It’s been a rough weekend for the Chicago White Sox, to say the least.
The team now sits at 15-45 with the MLB’s worst record. As such, the White Sox have inspired tired rants about analytics and are seeing players like Tommy Pham fume after taking an awful base-running path to home plate.
The person connected to the White Sox who might have had the worst weekend, though, is announcer John Schriffen.
In his first year as the play-by-play person, Schriffen has had the unenviable task of making the worst team in baseball seem interesting. At times, he has seemingly leaned on the extreme homer call — which is fine for local broadcasts — in an attempt to appeal to what likely few White Sox fans are actually watching every game.
The issue is that this penchant for homer-ism leads Schriffen to do things like weirdly defend Pham as he throws a tantrum over getting thrown out at home plate after his atrocious base-running. This sort of announcing approach will resonate with absolutely no one:
Pham was HEATED after being thrown out at the plate pic.twitter.com/wooYjRCHqg
— White Sox Talk (@NBCSWhiteSox) June 2, 2024
Again, it is OK to be a homer as a local broadcaster.
But to do that, fans actually have to like and be invested in their team. One does not get that sense about the current White Sox. More importantly, Schriffen taking Pham’s side on a needless tantrum over a clear error he made is just silly on its face. At a certain point, basic logic will kick in, and people will remember they’re watching baseball, not a fighting sport.
Likely, no one watching that moment live (or on social media afterward) thought, “Yeah, get ’em, Tommy!” It was not the time or the place to needlessly ramp up the emotions as Schriffen did. But I suppose that’s what inevitably happens when the team you’re announcing for is 30 games under .500 in early June.
MLB fans mocked John Schriffen for getting weirdly fired up about Tommy Pham’s tantrum
I don’t know what is funnier, the crying player or the Malibu’s Most Wanted call https://t.co/Wl8u6wFkhb
— Peter Bukowski (@Peter_Bukowski) June 2, 2024
There’s some so unbelievably funny about saying we don’t care about how many losses we have, we draw the at a catcher not liking a borderline dirty slide by our player. https://t.co/k4lKwS6jRS
— Ol’ Coyotes R’ Us (@CoveysBurner) June 2, 2024
Between the mess on the field and the mess in the booth, it is getting harder
and harder to even attempt to tune in and just watch baseball. https://t.co/QJs6RI4f4r— Courtney Finnicum (@courtney883) June 2, 2024
Schriffen would be better suited calling professional wrestling than baseball. Ridiculous play-by-play lol https://t.co/CdOxgOnYcl
— Eric (@nemchocke) June 2, 2024
1. This was a cringe call.
2. I’m not a lip-reader but Tommy Pham said some wild things here… 😳 https://t.co/8JKpUmaZUn
— Slavko Bekovic (@SBekovic) June 2, 2024
John Schriffen makes headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Why would you defend this? https://t.co/ubqbWErCL0
— Clinton Cole (@cdcole55) June 2, 2024
Featured image courtesy of NBC Sports Chicago
