John Rooney's Swan Song - Online Sports Betting

Chisox73 · 10-22-2005, 03:04 PM

Series is swan song for Sox' longtime radio voice
October 22, 2005

BY ANDREW HERRMANN Staff Reporter

These are bittersweet days for fans of broadcaster John Rooney, who is wrapping up 18 years as the voice of the White Sox. After the World Series is over, he's a goner as the radio play-by-play man here.

"It may hit me when it's all over with, but I still have a game to do," Rooney said. "That's the way I'm approaching it."

Though Rooney's salary is reportedly at the center of the breakup, Rooney will only say, "Things just didn't work out, and I'm going to leave it at that." The team broadcasts are switching from WMVP to WSCR next year.

Some fans are outraged. On a Sox blog, one e-mailer calls Rooney "that tenth man, the fan in the lucky seat." Another frets that Rooney will end up on the wrong side of town: "The Cubs will offer him what he's worth. After 5 minutes in the booth at Wrigley, he'll become a national legend."

Rooney's melodious and sometimes gently humorous descriptions of the South Siders became the sound of summer for many Sox fans starting in 1988. For years, he's also called games for network radio in addition to his Sox duties -- he estimates he's broadcast "nine or 10" World Series before.

"The games are a little different because of the intensity and everything that's on the line in a World Series,'' said Rooney. But "you come to the ballpark as you normally do: you let the crowd and the game take you where the game goes."

Rooney's signature victory exclamation -- "That's a White Sox winner!'' -- started while working in the early 1980s for the minor league Louisville Redbirds. "I used to say 'That's a Redbird winner!'" Rooney said. "I was looking for something that wasn't corny and wouldn't get on anybody's nerves."

He has called Sox' greatest hits

His home-run call -- "That's a goner!" -- was inspired when a drunken driver nearly caused him and his mother to crash near his hometown in the Kansas City area. "Mom looked at me and said, 'We were about three seconds away from being a goner.' That kind of stuck," Rooney said.

Highlights? Rooney cites Carlton Fisk's breaking the record for home runs by a catcher and Bobby Thigpen's setting the saves record with 57, both in 1990 -- "a wonderfully surprising season." Jack McDowell winning the Cy Young award in 1992 and Bo Jackson's home run to wrap up the 1993 Western Division title were special, too. "There are so many [memories]," Rooney said.

He's not sure what he'll be doing in the future, though he has an NFL game to call in San Francisco the first weekend in November for network radio. But he'd like to be the play-by-play man for another baseball team, which would likely require him to move from the suburbs with his wife, Sue, and two teenage step-daughters.

"There is some interest out there that we're going to pursue when this is over," he said.

If the Sox do win the World Series, Rooney isn't sure what he'll say. "When guys plan it out, it sounds like a bad line in a B-movie. It just doesn't come out right," he said.

But he is thinking about how to bid farewell to Sox fans.

"I love them. I tell them that every time I go on the air and try to do the best job for them," Rooney said

http://www.suntimes.com/output/world...-rooney22.html

Spitball67 · 10-24-2005, 01:02 PM

It is a real shame that the White Sox and John Rooney are parting ways. He is one of the finest baseball announcers out there. At least his final radio broadcast for the White Sox will be a World Series game.

rockin500 · 10-24-2005, 01:29 PM

*shrug* the white sox fans i know here at work think he is boring and dont like the radio broadcasts.

Spitball67 · 10-24-2005, 01:43 PM

actually, I think Ed Farmer is the boring one.

rockin500 · 10-24-2005, 01:52 PM

i agree that ed is more boring. they're just boring together. I didnt realize he was as young as he is, though. looked a lot younger than i thought when i saw him on TV awhile back.

Spitball67 · 10-24-2005, 02:21 PM

you're right, he does sound a lot older than he is.

Cyberlibrarian · 10-24-2005, 10:30 PM

I've heard Rooney on national games, and I like him. He's better than the Sox TV announcers, who I simply cannot abide.

rockin500 · 10-24-2005, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyberlibrarian

I've heard Rooney on national games, and I like him. He's better than the Sox TV announcers, who I simply cannot abide.

that doesnt take much.

Cyberlibrarian · 10-25-2005, 06:53 AM

Don't get too giddy. I don't like the Cubs announcers either. I never understood the appeal of Harry Caray. He hever had a clue what was going on during the game. And Ron Santo, yes he played for the Cubs, is more like a cheerleading squad than an announcer.

The more I listen to other teams' announcers, the more I appreciate my own team's announcers. For the past 15 years, we had Gary Cohen and Bob Murphy (one of the all-time greats). Murph died last year, but now we have Howie Rose. He and Gary do a stellar job. If any of you heard Gary do the radio side of the Cardinals/Padres series this year, you'll know what I mean. He's a future HoF announcer.

rockin500 · 10-25-2005, 07:10 AM

harry wasnt the same after his stroke. after that, it was all bets off as to what you were getting. AS for Ron, he's that goofy uncle of yours. Not very good, but gives it his all and lives and dies with everything. He does have his good days, however. not all of them are bad!

we could seriously find flaws with every announcer out there, though

Cyberlibrarian · 10-25-2005, 09:43 AM

Very true. I like Harry Kalas. I enjoyed listening to him when I lived in Philadelphia.