The hits keep coming for new White Sox play by play announcer John Schriffen. Last week, Schriffen’s broadcast partner Steve Stone was on 670 The Score’s Mully & Haugh Show defending him and a comment he made on the air that did not go over well in Chicago after a game-winning home run. “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.
Late last week, 670 The Score’s Matt Spiegel went in on Schriffen and had some examples of things he has done which have been bothersome to him and those White Sox fans he has heard from. “…I don’t have a problem with the emotion and the fun and most of the homerism that he is having,” Spiegel said. “The haters thing was bad; it was a bad thought. I want to be clear with what is bothering me and then what broke me yesterday. He doesn’t know baseball, and it’s a pattern.”
Spiegel then gave a few examples of mistakes made by Schriffen, including calling a manager a ‘head coach’ and incorrectly calling a ‘sacrifice’ a ‘sacrifice fly’ despite no runner scoring.
“Give a crap and do some research once you get the job” Spiegel said.
Spiegel then played an audio clip where Schriffen incorrectly pronounces Bill Veeck’s last name as “Vee-k” instead of “Veck.”
“That means that not only did you come into this with some ignorance, and that can be forgiven on some level, but you’ve had three months to do some frickin’ research, man. Google Bill Veeck…Do you not know why the scoreboard that is at your own ballpark is an homage to his original exploding scoreboard? …That frickin’ offends my baseball sensibilities.
“…This stuff is scripture for the history of Chicago baseball and the guy doing the games doesn’t know it and it really frickin’ offends me when you don’t bother to do the research to learn about the job that you have.”
Spiegel talked about when he started in Chicago and knowing that the 1985 Bears were an important part of the sports history of the city, he watched all of the games and read about the history of the team.
“Care, give a crap when you get a job like this, it’s such a good job,” Spiegel said.
