Re: Joe Starkey Out As Voice Of 49ers
About fifteen minutes after KNBR broke the news Thursday afternoon, I heard from a generally quasi-reliable, semi-trustworthy (sometimes) source who knows Joe ... that person told me that Joe didn't "retire." He was asked to choose between doing Cal games or doing Niners games, but not both.
Who did the asking? It was heavily inferred during our conversation that Andy Dolich, the 49ers chief operating officer, was responsible. (Perhaps a real journalist might give Mr. Dolich a call to confirm...)
Joe chose to stay with Cal, and was incredibly gracious and classy on KNBR yesterday explaining his thought process.
It's going to be a tough job to replace Joe. I couldn't think of any good first-line candidates off the top of my head, but Damon Bruce, sitting in for Gary Rabbinovich on KNBR this morning, postulated that if the Niners can't swipe Greg Papa from the Raiders, Ted Robinson would be an outstanding #1 guy. I couldn't agree more.
Gary Plummer will remain as color analyst on 49ers broadcasts, by the way.
DJ