While baseball is clearly the sport where Benetti is most known, he has plenty of reps in college football. (The White Sox were kept abreast of Benetti’s negotiations with Fox.) (Benetti’s ESPN contract concludes at the end of August.) Benetti has not officially signed a new contract with the White Sox that extends beyond this year but said he feels confident he’ll be with the team for some time. He said he left the negotiations to his agent, Gideon Cohen of Excel Sports Management. It’s yet another excellent play-by-play hire by Fox Sports, which now employs Benetti, Adam Amin and Joe Davis as under-40 former ESPN-ers turned Fox Sports callers.īenetti said he did not have a direct conversation with Fox Sports officials ( credit Jeff Agrest of the Chicago Sun-Times for being out in front here) until he officially signed the deal. Benetti declined comment on the length of his Fox Sports contract, but sources said it’s in the four-year range. He’s also been the lead caller this season on Peacock’s Sunday package of MLB games (Benetti was in Toronto on Sunday to call the Blue Jays-Tigers game).īut the Fox Sports deal will bring his work to a much broader sports audience. Chicago baseball fans know Benetti’s work as the television voice of the White Sox on NBC Sports Chicago. It’s a significant part of who he is, of course, as is what’s coming next for him professionally. It’s a whole different level than just like, ‘Hey, we took a chance on you and then you grew within us.’ To have somebody say, ‘We want you,’ it’s amazing and a beautiful thing in my heart.”īenetti’s personal journey has been told before, and I recommend this CBS Sunday Morning piece where he talks about his cerebral palsy, surgeries and years of physical therapy. It’s really important to me personally to have a network want me as a free agent. So, at 38 years old, to have a network want to be in a deal with me, plus, a Major League Baseball team, everybody wishes everything happened at age 21, but sometimes things take a little longer for people to understand me and who I am. “I don’t even think about it in terms of hurdles, but I do know that people didn’t immediately say, ‘Let’s put him on TV’ when I walked into the room. I’m very proud of the idea that I and the people behind me made something cool out of something that by default didn’t belong on television by American standards. Micah Fowler from the ABC show ‘Speechless’ is about a kid with CP. There’s RJ Mitte from ‘Breaking Bad.’ Marlee Matlin has had an amazing acting career. To know that I found a front-facing career while having a disability, there are not many of us on television. That’s not what this is about, but my psychology is always intertwined with that. People don’t like it when people make it about that or play that card. “There is nothing in the Fox release about me having a disability, but that is always firmly intertwined in who I am,” said Benetti, who has cerebral palsy. If you have heard Benetti’s playcalling - and certainly anyone from Chicago knows full well what I am talking about - you know he is the real deal as a game broadcaster. The hire is a great moment for the business because it’s one totally based on the work. His assignments will include college football, college basketball and Major League Baseball. Last week, Fox Sports officially announced that Benetti had joined the company beginning with college football this fall. TORONTO - He is one of baseball’s best play-by-play callers - maybe the best - but on a sleepy Sunday morning in Toronto, Jason Benetti went unrecognized as he discussed his career in the lobby of a downtown Toronto hotel.
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