The Chicago White Sox have been taking a beating lately. The team is off to a horrific 6-25 start to the season, following up on last year’s 61-101 record. In the broadcast booth, things aren’t much better. White Sox fans were critical of the organization when they let Jason Benetti leave to take the same position with the Detroit Tigers, and it hasn’t been the easiest start for his replacement John Schriffen who is now working with analyst Steve Stone.
Schriffen is known for a very upbeat style of broadcasting. In his own words when he visited with 670 The Score’s Parkins & Spiegel show shortly after getting the job, he said, “I’m going to bring the heat. I’m bringing the energy. As soon as there is a crazy play, you are going to hear it, you are going to feel it. Im a passionate person.”
Some fans have complained on social media about the new announcer getting overly excited, for any reason, when a team is only winning 20% of its games. Then there was fan backlash after a walk-off win for the White Sox over the Rays had Schriffen say, “Say it with me. Say it proud. For all the haters, South Side, stand up!” Some people took that to be a shot at the team’s fans, but Schriffen has explained he meant people outside of Chicago making jokes about the team’s start to the season.
Schriffen’s broadcast partner, former big league pitcher Steve Stone, joined the Mully & Haugh Show with Mike Mulligan and David Haugh and talked about what has happened. Haugh said he thought Schriffen “has been more polarizing early on than maybe I expected,” before asking Stone his thoughts.
“As far as John is concerned, I think he’s off to a pretty good start. And as far as polarizing is concerned, he has said he didn’t mean White Sox fans. He wants to make himself accessible to White Sox fans and you have to take a man at his word, that wasn’t his intention. So, in a day and age where we are just a little too sensitive about what people say, ‘Oh, he said that and he said that’ I mean, we gotta lighten up, folks. My partner has a lot of enthusiasm and I understand that many of the things he says might not land the way he would like them to land. But you’ve got to give him a couple minutes. He has been here a month. I love the fact that he comes to the park on a daily basis with a great deal of enthusiasm. He certainly wants the Sox to win and he certainly gets excited when they do win, although quite obviously not as frequently as we would like…We will see what happens. Right now, there are so many plusses that if you don’t like a word he says here or a word he says there I think that is nitpicking.
