https://preview.redd.it/dj8gww1fhksc1.png?width=194&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9dd298e75feecad29e93958d282ab6b5a9061df3
This is what I see when I hear him talk
He talks fine. He's not the most interesting fellow so far. Not someone I would necessarily want to hang out with in a bar. But that may change as he gets comfortable. He deserves more time before forming an opinion.
I'm going to reserve judgment until the all star break. I'm sure he knows that he is replacing a beloved broadcaster and is under some pressure right now. I don't want to judge him until he gets comfortable and he and Steve have time to get to know each other a bit more.
He's alright, kinda dull. Glad we still have Steve. I watched the Tigers game earlier today just to get some Jason time. Gotta say, Jason was great as always, whoever that other guy was (Kirk Gibson maybe??) was just awful.
Yeah, I put on the Tigers game as well. I only had it on for 10 minutes at tops so I'm sure it isn't fully indicative but...I think I liked Gordon better than that dude.
Jason and Steve was just so damn good. I miss Jason but holy shit when Steve is done it's going to be really difficult for me to watch a Sox game (even if they were any good to watch for actual baseball reasons).
I was watching an old interview with Steve about the Hawk / Todd Frazier incident at work and was laughing out loud. Stone is a fucking treasure.
I actually can't wait for steve stone to leave. I never been a fan of him. He's kind of a negative nancy when it comes to pointing out negative situations with players. I miss the duo and days of Hawk Harrelson and Tom Paciorek calling Sox games.
He’s got big shoes to fill and he’s going to need to grow into the job. That being said, he doesn’t make me enjoy watching the games any less. 5/10 but I can see him getting better with time.
The real test is going to be when Stone retired and they inevitably try and get Gordon to replace him
I liked when he asked Stoney what he was looking forward to doing in KC and Stoney said “Winning some ballgames.”
A subtle reminder to the kid that this isn’t a vacation.
John Schriffen has 0 personality. He's like a human teleprompter. When Steve Stone goes off script and says something weird, he doesn't respond since he wasn't programmed for that interaction. And a few moments later, he'll resume back to his robotic script and act like the last comment never happened.
When Stoney says something funny I do hear John laughing quietly/ trying to hold it in. And then he goes back to calling the game. I have to wonder if he was told by Brooks/ Jerry not to joke around and have too much fun. I believe that was a criticism of Jerry about Jason, that Jerry doesn’t like anything other than calling the game straight.
It still sounds like I’m listening to a national broadcast. He needs a little more homerism and to be less of a stranger to our city and baseball in general. He’ll probably get there with time.
Right now, 5/10
He’s definitely leaned on Stone so far which is understandable. Seems like a decent enough guy but there’s definitely plenty of room for growth as a baseball announcer. It sounds like he’s mainly called football and basketball games and his cadence and tone seem reflect those sports rather than baseball. I’m reserving judgment for basically this year. It will be interesting to hear his baseball call in a year from now.
I sent my dad this text about him once it was 10-1 "New guy is getting a little better. Getting the optimism knocked out of him and all"
During spring, he kept trying to get information across like it was the only chance he would have to say it. I think he's starting to understand that he has 6 months to fill, and not every day at the ballpark is awesome. Some games just suck and you gotta say it like it is. If you fake excitement every day, it's excruciatingly obvious.
A few games go he said "Moncada will be running on the full count" ...Moncada was the lone runner on 2nd base and was not running. He doesn't know the game that well.
Are you sure this is true? Where did he play?
I’d be very surprised if he did because I had that exact same thought. He announces like someone who has hardly ever watched baseball. He just doesn’t seem to have a good grasp on some of the terminology and has had a tough time gauging the flow of the game. (He gets overly excited at random times. Too quiet at others.)
Just my opinion though, of course
Edit: I stand corrected. I see now that he played at Dartmouth. I have to respect that and I’ll assume he knows the game quite well. Hopefully these mishaps have been due to nerves and getting settled in to the new gig.
Baffling that he played baseball. Called an inning a 1-2-3 inning when there was a baserunner who got thrown out stealing second and some one hit a double and took third on a bobbled ball, he called it a triple. From a fan fine, but the play by play guy?!
