Cub players, as quoted by Paul Sullivan in the Tribune, wish to absolve Dusty Baker of:

1. Overusing, and thus causing the arm problems suffered by, Kerry Wood and Mark Prior
2. Facilitating the Kent Mercker/Steve Stone kerfuffle
3. Responsibility for the Cubs' collapse in 2004
4. Enabling Carlos Zambrano's temper tantrums and generally juvenile behavior
5. Preventing Ryan Theriot's development by playing him behind Neifi Perez
6. Not being Lou Piniella

That's a lot to not be reponsible for. Good thing we got that cleared up.

Steve Stone, who left the Cubs broadcasting team after the '04 season following run-ins with thin-skinned reliever Kent Mercker and manager Dusty Baker, will be joining the White Sox radio crew in '08. He'll be the third man in the radio booth with Ed Farmer and Chris Singleton but only for the 13 Friday games the Sox play at U.S. Cellular Field.

Last August, Stone filled in for former Cub Darrin Jackson on the Sox tv broadcasts alongside play-by-play man Ken "He Gone!" Harrelson.

From Ed Sherman in the Tribune:

"The Sox have been great to me," Stone said. "To have a chance to keep a hand in calling games is something I wanted to do. I do love broadcasting baseball. I like Ed and Chris. It should be fun."

However, there's a chance the arrangement might not survive the season. With Tribune Co. set to sell the Cubs, Stone has expressed interested in having a role with the new owners.

Again, it is about keeping his options open.

"Nobody knows when the new owner will take over," Stone said. "The only thing I can say is if I'm familiar with the people who will own the team, I would like to have a discussion with them."

I've written about Stone in this space before; about how I think his divorce from the Cubs after 18 mostly good years, seems to have left him a bitter know-it-all, at least when the subject of his conversation is the Chicago Cubs.

I hope he has no connection to the new owners. I don't see that Stone is qualified for the Major League front office position he has openly lobbied for in the past, and I don't think the position of Bitter Know-It-All is one the Cubs should worry about filling.

In apparent reaction to the Chicago Tribune story that triggered this morning's post, Steve Stone clarified things for the Cub-loving world Thursday:

"I have no desire to be a general manager of a baseball team. Not the Chicago Cubs, not any of them. If any team asked me to be the general manager, I would definitively turn them down. It's a job for a very energetic fellow."

Stone said he has talked to more than one of the groups attempting to buy the Cubs, offering to play the role of adviser to whichever group winds up with the team.

"The role would be determined later, but I'll tell you what it won't be: The role will not be like a president, a chief executive officer, a chief operating officer or a general manager or an assistant to the general manager."

So we don't know the precise role or the title or even the executive group of which Stone would be a part.

Still, I'm going to say that if Steve Stone were to end up with significant player personnel responsibility in the Chicago Cubs organization, he would be one of the least qualified individuals to hold such a position in all of Major League baseball.

Not 48 hours after Steve Stone said on WSCR radio that he would not be a Major League GM this coming season, we have a report that explains how it could happen.

Sure, the Fred Mitchell story could be wrong. Or it could account for why Stone seems to have swapped insight for insufferable, hypercritical, transparent bitterness whenever he talks about the Cubs.

I hope the story is incorrect or that the scenario presented never unfolds. With all that we've endured the past 99 years, there should be no rush to create a North Side version of this.