Len Kasper will arrive at Wrigley Field about an hour earlier than he normally gets to the ballpark for his pregame prep. Old friends and acquaintances will be there, although fewer with each passing year since his last in the Cubs broadcast booth in 2020.
“There’s a large amount of turnover in this business, front office and people at the ballpark,” said Kasper, anticipating his radio call of Tuesday night’s game between the White Sox, for whom he does radio play-by-play on 1000-AM, and the Cubs, for whom he did TV for 16 seasons. “I still know a lot of people over there but there are a lot of people who don’t know who I am. And it’s kind of crazy how fast time moves.”
Leaving the Cubs for the Sox surprised many, but it felt right then and still does now for Kasper, who feels at home in the radio booth.
“I not only would never have a regret about it, I feel like this is where I belong,” Kasper said. “I did TV for a long time and I might be remembered as someone who did television and at the end of his career did radio, but I’ve always felt like a radio guy at heart. So it feels right. It has always felt right to me, for sure.”
Kasper said his partner, Darrin Jackson, who has been entrenched on Sox broadcast teams for 25 seasons, can be credited for making it feel that way.
“DJ is so easy to work with,” Kasper said. “In the comedy role it’s the ‘yes, and,’ wherever you go your partner takes you there, and further the discussion. He does that every single day and he works his butt off till the last pitch is thrown.”
“When the game turns on its head,” Jackson said, “and it’s no longer good baseball, and you’re losing and it’s one-sided, it’s real easy to all of a sudden become someone who wants to entertain the listener.”
Games have turned on their head and into something less than good baseball at the pace of 15 wins and 45 losses, the Sox’ worst start ever. Like others who cover the team on a daily basis, they get lots of sympathy notes and wellness checks.
Thanks for caring, but there’s no need, Kasper said.
“It’s doing the job,” Kasper said. “That part of it doesn’t change. I prepare for every game, every season whether it’s a great year or bad year. I feel like DJ and I, the last six weeks of last year, after the trade deadline, I felt like we’ve done the best broadcasts that we’ve done together. I’m not sure if I can pinpoint why. But I felt like we got in a nice groove and we’ve continued that this year. So from that perspective I reset every day.”
Kasper and Jackson care about the people involved in the wins and losses so they want them to win, so the losing “has been absolutely hard,” Kasper said.
“It is more fun when the team is winning but from a mechanical broadcast standpoint it feels the same,” Kasper said. “You just hope for a good game every day. But it’s just “call the game,” that’s been my mantra. And that’s why I got in this business, I just love baseball so much.”
And he loves radio, in large part because he grew up listening to Tigers broadcast legend Ernie Harwell.
“I just think the medium is welded to the sport,” Kasper said. “Because it’s non linear. And I go back to Ernie again, the weather conditions in Chicago, the wind direction and angle of the sun are always changing. There is never a shortage of things to talk about in terms of describing what’s happening, no matter what your record is.”
And with Kasper, Jackson said, “I really don’t have to do anything.”
“He’s so prepared and so good at what he does, I can just sit there and go … but I would never do that because it’s my job to pick him up, because of how hard a job he’s doing,” Jackson said.
“Collectively we really mesh well. It’s not the Ed Farmer/Darrin Jackson clown show but you know what? We still have our fun. Just differently.”
