The 2024 season will never be erased from the history books, but a significant part of the season — we shall never speak of it — has departed the White Sox organization. Late Monday afternoon, the organization announced John Schriffen’s departure from the broadcast booth.
Like a fourth-round pick who struggles even to hold down a bench spot, Schriffen didn’t pan out, and the Sox won’t exercise his option. His experience calling NFL games for CBS, followed by KBO games, didn’t exactly give Sox fans
high hopes for Schriffen replacing Jason Benetti — although to be fair, sitting in Benetti’s seat was already a tall order. The Dartmouth graduate’s signature call of “South Side, stand up!” fell flat, and his verbal slip-ups, awkward moments with color commentator Steve Stone and limited baseball knowledge put him behind in the count.
Though Schriffen probably knew the writing was on the wall, his recent decision to take a gig broadcasting a UFC brawl rather than call the South Siders’ first playoff-clinching game in five years undoubtedly tipped the scales against exercising his option.
As a Sox fan who has oscillated between giving the guy a fair shake and criticizing his untimely voice cracks (heavily leaning toward the latter), saying that Schriffen will be hard to replace would be a lie. LinkedIn, Indeed, or whatever job platforms that broadcasters with a decade of experience and an above-average baseball IQ are filled with qualified candidates. Odds are that just about any of them can come up with a call than that doesn’t translate to an innuendo that shows no research was done, as in “Show me the Mune!”
No changes are planned for the Len Kasper-Darrin Jackson pairing on the radio, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel for those who have opted to watch the game on mute rather than hear Schriffen for the last three years.
