Ex-Cougars broadcaster Randazzo living his dream with Mets
Last year, Wayne Randazzo was broadcasting a historic season for the Kane County Cougars, who won the Midwest League championship.
Randazzo is back in Chicago this week in his new role as host of the pregame and postgame shows on radio for the New York Mets. He was named to the job at WOR radio this past winter. Randazzo also fills in on play-by-play duties when either Howie Rose or Josh Lewin is on another assignment.
“Being on the air in Chicago, working at the Score and WBBM, there is some training ground from being in this market to that one,” said Randazzo, a graduate of St. Charles East High School and North Central College in Naperville.
“As far as baseball is concerned, being in Kane County and now being with the Mets, it's been everything I could have dreamed it would be. It's been awesome.”
The Cougars were one of the top stories in minor-league baseball last year, when they won 91 regular-season games and swept to a 7-0 mark in the playoffs.
“It was great,” Randazzo said. “It's fun when you're winning. Ninety-eight wins in a minor-league season, including the playoffs, you never see that. It was almost like it was unfair. Compared to the rest of the league, they just beat everybody up.
“It was so great to be on the air here and to be with the Kane County Cougars. St. Charles High School is five minutes from there. I was lucky to be able to do that. I get to live my dream. That's something not too many people do, so I don't take it for granted.”
Making the adjustment:
Much was made of rookie second baseman Addison Russell's 12-game hitting streak. But Russell, at age 21, is making the transition from shortstop to second base at the major-league level.
“It's really spectacular,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “The other thing you have to understand is not only is he changing positions, but changing sides of the field.
“When you're playing on the left side, shortstop, and you move to the right side, the ball off the bat, the angles are entirely different. Where you're supposed to go on different plays is entirely different.
“The difference, also, especially going to second base, is the double play. It's not as easy as it looks when a guy's coming (right at you) and all of a sudden, you've got to get out of the way. There are all these little nuances. It's not that easy. He's made a nice adjustment.”
Bleacher bomb:
Rookie third baseman Kris Bryant hit his first Wrigley Field homer Monday. The ball carried to the back of the just-opened new bleachers in left-center.
“Just having fans out there is pretty cool,” he said. “I hadn't played a game yet with people out there. They definitely were pretty rowdy. I did get the ball. Whoever gave it to me is nice, and I sure do owe him something.”