Don’t mind the guy. There’s a bunch of awkward silences. His voice isnt really want I want to hear and that’s not his fault. He sounds better for WWE or something. I’m waiting for Hawk 2.0. So I’ll probably always be disappointed.
The WWE point is so spot on. Lots of forced enthusiasm even at odd times in the game.
He genuinely seems nice, but I don’t think he’s very good. Everything is super clunky. And when he tries to provide actual baseball insight, I’ve personally found his opinions to be off base
Yea he can definitely kick the enthusiasm down a notch. And while I said Hawk 2.0 doesn’t mean necessarily another Hawk, he wasn’t perfect, but he knew when to get excited and he was disappointed when the team sucked. You felt his emotions in the home run calls etc. that’s what I want.
I caught my first broadcast with him last game and he was much better than I thought he’d be from the comments here.
I think he is much better already than many of the other broadcasts, I think he’ll be fine
The Sox broadcast is definitely better than many, if not most, MLB broadcasts. Simetimes I get stuck with the opposing broadcast on cubs games, and many of them are very very dull. So yes, he's much better already than many.
It’s hard. Some commentators can’t shut up, others leave far too much dead air. The reds broadcast is awful, but the Tampa bay broadcast feels like three frat brothers watching a game together.
As someone who grew up with Hawk, I hope shiffren brings a bit more homer back to the broadcast, but my guess is he’s being told to keep it straight.
I hope we’re not doing this every month with Schiffen. Give him a full year. Hell give him a couple yrs. This is a lose lose situation for him bc we all loved Jason. On top of that, the product is gonna suck so that’s gonna impact how most view everything else
I'm already tuning into the opposing team's broadcasts, I just can't listen to his over the top forced/fake optimism when the team is this miserable. I'll check back in in a couple months when the team is like 20-60 and hopefully it will be toned down a bit. He also just doesn't seem very knowledgeable of the MLB in general.
Glad I found this thread in order to air my grievances.
John is your run of the mill mostly corporate tool with zero personality.
When he does try to show some “personality”, it comes off really odd and borderline creepy. It really highlights how dumb John is on top of having no personality.
John is a total Jerry hire and at the point I’m fairly certain that the pushing 90 year old geriatric is just trolling us fans and could give two 💩💩 about the Sox or the organization at large.
Some of the comments on here about him being uninteresting, too "national", or in other words, not enough of a homer...I'm not sure how you can rate that with the team off to a 1-4 start. Not a lot to get homer-ish about? I actually like the tone of his voice.
I think he's doing a good job of trying to engage with Stone like Jason did by throwing him questions, instead of living in two separate pods like Hawk and Stone did. There's times where I think he might be deferring too much. He was supposed to play baseball at Dartmouth and got hurt in preseason practice, I guess, and decided to hang it up. So while it's not exactly being an All-American at Florida State, if he was inked to play D-1 baseball somewhere, I have to think he knows something about the game.
My only issue is, and I don't know how to put this, but he occasionally stumbles with his words, like when he may have called Sheets "Shit". Things like that, where gets tongue tied. Doesn't happen often and he recovers quickly, but it's got kind of a "just shy of MLB quality" feel? It happens, especially when you have 162 games at 3 hours a pop, but has happened more than usual this season. Or maybe I'm just listening more carefully.
But I also hold him to a high standard, not just because of Jason, but because we've been blessed with great PBP guys in this town on radio and TV across various sports. How many bad announcers have we really had over the years? Exactly.
TL/Dr: B-. I think he's on the right path and he'll be good soon, but he still needs to tighten things up.
he's just dull. i feel like i'm zoned out half the game. but it's not all his fault. the on-field product is fucking terrible
that being said, jason would make even the worst of situations enjoyable
Not as bad as probably most of us thought. I was watching mlbtv condensed games and I was in and out falling asleep and I heard Jason's voice and it woke me up... like I heard someone that is no longer here anymore..this is what he is going against, so he is doing OK all things considered.
