Jim Deshaies was bracing himself when Len Kasper called with news he said Deshaies would never guess.
“You’re the new play-by-play guy for the Boston Red Sox,” Deshaies replied.
“No,” Kasper said, “but, wow, you’re close.”
Deshaies then thought Kasper, a Michigan native, was returning to his roots to call Tigers games. Wrong again.
Kasper told Deshaies, his partner in the Cubs’ TV booth since 2013, that he was leaving to call White Sox games on the radio.
“I was a bit surprised,” Deshaies said recently. “It came outta nowhere.”
That was the popular feeling when the news broke late Dec.