Jason Benetti = Mario Impemba

[holygoat]

19 minutes ago, oblong said:

I liked Hawk too.  His audience was Sox fans.  His voice was similar to George Kells. 

Kell's a good comparison. They had similar announcing styles and personalities.

[gehringer_2]

31 minutes ago, holygoat said:

Kell's a good comparison. They had similar announcing styles and personalities.

Depends what part of 'style' you mean. To me the thing that always stood out with Hawk was how you could tell if the Sox were winning or losing in 10 seconds just listening to his voice. He was totally up or down with the team performance (Mark Champion was always like that with the Lions as well). Kell may have had the same regional vocal style, but he was much more from the Ernie Harwell school of "you are happy to be at a  baseball game whether your team is winning or losing."

Edited June 14 by gehringer_2

[Cruzer1]

I love Bennetti and Dirks together, I think they have good chemistry together. It cracks me up when Dirks calls him "Bennetti", and I think they are both funny.

I hate to say it but Steve Stone was boring. So is Petry, although he's best after the games.

[allpaths35]

Bennetti's pbp is like he's auditioning for a seinfeld writing gig, it's annoying when only 1 in 5 jokes land.

 

I like Dirks but he gets lead down too many dead ends when paired with Bennetti.

Edited June 14 by allpaths35

[RandyMarsh]

Kinda on topic since it has to do with the Tigers TV but I read today that the Tigers have the 2nd highest local TV ratings in the MLB this year. 

[gehringer_2]

8 minutes ago, RandyMarsh said:

Kinda on topic since it has to do with the Tigers TV but I read today that the Tigers have the 2nd highest local TV ratings in the MLB this year. 

they'll need a whole lot of eyeballs if they are going to afford Skubal.

[Shinzaki]

My favorite TV pairing is Jason and Carlos Pena.  Carlos has a knack for concisely discussing the finer points of hitting.

Plakata!!

[chasfh]

21 hours ago, RandyMarsh said:

Kinda on topic since it has to do with the Tigers TV but I read today that the Tigers have the 2nd highest local TV ratings in the MLB this year. 

I remember both this from being interested in TV ratings when in school and also when I started worked in ad agency media: the Tigers frequently had the highest TV ratings for any local team in baseball.

[chasfh]

21 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

they'll need a whole lot of eyeballs if they are going to afford Skubal.

We can afford Skubal in money. The real question is whether we can afford Skubal in years.

[chasfh]

21 hours ago, Shinzaki said:

My favorite TV pairing is Jason and Carlos Pena.  Carlos has a knack for concisely discussing the finer points of hitting.

Plakata!!

I know that Dan has paired with Carlos before but I honestly can’t remember whether I saw them. I’d love to see that one of these Saturdays.

[Tenacious D]

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

We can afford Skubal in money. The real question is whether we can* afford Skubal in years.

*should?

[Klondike]

On 6/13/2025 at 11:13 PM, gehringer_2 said:

Depends what part of 'style' you mean. To me the thing that always stood out with Hawk was how you could tell if the Sox were winning or losing in 10 seconds just listening to his voice. He was totally up or down with the team performance (Mark Champion was always like that with the Lions as well). Kell may have had the same regional vocal style, but he was much more from the Ernie Harwell school of "you are happy to be at a  baseball game whether your team is winning or losing."

One of my favorites. Harrelson's demeanor and cadence was top notch. As was his knowledge of the game and intensity. In fact, a self admitted hot-head who speant many years trying to control his temper. Showed his emotions on his sleave and was a reason to tune him in on WGN back when that was a thing along with Harry Carry with the cubbies. Also, one of the great sports stories with his short but interesting baseball playing career and foray in pro golf his legendary style statements and career ending injuries and then GM of the White Sox to broadcasting. 

Should be a movie made of Hawk.

Edited June 15 by Klondike

[chasfh]

9 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

*should?

can

[CMRivdogs]

Just for grins, Gary Cohen and Ron Darling...

How do you think Benetti and Dirks would handle this

https://awfulannouncing.com/food/gary-cohen-ron-darling-citi-field-pastrami.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky

 

Edited June 16 by CMRivdogs

[Edman85]

One big difference between Jason and Mario. Jason knows the rules, really knows the rules, studies them and recites them when something weird comes up. Mario had empty air when the truck showed a replay of a balk.

