Assessing the White Sox Future and Hawk's Announcing Future

[soxforlife05]

As usual, DA has no idea what he's talking about. Jason and a Stone are great.

 

Considering the product on the field this year there will be plenty of time for the question-fest

[southsider2k5]

Benetti is ok but he is too corny and too generally naive or ignorant about the nuances of the game for my liking. Stone is fine imo. He is a know it all but most former player analysts are.

 

Hawk? Dude, he needs to be put out to pasture. He was fun in his prime but those days are long passed. Hawk will die in the booth if JR lets him and that is not how it should end.

 

I think he is fine, but after not hearing him for a while, and listening to the other Chicago guys do there thing, it is now obvious to me he was trying too hard. He just needs to relax and don't be afraid of some dead air. Better than trying to just fill dead air with anything.

[southsider2k5]

I also think that a year like this will make it more likely that Hawk walks away in the next year or two.

[FT35]

Benetti is ok but he is too corny and too generally naive or ignorant about the nuances of the game for my liking. Stone is fine imo. He is a know it all but most former player analysts are.

 

I agree--nothing aggravates me more than corny and ignorant--I noticed the other guy who filled in for Hawk for a few games the year before (from the Bulls?) took this approach too. "I don't know as much about baseball as Steve Stone so I'm just going to sit in the booth and throw him talk points and pretend like I'm a little kid not knowing anything about the game and letting Uncle Steve teach me." No. You are an adult and have a career in sports broadcasting. If you don't know about the game then you shouldn't be in the booth and you shouldn't be pretending to not know anything about the game. I believe true baseball fans appreciate someone with knowledge and insight over someone playing dumb. All other talking that is going on is just a distraction. Jason is PERFECT for minor-league radio. I'm sure he's a good guy but he's corny--sometimes he phrases things in a non-cliche way, but many times his "unique phrases" are a stretch and silly--a bit forced. And his talk points are basically a game-day google search. There's no experiences to refer to, there's no playing career to draw thoughts from, just Google stat searching. It makes the Sox brand sound easy, cheesy and thin.

 

Everyone's preferences are different, but I want depth, real emotion (not just rehearsed home run calls), knowledge from someone who is able to get closer to the game than me, insight, unbiased when it comes to calls--someone who's love for the game yields organic, unique commentary. REAL. Someone who's broadcasting skills match the MAJOR LEAGUE stage he or she is on. Not someone who jots down a few tongue in cheek comments the morning of a game and forces them in around Steve Stone analyzing how many inches outside a fastball has to be for Josh Donaldson to swing and miss as he hits a hanging curve ball over the wall for a 3-run HR. And I would also venture to say...I bet Jason is far more talented than the position he takes with Steve Stone--Stone brings out the "play dumb" in Jason because of his inexperience. I'd love to hear him just boldly disagree with Steve sometime--then be right--and sit back and watch the dynamic change.

 

 

[Donaldo]

Benetti doing the Duke/UNLV game with Vitale. And yes, he's asking Vitale a million questions.

 

He recently did the Iowa/Indiana game with Dan Dakich. He asked a bunch of very good questions as well. He and Dakich worked VERY well together IMO.

[Panerista]

He recently did the Iowa/Indiana game with Dan Dakich. He asked a bunch of very good questions as well. He and Dakich worked VERY well together IMO.

I agree. He's a kid. Right now, he doesn't have a ton of experience and the guys he gets paired with are older with more experience and expertise. It would make sense he defers to his broadcast partners.

Edited February 24, 2017 by Sox-35th

[Heads22]

I do think Jason is much more natural doing baseball than any other sport.

[SI1020]

Not ripping you, but I'd be shocked if any lead announcer would be beloved. It seems to me most of them suck. They have announcer voices and not conversational like Hawk and Harry. I think Bennetti is good cause he's at least conversational. Hardly any do that. They have the nasal announcer voice. Keep Benneti forever. Hawk will quit soon enough. All road games for a team that is going to lose an unprecedented amount of road games the next 3-4 seasons. I mean a rebuilding team on the road? That can't be fun to announce a batch of 8-1 losses and 12-3 losses. Hawk will be gone very soon if we keep making rebuilding trades.

Most of the modern day baseball announcers are painfully awful. Benetti has that cookie cutter "professional" announcer's voice although he is obviously bright and quick witted. However I found that schtick he had going with Stone to be very tiresome quite early on. As for Hawk, I think as long as JR owns the team he will have a job if he wants it. I have watched and listened to as much White Sox baseball as possible since early childhood but this year is going to be tough on every level I think.