It sounds like the fears of most White Sox fans -- that Jason Benetti and/or Steve Stone wouldn't return to the TV booth -- didn't come that close to realization, at least according to Benetti's presentation of the protracted negotiations.
Yet Benetti also refrained from settling for "all's well that ends well," which is a problem for an organization that struggles to do anything well.
First, he told 670 The Score that he felt like a player going through an arbitration hearing ...
... and part of the reason for that is that Benetti had to deal with the White Sox directly, a topic that Sun-Times media reporter Jeff Agrest raised.
What’s unique about the Sox’ negotiations with broadcasters is that they’re done with the broadcasters, not agents. Benetti has joked that he feels like a player in arbitration. [Brooks] Boyer disagreed with the comparison but stood by the Sox’ way of doing business.
“Whether it’s [executive vice president] Kenny Williams or [general manager] Rick Hahn, they don’t use agents,” he said. “We’re compensating them; we have a partnership with them. There’s never been a need to have any sort of outside entity come in and negotiate these things.”
Boyer kinda sounds like a cop saying, If you're as innocent as you say you are, why do you need a lawyer to talk to us?
It may be the way the White Sox have always done things, but the White Sox's inability to adjust the way they've always done things is why following them has become such a bleak enterprise, no matter how much you want to like them. Everybody involved should've been taking a victory lap, but it sounds like they immediately headed to the locker room to ice down bruises. If gold is the hardest hue to hold, then why even bother trying?
In this instance, listening to Benetti's interview with Danny Parkins embedded above, I wonder if the Sox have taken a moment to reconcile the difference between their last two broadcasters. Over the course of his decades in the White Sox booth. Hawk Harrelson turned into the ultimate corporate man, assailing the concept of multiyear contracts and devoting way too much of his Hawk Day speech defending Jerry Reinsdorf for his role in the 1994 strike.
Benetti doesn't seem as willing to be kept under somebody's thumb. For one, he's worked so many games for so many networks that he's more aware of what's out there (listen to his praise of Fox's college football production). He also says that, because of the prejudices he faces, he's developed heightened sensitivity of situations where somebody might be trying to take advantage of him.
"In the end, in a faulty way, I assumed in the back of my mind that if you get really, really good at something, people are going to stop assuming things about you. That's definitely not true. Or, like, they're going to stop trying to push you around, that's not true. People see how I walk -- it's amazing, when I'm at the airport, I walk by people who are like those free credit card people, they have like a '5,000 points if you sign up today' thing. I always get stopped by those people because they think I'm easy mark! And I want to be like, 'Yeah, actually the terms and conditions don't apply," but instead I just keep walking.'
The pairing of Benetti and Stone is just about the only enviable aspect of the organization, but even the unquestionably good news of its return is tainted by the suffocating nature of late-stage White Sox. An inability and unwillingness to adapt from how they've always done things loses compatibility with the way things are done now, and only a select few benefit as the product gets simultaneously shoddier and more expensive
A franchise-record payroll only bankrolls a .500 team.
A franchise-record free agent contract merely lands an above-average left fielder.
The other free-agent contract can't be discussed due to a pending domestic violence/child abuse investigation.
SoxFest is canceled, and they can't even be bothered to provide a specific reason.
The scaled-down outfield view bars look like they provide a view for about eight people apiece.
Hell, even when they briefly acted like a big-market team by signing Liam Hendriks to an impressive contract for a closer, Jerry Reinsdorf made a rare appearance to say that Hendriks didn't merit what he asked for.
“There was no way I was going to commit to a regular four-year contract,’’ White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said, “so I was thinking, 'how can we bridge the gap here?'"
Now you have Boyer taking an equally tone-deaf approach by comparing one of their most popular employees to two of their least-liked ones. Everybody outside the organization can see the difference between Benetti (a guy who would have immediate offers from other teams if the White Sox let him go) and Williams/Hahn (two guys who would never get the same title anywhere else). Leave it to the Sox to sound befuddled by the emergence of talent.