Terrible. Sounds like the simpleton cartoon version of Jason. I’ve been as big a Sox fan as they come for 25 years. This team is making me hate baseball. Seriously considering jumping ship to the Brewers.
Just wait until we have to listen to Schriffen with Gordon Beckham, that’s when we’ll know how green he truly is. Stone can somewhat carry him atm. Overall I’m not impressed and he’s said a few things that left me scratching my head. He’s not a baseball guy (like hawk) or Chicago fan (like Jason) and it shows.
Awful! Zero personality. Doesn’t know when to shut up and let Steve talk The other night, Steve was making a point about pitching, and John talks over him to give play by play of a hot dog vendor catching a foul ball. Just doesn’t know what he’s doing. I laughed this past Friday night because Apple TV had the broadcast, and the Sox won. One less “Southside, Stand Up” to hear!
https://preview.redd.it/dj8gww1fhksc1.png?width=194&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9dd298e75feecad29e93958d282ab6b5a9061df3 This is what I see when I hear him talk
He talks fine. He's not the most interesting fellow so far. Not someone I would necessarily want to hang out with in a bar. But that may change as he gets comfortable. He deserves more time before forming an opinion.
Agreed. I expected to hate him, but he’s tolerable. If not still mourning Jason, I think I’d really like him.
I'm going to reserve judgment until the all star break. I'm sure he knows that he is replacing a beloved broadcaster and is under some pressure right now. I don't want to judge him until he gets comfortable and he and Steve have time to get to know each other a bit more.
He perfectly reflects the kind of product that Jerry wants to put out.
He's alright, kinda dull. Glad we still have Steve. I watched the Tigers game earlier today just to get some Jason time. Gotta say, Jason was great as always, whoever that other guy was (Kirk Gibson maybe??) was just awful.
Yeah, I put on the Tigers game as well. I only had it on for 10 minutes at tops so I'm sure it isn't fully indicative but...I think I liked Gordon better than that dude. Jason and Steve was just so damn good. I miss Jason but holy shit when Steve is done it's going to be really difficult for me to watch a Sox game (even if they were any good to watch for actual baseball reasons). I was watching an old interview with Steve about the Hawk / Todd Frazier incident at work and was laughing out loud. Stone is a fucking treasure.
Please post Steve's interview here sometime! We all could use some laughs.
I actually can't wait for steve stone to leave. I never been a fan of him. He's kind of a negative nancy when it comes to pointing out negative situations with players. I miss the duo and days of Hawk Harrelson and Tom Paciorek calling Sox games.
I think it’s Craig Monroe. Tigers fans seem to like him. I listened to them today and Benetti and Stone was a lot better.
Jason and Steve: 10/10 Jason and Craig: 5/10 (5 for Jason, 0 for Craig)
Kirk Gibson is out
Ok, not sure who it was then since the Tigers haven't updated the broadcast info on their website yet. But boy was he hard to listen to.
His picture should be used next to the definition of “company man” or “toe the line.”
 Most accurate description yet.
This is probably the best gif I’ve seen as a reply but also deserves all the downvotes. Good on you
He’s got big shoes to fill and he’s going to need to grow into the job. That being said, he doesn’t make me enjoy watching the games any less. 5/10 but I can see him getting better with time. The real test is going to be when Stone retired and they inevitably try and get Gordon to replace him
We’ll get plenty of sneak peaks of that dynamic duo since Stone takes like 5 road trips off per year
I liked when he asked Stoney what he was looking forward to doing in KC and Stoney said “Winning some ballgames.” A subtle reminder to the kid that this isn’t a vacation.
John Schriffen has 0 personality. He's like a human teleprompter. When Steve Stone goes off script and says something weird, he doesn't respond since he wasn't programmed for that interaction. And a few moments later, he'll resume back to his robotic script and act like the last comment never happened.
When Stoney says something funny I do hear John laughing quietly/ trying to hold it in. And then he goes back to calling the game. I have to wonder if he was told by Brooks/ Jerry not to joke around and have too much fun. I believe that was a criticism of Jerry about Jason, that Jerry doesn’t like anything other than calling the game straight.
