from moving to other jobs -- especially in the final year of a deal. And his Cubs contract would allow him to continue to announce college basketball games for ESPN.

O'Brien sure sounded like the kind of guy who followed the Cubs "Call us, we won't call you" advice:

I have two great jobs, and I love what I do. But the Cubs job is unique. It's one of the handful of special jobs in baseball. Working at Wrigley Field and calling games on the superstation (WGN-TV), that's quite an opportunity. It's at the top of the list for any announcer.