Musical Chairs - Announcer Style

The past weekend (July 22-24) brought an interesting twist for Chicago baseball fans watching either the White Sox or Cubs locally. The 4-game White Sox series vs. Cleveland and the Cubs 3-game series vs. Philadelphia each had something in common. Both teams had different play-by-play voices for every game in those series. 

 

It has become enough of a challenge for sports fans to find their team's games with so many television and streaming packages to go along with a variety in the local packages. Now there isn't even consistency in the telecasts.

 

The White Sox vs. Cleveland series began on Friday night with an Apple TV exclusive telecast, with Steve Nelson calling the game. A split doubleheader on Saturday had the local telecast on NBC Sports Chicago with Jason Benetti calling play-by-play. The evening game was a Fox regional game, with White Sox radio voice Len Kasper assigned to call the game for Fox. (As a side note, Kasper worked the game with A.J. Pierzynski as analyst, giving the regional telecast, also seen in Cleveland, a clear White Sox flavor.) Then, the Sunday game was back on NBC Sports Chicago. However, Benetti had to call the Cubs vs. Phillies game for Peacock, and Kasper was back on the radio call. As a result Connor McKnight, who fills in for Kasper on radio and handles surrounding coverage, was brought in to call play-by-play. The result was four different people calling the four games.

The Cubs at Phillies series was also shown by Apple on Friday night, sticking fans of both teams with the horrible early crew for Apple TV games. On Saturday, the Cubs were on their Marquee Network with Jon Sciambi calling the game. Then, the Sunday game was on Peacock, which had White Sox voice Jason Benetti calling the Cubs game. 

It was also interesting to note that Marquee Network, already coming under fire for removing criticism of Cubs management from its airwaves, chose Ryan Sweeney to be the Cubs analyst for Peacock, instead of Jim DeShaies who is the primary analyst on Cubs actual telecasts. (Sweeney is among the rotating studio analysts.)

Benetti had an even busier week in the days ahead, concluding negotiations to leave ESPN in order to jump to Fox Sports and become an important part of its college football coverage starting almost immediately. Benetti is expected to be calling many Big Ten football and basketball games for the network, thus reducing his travel time. Previously, ESPN assigned him to games around the country. Now, he will be able to call more games in the Midwest, a likely factor in his decision to jump.

Over at NBC Sports, the network continues to expand upon its recent success with auto racing coverage. This weekend (July 30/31) it will feature both Indy Car and NASCAR events on the main platform. In an interesting decision, Dale Earnhart Jr. will serve as analyst on both races. NBC is reportedly getting in to the mix for future Big Ten Conference rights, likely as a result of the increase in revenue Comcast has with help from Peacock and NBC Sports of late.

 

Fox Sports appears to be going with Joe Davis as Darryl "Moose" Johnston as its #2 announcing team for the upcoming NFL season, although there has not been anything official as of press time. 

 

NFL Network fans will be seeing Rich Eisen for years to come, with Eisen agreeing to a multi- year extension of his contract. 

NEW YORK: It's great timing for WFAN AM-FM to be able to announce a multi-year extension for its Yankees broadcasts. The Yankees have aired on WFAN since 2014, having moved over from WCBS, which is now the flagship station for the Mets games. As play-by-play voice John Sterling begins to reduce his schedule, speculation rises that Brendan Burke, known for his NHL on TNT play-by-play role, is in line to eventually take over for Sterling.