I know he already has his own thread but we need to pay more serious attention to this lazy eyed dork. He's really bad at this. Hawk was the best ever and I get that trying to replace a legend is hard but can he at least try to sound less faggish?

How can anyone like this guy?

He shows up when he says he's going to and then stays for the entire game. That's why people like him.

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Face for radio?

Classy Cubs fans. Making fun of a guy's apperance who has cerebal palsy.

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Konerko.

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Posting from my phone sucks.

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I don't like the guy's broadcasts. Period.

To take shots at the guy's appearance here is a little below sophomoric.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Don't know what you guys are listening to, but I love Benetti on the call. Great voice, plays very well with Stoney, infuses a bit of wry humor and makes big-time calls about the action, not his own catch-phrases.

He's the anti-Hawk in every possible way, from his embracing of statistics and math, to his, you know, talking during a broadcast, and not complaining endlessly about umpiring. For reasons mentioned earlier, we don't have to worry about him ducking out of the booth to go check on Todd Frazier, but he also wouldn't do that because he's a goddamned professional broadcaster.

I'm glad Hawk is on the way out, and the Sox were smart enough to identify Benetti as a young professional talent to replace the doddering old fool of a homer screaming about umpires and home runs while giving the stink eye to his on-air partner. All praise JB.

He's good as a Len Kasper-esque type of announcer.

I like him compared to Hawk.

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You mean, marvin the martian?

Way back, out of here!

Kasper sucks too, both are better than Squawk. How is a guy with cerebal paisley going to leave the booth n check on guys after a hit by pitch?

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at first i thought benetti was 100% great cuz you can tell he woke up steve stone and got him excited to call games again. now a few months in i'm just waiting for jason to break out a wayne's world "I'M NOT WORTHY! I'M NOT WORTHY! I'M SCUM!" towards stoney cuz you can tell that dude absolutely worships the ground that steve walks on and is some kind of starstruck next to one of his heroes...

...which you know that JORR oh so totally loves =D

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as the thread would go on to prove, basically "because he's not hawk"

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Agreed...way too enamored with stone and too grab assy broadcasts.

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From the tiny amount I've heard, I think he and Stoney are terrific. Does anyone listen to other teams' broadcasts? We have a wealth of riches with our broadcasters...relative to nearly every other market.

Of course, everyone's a critic...and the grass is always greener...and for every beautiful woman, there's some dude who's completely sick of her shit.

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yeah there seems to be a pretty decent amount of effort put into running jokes like playing along with stone's legendary cheapness, or some kind of pop culture references. maybe they'll notice a certain fan in the stands and spend a couple minute riffing on them (the camera zoomed in on a fat guy in the OF grassy knoll in the ST stadium and stone couldn't help but pontificate that dude was gonna RUN (and not walk) to the giordanos/portillos that's right there by the stadium after the game. they must have spent 2-3mins riffing on how fat people love food and how there was chicago food right there by the stadium JUST for people like him.... the poor bastard)

regardless, when i pay attention to benetti/home games nowadays i always seem to notice some kitschy stuff where benetti+stone seem to be doing their own version of "the pat & ron show" or "the len & bob show" like they're purposely trying to have some BFF/bromance going on that (way too?) often features them going off on all kinds of tangents cuz they're just "wild-n-crazy" like that ----- maybe that's just because the white sox games themselves haven't been all that enthralling after their ~30-10 start started leveling out to a ~10-30 type regression.

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Best baseball guy right now is JD on the Cubs. He either has grown on me or improved about 75% since last season.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Man ... I know my take on him is "anyone but Hawk" and I've probably only seen an aggregate of 2-3 games worth of material from him (over a handful of games), but I didn't think he was bad in any particular way.

I thought I heard he was going to be doing a national game w/ Costas this weekend or soon or something ... kinda sorta would make one think that people that know about these things thinks he's doing a better than okay job, unless Costas has some secret penchant to request relatively unknown broadcasters that are as bad as possible.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

do you think it's possible that costas might do this so he can look as good-in-comparison as possible and thus THE LEGEND OF BOB COSTAS (ON PBP) is duly fortified? i remember growing up my baseball uncle's "dream team" was costas+stone, so at least years back costas had that "rare treat" thing working for him to the fullest.

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I doubt it. If your partner in the booth is decidedly bad, there's nothing you can do to save the broadcast, and that's about the same as being plain old bad at your job. Pat Hughes is a tremendous broadcaster, but his "legend" was stymied by the presence of another beloved, doddering old fool that would interrupt his calls to ask what the count was. Hughes didn't look better because Ron Santo was bad, he looked worse than he really is because Santo made the overall broadcasts unlistenable.

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i don't think he looked worse; he carried the broadcast like Sisyphus. if anything it just made santo look worse because of how "doddering" he was. but if you're a cubs fan, santo was a hoot. he was the crazy old drunk uncle that gave you your first drink of alcohol and bought you cool gifts. i still haven't really listened to a cubs radio broadcast since his death. just isn't the same. even though hughes is the ultimate consummate professional.

i like benetti a lot, and i've watched a lot of sox games this year. his banter with stone is fun.

I don't really like this guy. His pandering to Stone is a little ridiculous and it makes the broadcast seem like it's directed at someone who has never seen a ballgame before.

Hawk was a unique guy and I liked him, but his time is passed. I'll say one thing about this new guy as compared to Hawk, it really is pleasant to enjoy a game without it seeming like it's a matter of life and death. I'm unhappy when the Sox are losing too, but really this is entertainment, an escape. After a shitty day, you watch a Sox loss with Hawk at the wheel, your day just got eminently shittier. With this kid, at least it's light. I don't go to bed feeling like I want to murder someone.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I agree on the pandering to Stone (it goes beyond appealing to his expertise), and you hit the nail on the head about the "tone" of broadcasts with Benetti having the con. Watching Shields implode on the mound was much more enjoyable at home than on the road, and the difference was who was calling the game.

ooh that's one aspect of "newschool" / "advanced metrics spouting" broadcasts that i've definitely noticed over the last few years. you get some of it from bernstein on b&b; the "advanced metrics" are initially presented as some breathtaking new thing that OF COURSE most of (you/us) rubes don't know about so lemme explain it to you because SOMEONE'S gotta learn you!

at least over time bernstein came to realize that a good % of his listeners know what WAR is (and how it's the be-all/end-all for measuring a baseball player's worth), but i reckon with game broadcasts you can't assume that a giant % of your audience is there every day so you always gotta make sure that you paint a proper picture for the "new" viewer in the hopes of keeping them around.

personally i'm some kind of antiquated curmudgeon because my fantasy-baseball-focus always has me thinking in terms of AVG/HR/RBI/SB instead of OBP/OPS/WAR. maybe someday bernstein will learn me

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There's a lot of randomness in a baseball game. It's a big reason why managers don't really matter. There have been two major changes in the game since I've been watching. The shortening of starts/bullpen specialization and the fetishization of the walk/seeing pitches. I think both have made a worse game for the fan.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

JORR + Dusty Baker = MATCH!!!!

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Weighted runs created and weighted on base tell the story.

I think the Organized Konfusion era Pharoahe Monch quote in your sig is an indication that you have much potential & will come around at some point, whereas, JORR is probably too old to change his ways.

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