Sunday, January 30, 2011

Trib: Santo replacement choice is between Moreland and Otto

The Tribune is reporting (my guess is that know-it-all Dave Kaplan is the source of this) that the person who will take the place of Ron Santo in the radio booth this year will either be Keith Moreland or (gulp) Dave Otto.

As you all might recall, Otto was my least favorite of all the candidates while Moreland has been my favorite.

I find is somewhat surprising that the Cubs (and WGN) would be willing to select Otto who, as I recall, was not very well liked when he had replaced Steve Stone in the TV booth for those couple years when Stoney was dealing with personal and health issues.  (Joe Carter also did some of those broadcasts.)

That being said, I believe Pat Hughes likes Dave Otto a lot, and a number of people have felt that the two had worked well together when Otto filled in for Santo over the past few seasons.

At the same time, much of the same could be said for Moreland, so it is understandable that the decision will come down to these two well qualified candidates.  

From that same news item, the Cubs seem to want to have this decision made by the time spring training starts...which would be in the next few weeks.

I'm keeping my figured crossed that the winner of this job is Keith, but we'll see.