Jason Benetti

Jason Benetti (born September 9, 1983) is an American sportscaster. Since 2016, he has been the television play-by-play voice of Chicago White Sox baseball and the alternative play-by-play announcer of the Chicago Bulls for NBC Sports Chicago.[1] He is also the main announcer for ESPN's alternate "StatCast" telecasts, and additionally has worked for Fox Sports, NBC Sports, Westwood One, and Time Warner covering football, baseball, lacrosse, hockey, and basketball.

Jason Benetti
Chicago White Sox
Broadcaster
Born: (1983-09-09) September 9, 1983
Chicago, Illinois
Teams
As Broadcaster

Early life and education

Benetti was born 10 weeks prematurely and hospitalized for three months. During the three months in the hospital, Benetti had a respiratory illness while in intensive care that deprived his blood of oxygen. It is believed that caused his cerebral palsy, which was diagnosed when Benetti was a toddler. He underwent years of physical therapy and two surgeries to improve his ability to walk.[2]

In junior high, Benetti ran his school's NCAA tournament pool, and as a 2001 alumnus of Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Flossmoor, Illinois, he joined the school's radio station, WHFH (88.5) as a regular disc jockey and play-by-play announcer for Vikings sports coverage.[3] Benetti's cerebral palsy prevented him from playing tuba during marching band season. Not wanting to exclude him, the band director asked him to serve as the halftime broadcaster for their marching events.[4]

In the mid-2000s, Benetti became a student at Syracuse University's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications where he called lacrosse and women's basketball.[5] After graduating, Benetti enrolled at Wake Forest University School of Law where he earned a Juris Doctor degree.

Career

While at Wake Forest, Benetti acted as the voice of High Point Panthers basketball games, Syracuse Chiefs baseball games, and high school sports for Time Warner Cable Sports Channel.[2][6]

ESPN (2011–present)

Benetti served as an intern for Chicago sports radio station WSCR. In 2011 Benetti joined ESPN,[4] where his broadcasting career would move him into television, despite his childhood preference for radio-only broadcasting.[2] Benetti would call select college basketball games for the ESPN3 online service, and then move on to ESPN2 and ESPNU. In 2013 Benetti called his first football game for ESPN's syndicated American Athletic Conference package.

In 2020, Benetti signed a multi-year extension with ESPN, and during that year called KBO League games remotely for the network due to the COVID-19-induced delay of the 2020 Major League Baseball season.[7]

Chicago White Sox (2016–present)

Beginning with the 2016 season, Benetti replaced Ken Harrelson as the television play-by-play announcer for select Chicago White Sox home and road games, where he would be paired with Steve Stone. In May 2017, the White Sox announced Benetti would take over full-time play-by-play duties in 2019 upon Harrelson's retirement.

NBC (2021–present)

In 2021, Benetti was named as play-by-play announcer for NBC's coverage of baseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics.[8][9]

On April 26, 2022, it was reported that Benetti would serve as the lead play-by-play announcer for the new NBC Sports-produced MLB Sunday Leadoff games for Peacock, joined by rotating analysts representing the teams in each game.[10]

Personal life

Benetti works with the CHAT ("Communication Hope through Assistive Technology") Camp at Syracuse University.[11]

References
  1. Benetti was hired to cover the 2020 Summer Olympics for Baseball.
  1. "Jason Benetti Profile". Archived from the original on 2014-04-07.
  2. "Jason Benetti Is Voice of Hope in Face of Cerebral Palsy". AOL News. Archived from the original on 17 March 2013.
  3. Maese, Rick (July 5, 2013). "Jason Benetti, Syracuse Chiefs announcer, refuses to let cerebral palsy affect his game". Washington Post.
  4. "Disability is no impediment for ESPN play-by-play man Benetti". ESPN. January 22, 2014.
  5. Muoio, William (18 February 2016). "Newhouse Alumnus Tapped to Call Hometown Team, Chicago White Sox, for ESPN". Syracuse University News. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  6. Leo, Tom (27 October 2010). "The Voice of Hustle: Jason Benetti stacks up the sports assignments and attends law school despite a mild case of cerebral palsy". The Post Standard. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  7. Ufnowski, Amy (October 1, 2020). "Play-by-play voice Jason Benetti has signed a multi-year extension; he reflects on his career and his colleagues cheer the news". ESPN.
  8. Rosenthal, Phil (June 3, 2021). "Jason Benetti is set to call Olympic baseball for NBC this summer, the latest broadcasting gig for the Chicago White Sox announcer". Chicago Tribune.
  9. Enslin, Rob (July 20, 2021). "Orange Voices of the Summer Olympics". Syracuse University. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  10. Rigdon, Jay (April 26, 2022). "Jason Benetti will lead Peacock's Sunday MLB broadcasts with a rotating booth of analysts". Awful Announcing.
  11. Benetti, Jason. "Sports announcer: 'The way I look is a small part of who I am'". CNN.
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