Len Kasper Jumps To The South Side. It’s The Latest Sign The Chicago Cubs Have Lost Their Mojo.

Len Kasper not only is joining the exodus from Wrigley Field but is throwing in with the less popular franchise on the South Side of Chicago. 

Kasper, the popular television play-by-play man who is as knowledgable about music and pop culture as baseball, will be named on Friday as the White Sox’s radio play-by-play man, replacing the late Ed Farmer. Chris Myers, recognizable for his national work on ESPN and Fox, is likely to replace Kasper on Cubs’ telecasts, working along Jim Deshaies.

It’s the latest blow to anguished fans who had previously seen the Cubs lose Theo Epstein, Jon Lester (seemingly), Kyle Schwarber and Albert Almora. Like the decision not to retain World Series-winning manager Joe Maddon, the moves undercut the credibility of franchise that failed to sustain the success it built in 2015-17 under Epstein and Maddon.

The Cubs haven’t won a postseason game since Jake Arrieta pitched them to a victory in Game 4 of the 2017 NLCS — a drought that spanned most of the length of the White Sox’s wildly successful rebuilding process. The South Siders started their way back from baseball irrelevance by trading twin aces Chris Sale and Jose Quintana, and last fall played in the postseason for the first time since 2008, when both Chicago franchises were bumped in their league’s respective Division Series.

The White Sox are generating the kind of buzz the then-young Cubs carried in 2015, with the talents of 2020 MVP Jose Abreu, Lucas Giolito, Tim Anderson, Luis Robert and others establishing them as contenders who should have staying power. 

It’s difficult to see the South Siders replacing the Cubs as Chicago’s more popular baseball team but they are riding a high now, in part thanks to fans like Mayor Lori Lightfoot, former President Barack Obama and Chance the Rapper. It’s the same dynamic that followed the White Sox’s unexpected World Series victory in 2005.

Under manager Ozzie Guillen, a team led by Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye swept the Houston Astros to cap an unlikely 11-1 run that began with it unseating Epstein’s 2004 curse-busing Boston Red Sox. The Cubs meanwhile had fallen back to earth after getting within one win — the infamous 2003 Bartman game against the Marlins — of reaching the World Series.

While it has been mostly lost to history, the ’06 White Sox looked capable of back-to-back championships early in the season, taking a 57-31 record into the All-Star break. If the Sox were ever positioned to take down the Cubs, this was the time.

Had Guillen’s team not collapsed in the second half, finishing the season 90-72 and behind Minnesota and Detroit in the AL Central, the Sox would have outdrawn the Cubs that season. They drew a record 2,957,414 in 2006, only 165,801 fans fewer than their rivals. But the White Sox were less competitive in ’07, beginning a slide at the gate they’ve been unable to address.

Had fans been allowed into baseball parks last summer, they would likely have seen a significant gain in attendance. But in 2019 the gap between the Cubs and White Sox was almost 1.5 million fans (3,094,865-1,649,775).

Kasper’s choice of employers is a sign that the buzz among the city’s baseball fans is shifting. It follows the awkward launch of the Cubs’ Marquee Network last season, which was epitomized by a mandate for the casually cool team of Kasper and Deshaies to dress formally for games and the increasing interruption of outside voices and team informercials on telecasts. 

Don’t expect Kasper to open up about his feelings on those subjects, although he’s sure to say how much he is going to miss working with Deshaies. He’s too professional to take swipes as the franchise that brought him to Chicago and has nurtured his growth. 

But like Epstein, Kasper was ready to close the door on one adventure and start building toward the next one. He leaves behind Cubs’ fans who are worried they will have to spend the rest of the life reliving the fun they had when Schwarber was hitting bombs and Kasper was celebrating them.

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