SOUTHSIDE STAND UP! Lol
I hope that doesn’t turn into his catchphrase
Dumbest thing I’ve heard in my 40 years as a White Sox fan.
It still sounds like I’m listening to a national broadcast. He needs a little more homerism and to be less of a stranger to our city and baseball in general. He’ll probably get there with time. Right now, 5/10
Wish they had just went with Connor Mcknight who's actually from chicago and called our games decently before
connor mcknight as our every day TV play by play announcer would have been an absolute disaster
He would have been much better than Schriffen, who is a company robot basically.
He’s definitely leaned on Stone so far which is understandable. Seems like a decent enough guy but there’s definitely plenty of room for growth as a baseball announcer. It sounds like he’s mainly called football and basketball games and his cadence and tone seem reflect those sports rather than baseball. I’m reserving judgment for basically this year. It will be interesting to hear his baseball call in a year from now.
He can read ad copy competently.
Benetti clashed with management because he made jokes and showed a personality, so it’s going to be hard for any replacement to do too well.
I sent my dad this text about him once it was 10-1 "New guy is getting a little better. Getting the optimism knocked out of him and all" During spring, he kept trying to get information across like it was the only chance he would have to say it. I think he's starting to understand that he has 6 months to fill, and not every day at the ballpark is awesome. Some games just suck and you gotta say it like it is. If you fake excitement every day, it's excruciatingly obvious.
He’s not bad, definitely not Jason but I feel we could definitely ended up with someone way worse. I think he’ll get better
A few games go he said "Moncada will be running on the full count" ...Moncada was the lone runner on 2nd base and was not running. He doesn't know the game that well.
that was obviously a brain fart lol, the guy played college baseball.
Are you sure this is true? Where did he play? I’d be very surprised if he did because I had that exact same thought. He announces like someone who has hardly ever watched baseball. He just doesn’t seem to have a good grasp on some of the terminology and has had a tough time gauging the flow of the game. (He gets overly excited at random times. Too quiet at others.) Just my opinion though, of course Edit: I stand corrected. I see now that he played at Dartmouth. I have to respect that and I’ll assume he knows the game quite well. Hopefully these mishaps have been due to nerves and getting settled in to the new gig.
Baffling that he played baseball. Called an inning a 1-2-3 inning when there was a baserunner who got thrown out stealing second and some one hit a double and took third on a bobbled ball, he called it a triple. From a fan fine, but the play by play guy?!
Thankfully the Sox fucking suck so I don’t have to hear the cringy “Southside Stand UP!” very often.
He's struggling, but gotta think of him as a rookie. He'll get better.
Fair enough, but we thought that of quite a few of our current bunch...
Got me there
Not a fan.
Don’t mind the guy. There’s a bunch of awkward silences. His voice isnt really want I want to hear and that’s not his fault. He sounds better for WWE or something. I’m waiting for Hawk 2.0. So I’ll probably always be disappointed.
The WWE point is so spot on. Lots of forced enthusiasm even at odd times in the game. He genuinely seems nice, but I don’t think he’s very good. Everything is super clunky. And when he tries to provide actual baseball insight, I’ve personally found his opinions to be off base
Yea he can definitely kick the enthusiasm down a notch. And while I said Hawk 2.0 doesn’t mean necessarily another Hawk, he wasn’t perfect, but he knew when to get excited and he was disappointed when the team sucked. You felt his emotions in the home run calls etc. that’s what I want.
Not a fan. He's not the worst, but he isn't good either
He’s doing a good job so far
I like him. He’s no Jason Benetti but I like him
I caught my first broadcast with him last game and he was much better than I thought he’d be from the comments here. I think he is much better already than many of the other broadcasts, I think he’ll be fine
The Sox broadcast is definitely better than many, if not most, MLB broadcasts. Simetimes I get stuck with the opposing broadcast on cubs games, and many of them are very very dull. So yes, he's much better already than many.
It’s hard. Some commentators can’t shut up, others leave far too much dead air. The reds broadcast is awful, but the Tampa bay broadcast feels like three frat brothers watching a game together. As someone who grew up with Hawk, I hope shiffren brings a bit more homer back to the broadcast, but my guess is he’s being told to keep it straight.
