Stone and Farmer combo sounding better each game

I've waited long enough. Forty games is enough. Enough to prove that Steve Stone is once again the top baseball analyst in town.

Mainly because he has done the impossible. He has made Ed Farmer listenable.

The White Sox' broadcasts on WSCR 670-AM are the most improved in town this season. That in itself is no surprise. With Stone replacing Chris Singleton, the broadcast figured to be better, more polished, more professional, more informative.

That's not really a slag on Singleton, who was working hard on a daily basis to improve himself as a color analyst after being plucked from the field just two years ago. It's simply a deserving compliment for Stone, who was one of the best in the business for years with the Cubs, whether alongside Harry or Chip Caray.

What's surprising - both eye- and ear-opening - is the way Stone has made Farmer better. That did not necessarily figure. Both are pitchers, both proud professionals, and there was no obvious chemistry between a sophisticated color analyst and a South Sider who was also mainly a color man until being shifted two years ago.

(In my opinion, I think Farmer is still best suited to do color, the same way that when Napoleon asks Diane Keaton, "Do you find me attractive as a man?" in Woody Allen's "Love and Death," she replies, "Yes, I think that's your best bet.")

Their first game in spring training was awful, as Farmer, as usual, just would not shut up and stomped on Stone's every thought.

Since then, however, they've gotten better with every game, to the point where Farmer has never sounded better - not as a color analyst alongside John Rooney, not doing play-by-play with Singleton. They have an obvious mutual respect, and also a surprisingly complementary sense of humor, as both have more of a dry wit.

They also don't hold back on criticism. (Witness their "defensive non-play of the game" on Nick Swisher missing the cutoff man Tuesday.) Yet Stone has found his space, and Farmer has allowed him to fill it.

They've finished each other's thoughts and sentences, as when Stone said Monday something was "like dÈ©jà vu," and Farmer immediately chimed in, "All over again."

And they've cracked each other up. But most of all they've made the game seem lively and engaging.

The result, as their Score colleague Dan Bernstein has pointed out, is a broadcast packed with information. Both do their homework, and they deliver it briskly and weave it into the broadcast. And this is useful information, not the players' hometown trivia Farmer typically fell into with Singleton.

Now, look, I'm not suggesting Stone has made Farmer a great play-by-play man. I've finally figured out what irks me most about Farmer: With his monotone delivery and his Evergreen Park way with the language, it takes too long to figure out what exactly is happening as he describes it. He'll say something like, "That's hit to the left side," and one can't tell if it's hit well or not, to the infield or the outfield. Even on TV, a Len Kasper will say, "That ball's crushed to left," and you'll know what's happening before you even look up from dinner to see it.

Yet Farmer is vastly improved simply by token of how he doesn't have to work so hard with Stone to share the burden, and that was never more obvious than when Robin Ventura sat in for Stone in Seattle last weekend. Farmer returned to his blathering ways and talked all over Ventura, without describing the action - or even introducing Ventura much of the time. If you didn't know it was Ventura, no one was going to remind you of it, the same way Farmer treated Chris Rongey as a substitute earlier this season.

Yet one would hope those occasions when Stone is out would be kept to a minimum - both for his sake and for Farmer's, but most of all for the sake of Sox fans listening at home.

tcox@dailyherald.com

In the air

Remotely interesting: The WNBA Sky will air eight games this season on WWME Channel 23, starting with the home opener May 22. Eric Collins and Stacey King will call the action.

The Chicago Marathon returns to WMAQ Channel 5 this fall as part of a new three-year broadcast deal. It most recently aired on WBBM Channel 2.

End of the dial: Kudos to WSCR 670-AM midday-afternoon host Mike Murphy for his excellent research on exploding maple bats earlier this week. Because of maple's high moisture content, the bats have to be dried more, making them more explosive.

Thumbs down to WMVP 1000-AM morning-midday hosts Marc Silverman and Tom Waddle, both of whom muffed Ken "Hawk" Harrelson's "strap it up and hunker down" line this week. Once again, for the record, Hawk has said you can strap it either up or down, but, as Darrin Jackson adds, just don't strap it on.

- Ted Cox