During Saturday's Reds vs. Giants game, Jason Benetti shared a story about how former ballplayer Champ Summers got his nickname. Photo Credit: Sam Greene/The Enquirer/USA TODAY NETWORK Sports commentator Jason Benetti host the discussion during a Xavier University basketball preseason preview event at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. Photo Credit: Sam Greene/The Enquirer/USA TODAY NETWORK

The final weekend of the MLB regular season is quite a moment for MLB Network to shine. In addition to their previous plans, they added Friday night’s Detroit Tigers-Chicago White Sox game to their lineup, picking up the Bally Sports Detroit feed (outside of Detroit and Chicago, beginning at 6:40 p.m. ET) with Jason Benetti on the call.

That’s particularly notable on a few fronts. For one, there’s the chance for the 39-120 White Sox to set the MLB loss record, which they barely missed Friday. There’s also the chance for the Tigers to clinch a postseason berth.

Beyond that, Benetti had been a play-by-play voice for them since 2016, but moved to Detroit this offseason, saying the Tigers “wanted me.” So, around the high praise for Benetti’s calls during this Tigers’ run, which could see them make the postseason (but with that not yet locked in, sorry, Bob Nightengale), it’s significant to see MLBN pick up this broadcast.

Beyond that, there’s a lot of MLBN content coming this weekend. On Sunday in particular (the last scheduled day of MLB regular season coverage, although a rescheduled Mets-Braves doubleheader that could happen Monday could impact that), they have eight planned hours of coverage, part of more than 90 overall hours of live final week programming. They’ll start that with High Heat, then follow it with MLB TonightQuick Pitch, and a special MLB Tonight postseason preview. And MLB Central will be live on Monday morning.

In a lot of ways, though, this Benetti pickup for Friday particularly stands out. It’s a chance for his former team to set a loss record, and it’s notable to see MLBN presenting his call of that. We’ll see how that turns out.

 

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.