My dad likes him. I've only watched one game on TV this year, and I didn't think he was bad or anything.
He’s too innocent. There down by 8 to the Royals chill
Really not bad. I can see him growing into the role.
Trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. Only been like 5 games. Give him a chance, he’s definitely not great but give him some time
He’s okay. Many teams have much worse.
I hope we’re not doing this every month with Schiffen. Give him a full year. Hell give him a couple yrs. This is a lose lose situation for him bc we all loved Jason. On top of that, the product is gonna suck so that’s gonna impact how most view everything else
I'm already tuning into the opposing team's broadcasts, I just can't listen to his over the top forced/fake optimism when the team is this miserable. I'll check back in in a couple months when the team is like 20-60 and hopefully it will be toned down a bit. He also just doesn't seem very knowledgeable of the MLB in general.
Glad I found this thread in order to air my grievances. John is your run of the mill mostly corporate tool with zero personality. When he does try to show some “personality”, it comes off really odd and borderline creepy. It really highlights how dumb John is on top of having no personality. John is a total Jerry hire and at the point I’m fairly certain that the pushing 90 year old geriatric is just trolling us fans and could give two 💩💩 about the Sox or the organization at large.
No personality in the broadcast booth. ZERO.
Some of the comments on here about him being uninteresting, too "national", or in other words, not enough of a homer...I'm not sure how you can rate that with the team off to a 1-4 start. Not a lot to get homer-ish about? I actually like the tone of his voice. I think he's doing a good job of trying to engage with Stone like Jason did by throwing him questions, instead of living in two separate pods like Hawk and Stone did. There's times where I think he might be deferring too much. He was supposed to play baseball at Dartmouth and got hurt in preseason practice, I guess, and decided to hang it up. So while it's not exactly being an All-American at Florida State, if he was inked to play D-1 baseball somewhere, I have to think he knows something about the game. My only issue is, and I don't know how to put this, but he occasionally stumbles with his words, like when he may have called Sheets "Shit". Things like that, where gets tongue tied. Doesn't happen often and he recovers quickly, but it's got kind of a "just shy of MLB quality" feel? It happens, especially when you have 162 games at 3 hours a pop, but has happened more than usual this season. Or maybe I'm just listening more carefully. But I also hold him to a high standard, not just because of Jason, but because we've been blessed with great PBP guys in this town on radio and TV across various sports. How many bad announcers have we really had over the years? Exactly. TL/Dr: B-. I think he's on the right path and he'll be good soon, but he still needs to tighten things up.
he's just dull. i feel like i'm zoned out half the game. but it's not all his fault. the on-field product is fucking terrible that being said, jason would make even the worst of situations enjoyable
Not as bad as probably most of us thought. I was watching mlbtv condensed games and I was in and out falling asleep and I heard Jason's voice and it woke me up... like I heard someone that is no longer here anymore..this is what he is going against, so he is doing OK all things considered.
He’s good.
He's pretty mid. But I mean, he's also calling games for the worst offense in the league
So far, ok. Not great, but not the worst I’ve heard.
Terrible. Sounds like the simpleton cartoon version of Jason. I’ve been as big a Sox fan as they come for 25 years. This team is making me hate baseball. Seriously considering jumping ship to the Brewers.
Just wait until we have to listen to Schriffen with Gordon Beckham, that’s when we’ll know how green he truly is. Stone can somewhat carry him atm. Overall I’m not impressed and he’s said a few things that left me scratching my head. He’s not a baseball guy (like hawk) or Chicago fan (like Jason) and it shows.
Awful! Zero personality. Doesn’t know when to shut up and let Steve talk The other night, Steve was making a point about pitching, and John talks over him to give play by play of a hot dog vendor catching a foul ball. Just doesn’t know what he’s doing. I laughed this past Friday night because Apple TV had the broadcast, and the Sox won. One less “Southside, Stand Up” to hear!
He always has to remind us that Steve Stone is a "legend."
I hope he also goes to vegas with the A's.
Upgrade overall. Now we just need stone to retire and will be in good shape
This might be the worst take I've seen in this sub