Benetti to Tigers

[baseball_gal_aly]

1 minute ago, South Side Hit Men said:

OK, some good news. Len Kasper is staying on radio.

 

Wouldn't surprise me if Len is out after his contract is up. He wanted to do playoff games and there will be none of those on the south side for a long time. 

Literally, this is the plot of Major League going on. Jerry is pissing off the fans to the point of complete apathy and I really don't think a lot of us care anymore. It really seems like he wants to finish what he started in the late 80s. 

[Southwest Sider]

6 minutes ago, chetkincaid said:

Wow the national news is all over this. The White Sox are getting absolutely roasted on twitter.

As they should. It's a fucking s%*# show. This is legitimately a AAA franchise that is somehow lucky enough to be in MLB.

[TheBooneLoganEra]

Anything think Stone will just up and retire?

[Highland]

AJ would be a good color man, but he is too outspoken. He certainly wouldn't allow himself to be a JR spokesman like Stone turned himself into. I think Jason was likable and learning more about the game as he went along. I wonder what the booth is going to be like now.

[Southwest Sider]

JR: Laughs at the idea of signing Ohtani.

Cubs: Were going to be serious players for Ohtani.

Why are YOU a White Sox fan still? 

[JoshPR]

1 hour ago, FT35 said:

IMO, this is great news.  Fun is great, but silly, goofy, fake, overly quirky, convincing everyone you’re the most “clever”—it all leads to disconnect and awkwardness and that gets old quick.  Our broadcasts were unwatchable care of the team, and “unlistenable” because of this guy!  We need someone real, identifiable and passionate to rebrand the Sox from the booth.  

Thank God we won't be hearing his first this and his first that over and over.... Sorry Jason has a great story and I wish him well but his schtick was getting tiresome and old

[baseball_gal_aly]

3 minutes ago, Southwest Sider said:

JR: Laughs at the idea of signing Ohtani.

Cubs: Were going to be serious players for Ohtani.

Why are YOU a White Sox fan still? 

Cubs were more of a clownshow until they got new ownership. 

We need to hope for the same and hopefully the Sox remain in Chicago. 

I really think we underestimate the damage that Jerry has done to the Sox over the last decade.

The Sox leaving Chicago under new ownership is a real threat. 

Edited November 9, 2023 by baseball_gal_aly

[Rowand44]

15 minutes ago, South Side Hit Men said:

He and Jerry suck ass.

I don't believe it was about the money as much as it was dealing with Brooks Fucking Boyer, Jerry and all the bullshit roadblocks and unnecessary grief they threw his way during his time here, including not paying for their travel in 2021 and blaming bullshit covid for their cheap ass ways.

I don't pay for garbage TV including Jerry's broadcasts and his absolute shitshow of Ozzie and Garfein in the studio, but I really hope Len did come here because he wanted to stay on radio. I really enjoy him and DJ, perhaps the primary reason I followed games first during the Tony La Russa era and then the brutal Hahn final season. 

If it's Connor and DJ or gasp DJ leaves, I may take some time off from Sox baseball until jerry dies, Boyer is gone, and solid broadcasters want to work here.

It wasn't Brooks.  It was Jerry and money.  He got a big raise from Detroit and Jerry wouldn't give it to him.  He also felt that he wasn't treated right by the organization so there ya go.

[whitesoxfan99]

1 minute ago, Southwest Sider said:

JR: Laughs at the idea of signing Ohtani.

Cubs: Were going to be serious players for Ohtani.

Why are YOU a White Sox fan still? 

There is zero reason to give money to the White Sox or Bulls while Jerry Reinsdorf remains in charge.  Just absolutely terrible franchises.  If Reinsdorf doesn't inherit the greatest basketball player of all time his franchises would have one title in almost 80 combined years of ownership.

[Quin]

1 minute ago, Rowand44 said:

It wasn't Brooks.  It was Jerry and money.  He got a big raise from Detroit and Jerry wouldn't give it to him.  He also felt that he wasn't treated right by the organization so there ya go.

Hawk Harrelson going scorched earth on Brooks Boyer is probably the best thing for Jerry. He loves him a scapegoat.

[South Side Hit Men]

1 minute ago, baseball_gal_aly said:

Wouldn't surprise me if Len is out after his contract is up. He wanted to do playoff games and there will be none of those on the south side for a long time. 

Literally, this is the plot of Major League going on. Jerry is pissing off the fans to the point of complete apathy and I really don't think a lot of us care anymore. It really seems like he wants to finish what he started in the late 80s. 

