Santo -- yes, Santo -- holds his own alongside Hughes

All right, I've taken a lot of guff over my fondness for Ron Santo over the years, but after listening intently to the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday in Florida, I'm more convinced than ever that Santo and Pat Hughes -- yes, combined -- are a great announcing team doing the Cubs on WGN 720-AM.

Here's Santo moments into the inning talking about the new Cubs pitcher: "I interviewed Kevin Hart today, Pat. I've always wanted to interview him ever since he came up. Heard a lot about him from Jim Hendry. And then of course when he came in with the bases loaded and nobody out, you know, for his major-league debut, and I just had to ask him and let the fans know, 'How did you feel that time?' And he said he was pretty much prepared because of the bullpen guys saying, 'Slow it down. You're gonna want to rush it, don't rush it.'

"And he's got so much presence on the mound. Plus he's got a good cut fastball, very good breaking ball. He's in that 88-to-91 range, but he can change speeds very well. He's got a good sinking fastball, and he's got a cutter."

Later in the frame he adds to that analysis: "He's got a curveball, but he's also got what you call -- and I know I brought this up -- a slurve, which looks like a slider, but it breaks big like a curveball."

There's no denying Santo has a ditzy quality -- it's what his defenders find endearing and his detractors find most aggravating -- and we'll get back to that in a moment. But here's Santo doing his homework and delivering it in his own inimitable fashion. Halting lapses in the storytelling or not, it communicates; this is all a fan needs to know about Hart's repertoire and his mound demeanor. From there Hughes takes it away.

And Hughes is, in my opinion, the best baseball play-by-play man in the business right now.

Loyal readers know I've been taking each of our four local baseball announcing teams and recording a randomly selected inning and transcribing the tape to see what it says about them. And Tuesday's selection was even more random than the others, in that it's what I got when I ran out of my kid's school open house during a break to record a half-inning off the car radio. It wasn't an exciting inning. It didn't play to Santo's strengths as an emotional barometer. But it showed what makes this team great every bit as much as their call of Ryan Dempster's inning-ending double play in Houston earlier this month.

Hughes' every line was pithy, descriptive, pictorial. Let's just look at the first two outs.

"Cabrera hits a breaking ball weakly to the right side and a charging De Rosa throws out Miguel Cabrera, one away."

Look at how much is communicated there so efficiently. The second out is almost as fine: "Four-two Florida, Hart coming back, one-one to Jacobs. Swung on, lifted to right, shallow, coming in Murton, gets there near the line to make the catch, two down."

A listener can see these plays in the mind's eye, while at the same time Hughes pounds the details: the inning, the score, the situation. And let's allow Santo a glib little remark too about Murton's catch: "He must've heard me talking about those little bloopers out there."

Then Miguel Olivo doubles. Now I know things are tense with the Cubs closing in on a division title, but look at how both Hughes and Santo build the drama out of what is really a mild threat.

Hughes: "At second with two down is the Marlin catcher. And here's Todd Linden. That's a big run at second."

Santo: "You better believe it. We'd like to go into the top of the ninth inning with just a 2-run deficit, not a 3-run."

That's the Santo his critics can't stand, simply repeating Hughes' point and connecting the obvious dots. But at the same time it emphasizes the danger, especially in Santo's slightly cracking voice. Just as Hughes' lovely singsong delivery sounds the way baseball should sound on the radio, Santo puts the emotional timbre in their call.

And, like most Cubs fans, I adore those little moments when he gets a little addled and Hughes has to guide him along, sometimes playing straight man in a Burns and Allen routine, sometimes simply correcting him with a minimum of fuss.

Cory Provus broke in with an update on how the Brewers were doing in Milwaukee, and when they came back Santo immediately had to ask: "What inning is it?"

This is where an unthinking announcer can let a listener get confused about what inning it is in the actual game. Hughes avoids that: "It's the fourth inning at Miller Park."

It wouldn't be "The Pat and Ron Show" if the attendance didn't come up.

Hughes: "Did we get the attendance figure tonight?"

Santo: "It will be astronomical." (A rare bit of irony from Ronny.)

Hughes: "16,044 are here."

Santo: "And did we guess?"

Hughes: "Our guess was the average, 16,800, so we do have a winner."

There's a Pooh Bear quality to that Santo question: "And did we guess?" An Ed Farmer might snap: "We guess every game, can't you remember?" Hughes plays the patient Christopher Robin and gets back to the action: Silly old Cub.

Now let's go to the final out.

Hughes: "Four-two Florida, bottom of the eighth, two outs, a man at second, the pitch. Swing and a miss. He got him!"

Santo: "How about that?"

Hughes: "Hart strikes out Linden, so the Cubs are down by only two as we go to the ninth. The score: the Florida Marlins four and the Chicago Cubs two."

That's beautiful work -- on both their parts. May they get to do a more emotional call when the Cubs clinch this weekend.

In the air

Remotely interesting: Cubs TV announcers Len Kasper and Bob Brenly are the guests on John Callaway's "Friday Night" at 7:30 today on WTTW Channel 11 in an interview taped last week. If the Cubs make the playoffs -- and even if they don't, for that matter -- TBS will have the first-round coverage starting Wednesday. WGN 720-AM of course will remain the Cubs radio outlet.

NBC's "Sunday Night Football" has been the top show on TV three weeks running -- a first for the NFL franchise. No surprise that Dallas and Chicago were the top markets this week, with the Bears' game pulling in a 42 percent share of the local audience on WMAQ Channel 5. … The Blackhawks return on Comcast SportsNet Chicago at 7:30 p.m. Thursday with Dan Kelly and Ed Olczyk on the call.

End of the dial: WSCR 670-AM remains the Hawks' radio outlet for John Wiedeman and Troy Murray. … Satellite XM will carry every NHL game.

The Bill Wirtz death was a ticklish subject for sports talk. How to avoid making it seem like "Ding Dong the Wirtz Is Dead?" It tripped up Marc Silverman, who didn't handle it well on WMVP 1000-AM's morning show, and even WMVP afternoon host Dan McNeil came off crass by asking listeners who else they'd like to see dead. But the Score's George Ofman handled it elegantly with an update item that began, "The Wirtz family is in mourning, but it's a morning some Blackhawks fans have been waiting for." All I can add is it was a day of independence for Blackhawk fans and their descendants (if any).

-- Ted Cox