Fill-in Cubs radio broadcaster turns in one of the worst calls you'll ever hear

When the regular broadcast team is on the call for 670 The Score, the radio home of the Chicago Cubs, you get Hall of Famer Pat Hughes with the play-by-play, former big leaguer Ron Coomer with the play-by-play and producer Zach Zaidman popping in with ad reads, league news and standings and, to give Hughes a breather, the play-by-play in the fifth inning.

My dislike of Zaidman doing play-by-play is nothing new and seems to be shared by a pretty large contingent of Cubs fans. But, for whatever reason, the station keeps bringing him back and he has stepped into Hughes' role for entire games both during the spring and even the regular season.

He's constantly delayed on the call because he doesn't seem to possess any real ability to read a ball off the bat and even when he makes the call, you can actually hear him second-guessing himself in real-time. I'll give him this, though. He was all-in on his latest blunder - and it ended in disaster.

Zach Zaidman completely blows a call filling in on the Cubs broadcast

Thursday night's series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley was one of those unfortunate nights where we got not just one, but nine innings of Zaidman and he wasted no time totally botching a call in the bottom of the first.

Cody Bellinger barreled up a 2-0 pitch from Pirates starter Jared Jones, driving it deep to right field. Zaidman's call, well, it's unforgettable all right.

High fly ball, hit to deep right field. Forget about it, this may go - no. It's caught by the right fielder.

If you're a broadcaster - especially one at the major league level - and you tell your listeners to 'forget about it,' that ball better be at least a dozen rows up in the outfield seats. You lose all credibility blowing those types of calls and it's just the latest in a long line of missteps from Zaidman in the booth.

With Hughes taking more time off as he gets older, the question of who will succeed him is beginning to creep into the minds of Cubs fans who've been listening to the Hall of Famer since 1996. Putting Zaidman in that seat would be a monumental misstep - and his call on Thursday is just further proof of that.