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Count Bob Brenly among those that might be interested in the vacant Reds manager's job.

The name of the former Diamondbacks manager and current Cubs television analyst surfaced as a potential successor to Jerry Narron, who was dismissed Sunday as Cincinnati's manager.

"It's all rumors. I haven't heard anything from anybody," Brenly said Wednesday.

Don't expect Brenly to screen his calls, however, should Reds general manager Wayne Krivsky be on the other end of the phone.

"I'd be interested in talking," said Brenly, a Coshocton, Ohio, native and 1976 graduate of Ohio University.

Posey H8er wrote:I would like Stone but a Kasper-Stone combo would be kind of boring with no stupid humor that is funny with Brenly.

Highly regarded as a broadcaster, Stone refused a contract extension as the Cubs color-man after the 2004 season amid a controversy involving Cubs players who felt he was being overly critical of their performance. Even so, he was a fan favorite. This was apparent at the Cubs' last home game of 2004, when, after the game had ended and all the players had left the field, nearly everyone left in the stadium looked up to the broadcast booth and chanted "Stoney! Stoney!" for several minutes. The main reason he was so well-liked was his ability to accurately predict what might happen in various game situations, explaining to the audience why the strategy or pitch would be successful prior to the play. A famous example of this was him expressing "I wouldn't pitch to this guy" in a 2004 game mere seconds before the batter Adam Dunn hit a home run off Cubs pitcher Mike Remlinger to give the Reds the lead.

Stone later expressed frustration with Cubs manager Dusty Baker for not controlling his players.

At one point during the 2004 season, Kent Mercker (a Cubs left-hander at the time) called the broadcast booth from the bullpen during a game to complain about comments made, and he also confronted Stone in a hotel lobby. Among the comments that reportedly irked Mercker were Chip Caray's praise of Houston Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt. Stone called Clear Channel radio's Travis Moon the "least knowledgable person ever to utter a sentence about baseball".

It was also reported that Mercker and left fielder Moises Alou yelled and shouted at Stone on a team charter plane to an away game in 2004, and that Alou tried to have Stone and Caray banned from the team charter flights.

Steve Stone resigned as broadcaster for the Cubs in October, 2004. [5]

In early 2005 Stone was hired by Chicago radio station WSCR to provide commentary and host a weekly talk show, and by ESPN to work some of the network's baseball telecasts.