Chicago Tribune - 24.02.2020

2 Chicago Tribune|Chicago Sports|Section 3|Monday, February 24, 2020

More Mark Grace, please.
During his too-short, three-inning visit
to the Marquee Sports Network booth
during the channel’s debut Cubs game
Saturday night, Grace called the Cincinnati
Reds baseball’s equivalent of the NFL’s
underperforming Cleveland Browns.
The former Cubs star rhapsodized about
how, as a player, his diet featured jelly
doughnuts, Philly cheesesteaks and Tootsie
Rolls.
He reminisced about playing first base
during Kerry Wood’s storied 1998 20-
strikeout game.
“I could have put my glove on my head,”
Grace said.
The Cubs beat the Athletics 12-2 on
Saturday in their exhibition opener, but the
real winner was Grace, who was funny and
charming and insightful.
The guy was the life of the party.
He even read promos with gusto.
There was much talk during the game
about the geegaws and gimmickry
Marquee will have at its disposal once the
season starts.
There were loads of promos touting the
Cubs-centric programming this partner-
ship between the ballclub and Sinclair
Broadcast Group will yield.
Someday, perhaps, the channel’s micro-
phones — pinned Saturday on Jason Hey-
ward during batting practice and Anthony
Rizzo during the first few innings — will
yield something nearly as entertaining as
announcers Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies
kept saying they did.
For now, however, it’s Grace’s brief guest
turn that should entice fans, not the tech-
nology. If Marquee is smart, it will figure
out a way to make him a full-timer.
There were, of course, other winners
and losers from Marquee’s launch.

Winner: Jed Hoyer
The line of the night may have come
during a fourth-inning in-booth interview
with the Cubs executive vice president and
general manager.
Hoyer said he texted David Ross, who
missed what would have been his spring
training debut as manager with the flu.
His message: “Lou Gehrig, you are not.”

Loser: Sponsor plugs
The Cubs’ stated rationale for Marquee
Sports Network is it will give fans more of
what they want.

What part of reporter Taylor McGre-

gor’s in-game feature on the family that

controls the plumbing valve concern with

naming rights to the Cubs spring training

home was supposed to be interesting to

fans back in the Midwest?

Loser: Remote-control cameras

Robotic cameras aren’t new to Cubs TV,

but there apparently will be a lot more of

them in use once the season starts.

There was much talk Saturday from Len

Kasper, Jim Deshaies and even Cubs busi-

ness President Crane Kenney about how

great it will be to have remote-controlled

cameras perched atop the center-field

scoreboard and foul poles at Wrigley Field.

Viewers have every reason to wonder

how much this will add based on the slow-

panning robo-cams near the dugout and in

the broadcast booth Saturday.

High and faraway shots at Wrigley

might make for pretty cutaway shots, but

they are hardly well-positioned for game

action.

Winner: Foot fans.

Crane Kenney touted it as the JavyCam

because of its proximity to Javier Baez. Len

Kasper called it the DirtCam, which is the

name Fox Sports calls it when it’s in use.

But the folks at Marquee are very excited

about planting a miniature camera in the

infield dirt at Wrigley Field — calling it

Cleat Cam because it’s at shoe level.

Loser: Graphics fans

Marquee’s spring training game cov-

erage will lack the channel’s full graphics

package. Pitch speed and a location box

won’t be available until the regular season.

Loser: Long-term memory

A product that advertises itself as help-

ing improve short-term memory was

among Marquee’s launch partners, but

that’s not the kind of memory with which

the channel struggles.

Its “Cubs Countdown: All-Time Games”

hour featured a top 10. None predated

1970. All but two were since 1984. Four
      were in the last five years. That’s a real
      keen sense of history on display.
      If you want to blame fan voting for omit-
      ting, say, Babe Ruth’s called shot at Wrigley
      Field in the 1932 World Series, OK. But
      Marquee signed off on the show. Add
      hanging Steve Bartman out to dry yet again
      at No. 2, and it’s not a great look.

Winner: The real Harry Caray

There were plenty of clips on Marquee’s

opening day of Harry Caray, who was the

first voice heard on the new channel.

Each clip evoked the memory of how

Caray left the White Sox for the Cubs bad-

mouthing the Sox plans to take games off

free, over-the-air Chicago TV and launch

pay TV’s SportsVision in 1982.

The businesses of baseball and TV

changed, of course, and the Cubs eventu-

ally moved games to local cable, but not

until after Caray’s 1998 death.

Loser: Ryan Dempster’s Harry Caray

impression

A little more than 15 minutes into

Marquee’s first hour, the former Cubs

pitcher trotted out his imitation of the

former Cardinals, A’s, White Sox and Cubs

announcer. There’s no need for more of

that.

Winner: Ron Rapoport

The former Sun-Times columnist and

the author of the definitive Ernie Banks

biography, “Let’s Play Two,” was the back-

bone of Marquee’s “More Than Mr. Cub”

documentary.

It was a solid effort prominently featur-

ing Michael Wilbon, Billy Williams, Rich

Cohen, Randy Hundley, Banks’ sons and

others. But it’s hard to understand how

Banks’ 2013 appearance on stage with

Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam merited as

much time as it received.

Marquee: Winners ’n’ losers

Phil Rosenthal

Marquee Sports Network had its share of

the good, the bad and the ugly in its debut.

JOSE M. OSORIO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

TOP OF THE SECOND

Tuesday

@Blues

7 p.m.

NBCSN

Thursday

@Lightning

6 p.m.

NBCSCH

Tuesday

Thunder

7 p.m.

NBCSCH

Saturday

@Knicks

4 p.m.

NBCSCH

Monday

@Mariners

2:10 p.m.

Marquee

Tuesday

Rockies

2:05 p.m.

Marquee

Monday

@Dodgers

2:05 p.m.

NBCSCH

Tuesday

@Indians (ss)

Giants (ss)

2:05 p.m.

Sunday

@Sounders

2 p.m.

ESPN

March 7

@Revolution

12:30 p.m.

WGN-9

LET’S PLAY 2

Spring training

MLB SPRING TRAINING

NoonOrioles at Phillies MLB

2:05 p.m.Cubs at Mariners Marquee

2:05 p.m.White Sox at Dodgers NBCSCH

NBA

6 p.m.Hawks at 76ers NBA

9:30 p.m.Grizzlies at Clippers NBA

MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL

6 p.m.Louisville at Florida State ESPN

6 p.m.West Virginia at Texas ESPNU

7 p.m.Nebraska at Illinois BTN

WLS-AM 890

8 p.m.Oklahoma State at Kansas ESPN

WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL

6 p.m.Duke at N.C. State ESPN2

6 p.m.Baylor at West Virginia FS1

8 p.m.Oregon at Stanford ESPN2

SOCCER

2 p.m.Liverpool vs. West Ham NBCSN

TENNIS

4 a.m. (Tue.)Dubai, Santiago, Doha Tennis

MONDAY ON TV/RADIO

ON THE WEB

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