Len likes living in Chicago. I believe Jason and during Summertime Stone Pony does as well.

WMVP also paid for Len and DJ's travel in 2021, versus the higher revenue generating CSN owned by Jerry, so he didn't face the same adversity broadcasting for two putrid Jerry Reinsdorf organizations. I could possibly see Len leaving if 90-100 + loss seasons remain the norm, as they were for most of the Decade of Hahn.

For those with access to out of town broadcasts, Jason will return to Comiskey Park II on Opening Day 2024.

Compare and contrast Jason's comments about the Detroit interview process and comments he had regarding dealing with Brooks Boyer.

https://www.wxyz.com/sports/detroit-tigers-announce-jason-benetti-as-new-tv-play-by-play-announcer

Quote

“I’m incredibly proud to join this historic and ascending Tigers franchise,” said Benetti. “From every single person I talked with throughout the interview process it was clear why so many respected professionals and creative people have joined the organization in the last several years. There’s something special about it, and I’m excited to bring that energy to Tigers fans around the globe. I’d also like to thank Chris Ilitch, Ryan Gustafson, Scott Harris, and everyone else I’ve met with in the last several weeks who have been so welcoming. Everyone I spent time with made it clear this was the right place for me. I was born and raised in the Midwest, and understand how important sports are, especially here in the Motor City.”

 

[baseball_gal_aly]

Just now, whitesoxfan99 said:

There is zero reason to give money to the White Sox or Bulls while Jerry Reinsdorf remains in charge.  Just absolutely terrible franchises.  If Reinsdorf doesn't inherit the greatest basketball player of all time his franchises would have one title in almost 80 combined years of ownership.

Different sport, but look at the Edmonton Oilers. They have the best player since Wayne Gretzky and another top 5 player in the league and can't win s%*#. 

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

1 hour ago, fathom said:

It’s truly amazing to me the amount of people saying they won’t watch the Sox anymore.  I’ve never let an announcer dictate whether I turn a game on.  

Correct, the product sucks and having some guy talk about s%*# doesn't turn it to diamonds. 

Benetti was fine, better than most but who cares? I'm watching baseball, not listening for an announcer. They can add to a solid product but they absolutely don't prop up a s%*# one.

[JoshPR]

Not crying over benetti but Boyer needs to go

[Quin]

7 minutes ago, Southwest Sider said:

JR: Laughs at the idea of signing Ohtani.

Cubs: Were going to be serious players for Ohtani.

Why are YOU a White Sox fan still? 

Living in Brooklyn: Mostly cause I don't feel like paying for cable to watch the Mets and they're blacked out on TV here.

Otherwise, man, my loyalties would definitely be shifting from the current 90-10 White Sox-Mets to a more 50-50.

[tray]

I am surprised that the Cubs didn't hire him to be truthful. That would have felt like what Harry did back in the day, and that really cost the Sox some fans, including some in our parents generation that liked free WGN TV. Some feel that Benetti became a bit self-absorbed with his quirky humor. Let's be honest, his style was something one had to get used to over time...quite a departure from  mlb players and certainly that of HOF announcer Hawk.

At the end of the day, Bennetti was good but not great.  Great vocabulary and sarcasm, but at times, he seemed to lack attentiveness, often times favoring silly banter in the booth over baseball play by play. That style seems better suited to color announcer than play-by-play. 

Jason became increasingly critical of on-field managerial decisions but he seldom came back to admit he was wrong.

A few posters here also suspected that he may have had some issue with depth perception on fly balls because he often could not determine if a ball was hit deep enough to have a chance to be a home run. Maybe that was part of the reason that he never developed a consistent home run call. ( OK, another reason was that the Sox didn't hit enough of them.)

I think the job may go to Conor McKnight.  If so, most Sox fans should be happy with that.  Conor is more relatable in some ways than Jason was. Anyway, I'd rather have a free agent starting pitcher than Sox math, trite jokes, and a high priced announcer.

Lastly, one has to wonder if Stone was somehow involved with this and the extent to which his input will be used to select Benetti's replacement. I would be OK with Stone retiring as well.

 

[nitetrain8601]

1 hour ago, TheBooneLoganEra said:

I can't imagine Stone will want to stay.

Stone won't care. He'll sell the move as positive. He's at the deli counter with Bob, Jerry, TLR in Arizona. (Listen to Kaplan yesterday if you don't know what I mean). 

 

Stone will never leave until he's ready to completely retire. And the Sox will never fire him, hence how he can get away with doing 60 games a year but get paid for the full slate.

