The Chicago White Sox have been struggling to start the season.
Despite a series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the first weekend of May, Chicago is just 8-26 and the worst team in the American League by a wide margin. They’re also already 14.5 games behind the first-place Minnesota Twins in the AL Central race.
Making things worse for White Sox fans is that fan-favorite play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti left the team over the offseason after eight seasons to take the role with the Detroit Tigers.
The White Sox replaced Benetti with John Schriffen, formerly of CBS Sports, but early returns on Schriffen have been lukewarm.
Chicago radio host Matt Spiegel has been one of Schriffen’s biggest critics. Friday’s episode of Parkins and Spiegel on 670 The Score featured Spiegel going on a nearly nine-minute rant about the White Sox announcer.
Spiegel’s criticism of Schriffen started with the White Sox’ opening day broadcast when the announcer didn’t know why fans were booing Detroit Tigers shortstop Javier Báez, who spent eight seasons with the crosstown rival Chicago Cubs.
Schriffen has also developed a reputation as being a homer for the White Sox, leading to his “South Side stand up!” catchphrase when the team wins a game. However, he’s also started calling out various unnamed “haters” during broadcasts, most notably last weekend when outfielder Andrew Benintendi hit a walk-off home run to give the team their first two-game winning streak of the season.
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“The haters thing was bad. A bad thought. Then turning down interviews is a weird strategy,” Speigel said of Schriffen’s call.
But the host wasn’t done with his critique. “He doesn’t know baseball. It’s a pattern. I was told that in Spring Training he called a ball that moved a ball from second to third a sacrifice fly. That’s not what it is. A sacrifice fly is when the run scores. The other night he called the manager of the Royals the head coach. That’s not what a manager’s title is. Baseball is a game of situations. A lot of times he’s talking about situations where he really doesn’t have a feel of what the situation is.”
There are plenty of reasons for both fans and detractors to be “haters” regarding the White Sox and owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
“Give a crap and do some research once you get the job,” Speigel added before ending his rant.
