Chicago TV: John Schriffen Gets White Sox TV Gig

The Chicago White Sox filled their opening in the television booth Thursday, naming John Schriffen the new play-by-play broadcaster.

The Chicago Tribune reports Schriffen, 39, will call games on NBC Sports Chicago with analyst Steve Stone. He received a multiyear deal.

A meeting with Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and Stone last weekend in Scottsdale, Ariz., sealed the deal, with Schriffen and Stone hitting it off “off the bat.” A half-hour meeting turned into a three-hour dinner, Schriffen said.

“The White Sox, specifically, is very exciting for me just because of what the organization is,” he said Thursday on a video conference. “When you look at what Jerry has done for this organization ... he just lives, breathes, sleeps baseball. And when I met with Jerry this past weekend, it was exciting to learn and just feel his passion for the team and just the history of baseball and how much he loves it and our shared passion for it.

John Schriffen

“So the timing is right for me because I’ve done so many things in the course of my career in broadcasting, and the next step for me is to join a team, get to know the team better and really join a community and move to Chicago.”

This is the first play-by-play job for a team for Schriffen, who has worked for ESPN since 2020 and previously worked for NFL Network and CBS Sports. He said one of Reinsdorf’s prerequisites was that he would commit to the Sox job above other duties.

That became a sticking point with former broadcaster Jason Benetti, who shockingly left the team after the 2023 season to work in the Detroit Tigers TV booth. Benetti’s side work calling college football and basketball for ESPN and then Fox Sports was widely praised by critics but took him away from the Sox booth too often for Reinsdorf’s taste.

“I want to be the voice and face of the Chicago White Sox broadcast,” he said. “And the goal is to be there throughout September. It was very clear, and that’s something I talked to Jerry (about) early on. Whoever he hired, he wanted to make sure this was going to be their main priority. And I said, ‘I’m very clear on that.’”

Schriffen has called Major League Baseball, NCAA basketball, football, softball and baseball and the NBA G League and Summer League for ESPN. He came to ESPN in 2020 to provide coverage of the Korea Baseball Organization. He said he has college basketball commitments remaining with ESPN and hopes to continue there in the baseball offseason but wasn’t sure about his future with the network.