[ThirdGen]

While I will miss him the bigger deal to me is that this is yet another manifestation of a Sox organization that is truly terrible in all of its facets.

I do have some hope, however, that the Sox can identify a talented minor league PBP guy, just as they did with Benetti, and give him a chance on the MLB level.

Unfortunately, the way this team is currently operating, they seem likely to f*** this up in the same manner that they have virtually every decision in recent years.

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

56 minutes ago, Quin said:

But this just keeps speaking to how horrendous this org is. Benetti is growing in national prominence and his childhood dream was to be the White Sox announcer.

Plenty of teams let their announcers split national duties with local broadcasts. Do you think the Knicks get upset about Mike Breen? Jon Miller did national work for a long time.

But this dumpster fire organization probably tried to shortchange Benetti again, because we know that he said the contract negotiation was painful.

I had a childhood dream to be the White Sox GM. If I was making millions to do it, I wouldn't give a damn if someone wanted to pay me more.

Reality is, the narrative that it was his dream is just a part of his story. He was a Sox fan growing up, but he clearly views this as a job and not a dream. People don't care about maximizing their earnings entirely for dreams. 

Just my opinion and not a shot at Jason at all. It is a job, but people need to stop with this narrative that it's so terrible he had to abandon his dream. I'm sure Jason is doing just fine financially 

[Stinky Stanky]

26 minutes ago, bmags said:

Not just JR though. Really sucked losing Wayne Larrivee to Green Bay and suffering through Joniak. He is truly the one guy I can't take because of how overly descriptive he is on the things that aren't helpful to me understanding, and underdescriptive he is on the things that matter.

Crazy how often we lose talent to questionable markets.

Larrivee was a Packers fan.  Rooney was a Cardinals fan.  They both wanted to go where their hearts were.  Ain't love great?

[Balta1701]

OH COME ON.

[Quin]

2 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

I had a childhood dream to be the White Sox GM. If I was making millions to do it, I wouldn't give a damn if someone wanted to pay me more.

Reality is, the narrative that it was his dream is just a part of his story. He was a Sox fan growing up, but he clearly views this as a job and not a dream. People don't care about maximizing their earnings entirely for dreams. 

Just my opinion and not a shot at Jason at all. It is a job, but people need to stop with this narrative that it's so terrible he had to abandon his dream. I'm sure Jason is doing just fine financially 

Yeah, that's the point. 

But it means that if the Sox were a professional organization and not cheap, they would have an upper hand. 

This is just indicative of the White Sox underlying issues. Mainly: Cheap and unprofessional

• Getz and Grifol weren't hired because they were the best people for their jobs, it's because they were cheap yes men.
• The manager interview process after 2020 was a joke.
• We all know how cheap Jerry is.

We can go on and on, but Jason's departure is just another symptom of Jerry being the underlying disease.

 

[South Side Hit Men]

20 minutes ago, Quin said:

Hawk Harrelson going scorched earth on Brooks Boyer is probably the best thing for Jerry. He loves him a scapegoat.

I have had individuals relay stories to me personally about Boyer that I don't want to make public to expose them.

Suffice it to say, Jerry is fine with Boyer and others taking the blame. However, Hawk, Jason and others have pegged the situation dealing with / working under Boyer accurately. Wouldn't go as far as to say he is John McDonough level, but that is what he aspires to be.

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by South Side Hit Men

[TheFutureIsNear]

1 hour ago, DFAthewave69420 said:

No more comedy hour at the worst times. 

I don’t think any human on earth could talk about the last few seasons of White Sox baseball with a straight face. Did you want to hear how shitty our franchise is for 2 hrs straight every game? Gotta fill the depressing dead air with something. 
 

Bennetti is a high level announcer and letting him leave is dumb. Especially when it’s to another poverty franchise in the same division. No way Detroit blew him away with a huge offer Jerry couldn’t pay. 

[JoeC]

3 minutes ago, TheFutureIsNear said:

I don’t think any human on earth could talk about the last few seasons of White Sox baseball with a straight face. Did you want to hear how shitty our franchise is for 2 hrs straight every game? Gotta fill the depressing dead air with something. 
 

Bennetti is a high level announcer and letting him leave is dumb. Especially when it’s to another poverty franchise in the same division. No way Detroit blew him away with a huge offer Jerry couldn’t pay. 

I wouldn't characterize Detroit as a "poverty" franchise.

The Ilitch family will spend money when it makes sense, and they've shown an ability to hire good people and get out of their way.