Earlier this week, news came that Bill Walton would be joining Jason Benetti in the White Sox booth when they were in Anaheim to take on the Angels. That was obviously good news (well, unless maybe you’re a diehard White Sox fan, but even then.)
Here’s how it happened, as a reminder:
Yes, it’s true. According to the Chicago Tribune, Walton will call a White Sox-Angels game on August 16th with Jason Benetti, the regular White Sox play by play announcer and Walton’s broadcast partner during last November’s surreal Maui Invitational. The broadcast will air on NBC Sports Chicago, and is coming about because Steve Stone, Benetti’s usual partner in the booth during White Sox games, is taking the four game series in Orange County off. Benetti will have substitute partners for the other three games in the set, but Walton is the only one that has been announced so far.
Now, thanks to The Athletic’s Jon Greenberg, another of the mystery partners has been revealed: television showrunner Michael Schur, executive producer of Parks & Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Good Place. Schur wrote for and acted on The Office. Perhaps most relevantly, of course, is Schur’s background as one of the founders of Fire Joe Morgan, a blog dedicated to critiquing bad sports broadcasting and/or journalism.
Next week, @KenTremendous joins Jason Benetti in the White Sox booth. Also some guy named Bill Walton. The Mike Schur scoop inside my story: https://t.co/TCgU6UO5TO
— jon greenberg (@jon_greenberg) August 11, 2019
From The Athletic ($):
Under the nom de guerre Ken Tremendous, Schur wrote for the hilarious baseball criticism site named after the notoriously crotchety Morgan. (He also has a baseball podcast with Joe Posnanski and has written for The Athletic.)
FJM ended its glorious run on Nov. 13, 2008, a month after the Sox’s last playoff appearance. But if you read it, you’re thinking, “Ken Tremendous is in Hawk Harrelson’s booth? Who says 2019 is bad?”
The idea of one of the guys from Fire Joe Morgan ending up serving as an analyst for a game is something that would have been hilarious in 2008. If we’re lucky, the site comes back to life to review Schur’s performance.
If you’re curious, Schur will reportedly be doing Saturday’s game, which is set to start at 9 PM Eastern.
About Jay Rigdon
Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.