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It's because they're already starting the season in March (March 25 this year) and the World Series is already pushing into November (actually Game 7 would be on Halloween this year). There really isn't room for a best of 5 wild card round with travel days without making the season's length even more ridiculous with possibly frigid temperature at the beginning and end unless they cut the regular season back to 154 games.

100% Not sure how many young fans Benetti actually brought into the sport or became Sox fans. If you grew up in the 1980's or early 90s, most of his cultural references hit home. If you enjoy movies tv shows literary references, history etc., he was also your guy. But he left a lot of young fans and those in their 20s and 30s shaking their heads in frustration...when he just got to be too much of a performer and amateur comedian for his own good. Football provides him sufficient dead time for stories, but the faster pace of basketball brings out his best play by play instincts, depending upon a pairing with the right analyst (not named Bill Walton.)

That's the answer, but they'll never do that. As it is, prefer this system over the 1-game wildcard.

To be honest, after reading most on here it doesn't matter who the PBP guy is because this board and most fans are going to find fault in that person anyway.

I said it in another thread but the Sox should hire from " within" their system and give the job to Matt Swierad who has been the Charlotte Knights pbp guy for almost 30 years.

Yeah Buddy!

You know damn well we’re pitching to Alvarez every time.

The one thing I didn't like about Benetti was the incessant "dad jokes". If he could just dial that back a bit, he's otherwise a great PBP guy.....and a home-grown guy too. That's irrelevant now because he ain't coming back. Schriffen simply should never have gotten the job in the first place. Maybe Jerry wanted a him because he knew he'd be a great promoter of the franchise and of the front office as this team sunk to new depths on the field. Hired for his ability to shill, not for his ability to do PBP of MLB games. To each their own, but "he's gotten better" and "he's not that bad" doesn't mean he's become qualified to be the PBP guy for a team in the 3rd largest market. "He's Grown on Me" calling games at There's Nothing Wrong with It Field. This franchise could and should do better.

Scully was great...even as he got into his 70s and early 80s. He could simply paint a picture with words and simultaneously never left you wondering what was going on in the game, but seamlessly combined play by play with so many stories of the past about the legends and history of the game. Paciorek and Hawk were great because they got along well and actually had fun together, like DJ with Farmer or Kasper. Camaraderie. Stone and Benetti were not a good mix as Jason's confidence and national profile continued to grow. Two competing egos rubbing together like the San Andreas fault line. Schriffen has simply never been accepted by Stone, or treated as close to an equal or partner. He obviously looks down on John and just barely manages to tolerate him without getting too frustrated. (Don't want to hear the term "professional at bat" from Gordon ever again. Or about Miguel Vargas' April 23rd swing change.)

They CAN do better. They HAD better and decided they didn't like him for idiotic reasons. Then they decided they didn't want better, they wanted loyalty. They got it.

Not a single walk in 93 ABs. Williams/Hahn era profile player. His peak year was .764 OPS in the best hitters park in baseball. One of those is okay if he produces.

As long as the team is good, I can put up with any announcer. But when they were bad, I watched less White Sox baseball than ever before, and some of it was because I didn't want to hear the Schriff trying to blow smoke up my ass.

Say what you want about nerdy/corny Benetti but he was: a true Sox fan, it wasn't forced appreciative of franchise history/legends more knowledgeable about baseball in general... not too close to certain members of the team, so ultimately more objective not as much a pawn/loyal cheerleader for the front office "comfortable in his own skin" maybe overly so to a point, as he enjoyed more acclaim and added national btoadcasts as well as college fb and bb

I would like a PBP person to at least have a handle on some underlying nuance that an ex-player, or person who's been around the game a while would possess. I'm tired of the example of "do you give him the green light?", but that's the inanity we've been putting up with in lieu of, at the very least, a boring guy calling balls and strikes. Ian and James talked on the FutureSox Podcast last night about the minor league PBP guys, and for many, there's a good reason why they're working the minor leagues. They're cookie cutter and bland. Chicago's a major market. I would imagine that with a playoff appearance, the FO will be inspired to reach for a bit of personality. Personality's a mixed bag in the current environment, tho. Social media and other message boards allow everybody an equal chance to call the guy dogshit, cringe, a brainy nerd, too glib, whatever. Any bit of inner-exposure will reveal gaffes, or opinionated content that can be parsed by various groups with bones to pick. "Hey, look, a group of girls texting!!" Lookout! Guess what surfs right at the crest of that wave and threads that needle (to mix metaphors)? Cookie cutter. It's not just "woke warriors" and the various offended complaining who make broadcasts bland. Benetti was too glib and nerdy. Schriff was abrasive, cringe and unknowledgeable. I find Gordon Beckham appropriately bland, and people act like he's horrible. Plesac "talks too much". That's his job!! And for as much as people reminisce about Harry or Hawk, each weathered over a decade of solid bitching over speech slurring, anger issues, water-carrying, anti-social behavior, attitudes, repetitiveness, drifting, whatever. Everybody gets stiffies about Ernie Harwell or Vin Skully, but we'd pick those guys apart in their prime.

Knight is Schriff without the “yeah buddy” schoolboy stuff. They can do better.

I like they are bringing on the respective teams color guys.

I don't know where you have been, but the NFL has been on this for years.

waiting for this to poison the NFL. This is why baseball is the 3rd tier in popularity. Outside of fans most of the world doesn't care about hockey. Even in success Sox fans get punished. At the same time baseball exceeds the other sports listening on the radio.

Stone has been a Chicago fixture for almost 50 years but I feel he is real hard to work with. That game with Bob Costas was terrible

It caught everyone off guard. The only exception might have been the Brewers manager after the 2nd game of the season - you know that guy who replaced the almighty Counsel

That is what we do. We can all wear that hat and shirt, we need to wear a helmet to avoid our kneejerk reactions to avoid that concussion that brings baseball stupidity and the mental illness of trade frenzy. I can't wait for the reactions about the team that wasn't meant to be in the playoffs are now there. Treat it like a Cinderella team.

It is nuts................were games really matter you want to play guys at different positions. I'll take Colson's range and height at SS over Meidroth. having a guy adjust to the OF, now put him back for a short series. It reminds of that one guy who was a set up man and thought he could be a closer. Interesting that every Sox forum you go to is now all about Montgomery. Try not to choke on those cherries we pick. We will continue to find ways to make failures all about him. I guess no one realized this is the only baseball team in the playoffs that doesn't have real starting rotation.

Going up against 3 righties (if they go 3). Going to need Mune and Colson to run into some stuff. That is a bit worrisome, especially with Colson lately.