LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Todd Hollandsworth and Ron Coomer won a Pacific Coast League championship together in the Dodgers’ organization in 1994. And 19 years later they’re finally crossing paths in the big leagues for the first time – kind of – as the last two guys standing in the hunt for the Cubs radio analyst job.
“Good guy,” Hollandsworth said. “Great guy.”
Hollandsworth, who has done pre- and postgame TV work on the Cubs since the Piniella years and also works for MLB Network radio, said he’s confident about the Cubs gig, though he still waiting to get word on the team’s and station’s final decision – which could come this week.
“I’d like to believe that I’m the guy for the job,” said the former Cub who lives in Barrington with his wife and kids. “It’s something I’ve been working my entire career for.”
Hollandsworth, the 1996 National League Rookie of the Year for the Dodgers, was in the mix for the TV analyst job a year ago that went to Jim Deshaies.
The Cubs job, which opened when Keith Moreland stepped down six weeks ago, would mean giving up his MLB gig and TV job with Comcast.
“This is what I’ve worked for all along,” he said. “I wanted to be committed to a team, I wanted to be committed to an organization. The Cubs have been my team and organization for the last five years. I’ve been watching.
“I’ve watched and soaked it in. I’ve lived through all the managerial switches and all the changes, the ups and downs of Starlin [Castro] and Anthony [Rizzo] and everything that goes into it. I’d like to see it all the way through.
“It would be a dream. It would be a dream to work alongside Pat [Hughes]. I believe we’d have an awful lot of fun bridging that gap between where we sit today and the years that are going to be much better.”
