Steve Stewart: Going, Going, Gone...

Was surprised -- very pleasantly so -- to see today's story that the Reds are dropping radio announcer Steve Stewart. It's not that I'm a Nuxhall fan... he just didn't add much to the broadcasts to me. With all the home runs we hit, you'd think he could bring some excitement and expectation to them, instead of uncertainty. I just wasn't a Steve Stewart fan. To me, the whole "Bad Boy" nickname was appropriate, because I thought he was really mediocre baseball announcer, particularly seated next to a Hall of Famer.
Here's the link to the story. You may have to copy and paste in your browser:
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060820/SPT04/608200449/1071

I give the new owners credit for having guts to make the move.... To me, Stew was as weak as our bullpen.

Who's Next?
So who should replace Steve? My guess is that Nux will be back for limited duty (only home games??). My third man in the booth would be former Ch 19 sports anchor Dan Hoard, who was marvelous filling in for Marty last year. He was insightful and well prepared, and sometimes Scully-like in his storytelling. And I'd also groom a former player, so Hoard could take over play-by-play when Marty retires.
But with the new owners promoting the power of tradition, my guess is that the new guy will be a former player. A great choice would be Chris Welsh (and put Pete Rose on TV?), if he wanted to work every game from March to October. Would Larkin be interested? Oester? Dave Parker? I'm not counting on Thom Brennaman coming back to work with Dad, given his position (and pay) with the Diamondbacks.
Surprisingly, not many former Reds players have done much radio work here, except for brief stints by Dave Collins, Ted Power and, of course, Tracy Jones. Tracy wouldn't be my choice, because his WLW radio work is more about Tracy than the team. His weekday "Brennaman & Jones on Baseball" really should be called "Brennaman & Jones on Tracy." I'm just not a fan of the Tracer. I'd prefer someone like Marty, who works hard to develop sources with players and the front office, and really tells Reds fans what's going on. We'll see what happens. We'll see how fans vote on our poll, offering the choice of Nux, Hoard, Thom Brennaman and Pete.
The link for our poll:
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060820/SPT04/399990107/1071

Are you a Stew fan? Will you miss him?
Glad to see a change in the Reds Radio booth?
Who would you like to hear on Reds games, and why?