[oblong]

I'm at the point where it's easy to predict who will like and not like certain things about baseball.  And I find myself rejecting what my age group peers feel.  Like the City Connect jersesy.  At first I was resisting them.  But now I like them and appreciate their impact on the youth.  I see the hats everywhere.  It doesn't hurt anybody if they don't wear tehir home whites every single game.  And besides once they changed the D on the jersey then the tradition went out the window anyway.  Just seems like in my feed the people who rant against Benetti the most are old white guys who hate any change and also lament they "got rid of the real stats, like RBI and AVG"

 

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, oblong said:

I'm at the point where it's easy to predict who will like and not like certain things about baseball.  And I find myself rejecting what my age group peers feel.  Like the City Connect jersesy.  At first I was resisting them.  But now I like them and appreciate their impact on the youth.  I see the hats everywhere.  It doesn't hurt anybody if they don't wear tehir home whites every single game.  And besides once they changed the D on the jersey then the tradition went out the window anyway.  Just seems like in my feed the people who rant against Benetti the most are old white guys who hate any change and also lament they "got rid of the real stats, like RBI and AVG"

 

I don't dislike City Connects so much as a concept as I do these particular City Connects, specifically, the pajama bottoms. Hate those. I would guess City Connect 2.0 will have white pants, as other teams have done.

That said, I do get why the youngs, and the players themselves, like the City Connects. The regular uniforms are old and boring.

[romad1]

Could Mario Impemba manage the rain delay chats like the broadcast team has done over the past few weeks?   It may not be always excellent, but Mario and Rod would not have been able to sustain the level of banter.  Benetti describing the plot to Severance  to Dan Petry or comparing the grounds crew in Tampa to wait staff from the John Mullaney Salt and Pepper Cafe comedy bit to audiences is just amazing freewheeling stuff. 

 

[romad1]

daily dose of estragon: "I have to remark on this here (really love the clip) because it is so striking how Benetti, truly a master of rhetorical and audiophonic technique, twice in intro-ing this segment reaches straight the **** down into Anglo-Saxon and literally declaims "HWAET!" to draw attention to Bruce's requests." — Bluesky

 

[chasfh]

On 6/13/2025 at 12:10 PM, Tiger337 said:

Shep was horrible as were Morris and Monroe.  It's a huge upgrade all around.  

Thanks goodness Morris was never paired with Dan on the radio, but on occasion Monroe would be, and when I tuned in and heard that, my shoulders would visibly slump.

[1776]

On 6/17/2025 at 11:49 AM, chasfh said:

The regular uniforms are old and boring.

You have officially been removed from my Christmas card list. 🫩

[monkeytargets39]

On 6/17/2025 at 8:46 AM, Edman85 said:

One big difference between Jason and Mario. Jason knows the rules, really knows the rules, studies them and recites them when something weird comes up. Mario had empty air when the truck showed a replay of a balk.

Was there ever empty air with Rod Allen?

[ben9753]

4 minutes ago, monkeytargets39 said:

Was there ever empty air with Rod Allen?

don't know if there was empty air, but definitely no empty chair with Rod Allen 

[IdahoBert]

I like Jason and I’m fine with whomever they pair him off with but when two days in a row, they had an intrusive discussion about the players walk-up music I switched over to the radio feed.

There are times when I just want to know what’s going on with the game even if I can see what’s going on. Although I am technically old, I am not old and a fuddy duddy to boot.

I like a lot of the cultural references and the friendly banter but there’s times where the game is more interesting and sometimes I just switch over to Dan for that reason. 

[chasfh]

29 minutes ago, IdahoBert said:

I like Jason and I’m fine with whomever they pair him off with but when two days in a row, they had an intrusive discussion about the players walk-up music I switched over to the radio feed.

There are times when I just want to know what’s going on with the game even if I can see what’s going on. Although I am technically old, I am not old and a fuddy duddy to boot.

I like a lot of the cultural references and the friendly banter but there’s times where the game is more interesting and sometimes I just switch over to Dan for that reason. 

I’m with you. I like the occasional pop culture reference in a ballgame. Just not a whole truckload of it.

You and I come from an era when a play by play announcer would practically never make a pop culture reference or joke. When announcers started doing that, we were still young enough to think that was unique and cool and fun. It started up shortly after Monty Python and Saturday Night Live and Airplane the movie and the like started changing the rules of how funny works for society. And it started creeping into other areas of life, and baseball broadcasts comprise an area of life. Announcers couldn’t overdo it because it felt like they were getting away with something in the first place, and we liked that part of it.

But now things have evolved where everything is unironically self-referential all the time. Just look at all the Pixar movies and MCU content and such. Everyone in them is always joking about themselves and everything around them all the time. It’s not special or unique anymore. Far from getting away with something, it’s practically expected to be part of the landscape. So when we see a guy a couple generations behind us leaning into that, It looks like overkill. But to people who came up at his time and after him, growing up seeing all the same video content, it’s the norm. So we may or may not like it, but it’s not good or bad per se. It’s just a different time now, just like our time was different from our parents’ time during the war.

And that’s also why we like Dan. Dan is a boomer, so Dan is all business on the job. But it’s also good that Jason is there when you want to lighten things up. In that respect, they provide perfect relief for each other.

Edited Thursday at 02:27 AM by chasfh