The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor

ESPN’s broadcast of the Sox-Cubs game was absolutely awful

Stinko. Rotten. Wretched. Unforgiveably self-conscious.

As I understand it, you folks in Chicago didn’t get to see ESPN’s broadcast of the White Sox-Cubs exhibition game Sunday night. It was blacked out.

But I got to see it. At least some of it until I was absolutely sickened by it. I happened to be in Virginia visiting my son Don and his wonderful family, when I heard him say,”Dad! Dad! The White Sox are on.”

Don is a Sox fan like me so we sat down together as the Sox were losing 2-0. Lucky for us, we got to see the big Sox offensive explosion (as promised) and turn the score into a 6-2 lead.

That remarkable inning seemed like a footnote to the broadcast team of Jon Sciambi, Rick Sutcliffe and Chipper Jones. While the action on the field was unfolding, the three were blah, blah, blahing about almost everything except the game.

Little about the players coming to bat or insightful kinds of discussion of the strategies on the field–the kind that White Sox play-by-pay announcer Jason Benetti and analyst Steve Stone do so well. An occasional “he’s out” interrupted whatever they were discussing.

Sometimes we couldn’t tell who was batting. I thought I saw AL batting champion Tim Anderson hit a single, but then he showed up being interviewed out of uniform by the Terrible Trio. Maybe we missed something, because they made the game so uninteresting that we talked among ourselves.

It’s as if they were doing a radio talk show because, well, you know, sports fans would rather hear talk about the game than see the game itself.

Like I say, my mind kept wandering during the broadcast because I didn’t know what was going on, so maybe I’m not being fair to ESPN.

But what I know is that if Benetti and Stone were doing the game, I would have been riveted. They are Chicago’s best sports broadcasting team in the more than 70 years that I’ve been paying attention. You Chicagoans should be thrilled that you are blessed with this kind of skill, energy and dedication.

Unlike what I get from ESPN.

Filed under:
Chicago, Media, Sports

Tags:
Chipper Jones., Cubs, ESPN, Jason Benetti, Jon Sciambi, Rick Sutcliffe, Steve Stone, White Sox