2024 DETROIT TIGERS REGULAR SEASON THREAD

[oblong]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

I will tell you what does annoy me about Benetti: the guy has all but told us that he is passing through Detroit by insisting on skipping dozens of games so he can do national broadcasts. Going 100% national is clearly his goal, and it's not even because he considers himself football-first so he wants to make that his #1 thing. I would respect him more if that were the case. But he also bugs out on Tigers games so he can do national baseball games on FS1. Which, honestly, I'm fine with from a Tigers' fan standpoint, because that means we get Dan Dickerson on TV, and to me, that's a win.

And now that Benetti has said that he's going to skip his national football game this one time because the Tigers are, all of a sudden and unexpectedly, where the spotlight is at this very moment, I respect his blatant careerism even less. So it's not only the Tigers he's jerking around here.

All this said, I don't hate Jason Benetti. I like him way better than Mario, and I certainly like him a lot a lot better than Shep. I even like him better than George Kell, and George was the PxP guy when I was eleven, which for many fans is the age at which baseball freezes as being in its best-ever state. The only other PxP I liked as well as Benetti was Josh Lewin, who worked his games in a sort of similarly jocular vein, if not as flamboyantly.

As I've posted here many times, Benetti can be very good when he's discussing the game at hand, and his sly jokes can work pretty well in that context, and I can watch an entire game of Jason Benetti and be quite OK with that. What I don't like is when he goes off on protracted sidebars about millennial pop culture or this or that, which are basically opportunities to demonstrate how clever he can be. He didn't do this with the White Sox so much because Steve Stone, a 40+-year baseball broadcaster himself, knew how to keep him in check and on track. Benetti doesn't have a guy like that here, so we are the beneficiaries, as it were, of his occasional poor impulse control.

In the end, I would be fine if Benetti hung around to do a couple decades of Tigers baseball, but there's no way he's going to do that, because he has his eyes on a bigger prize. So I will be neither surprised nor heartbroken when he does leave, and the only potential downside I can see is that the Tigers might replace him with a far worse PxP like Mario or Shep.

 

I'm not so sure Benetti wants more than he's got now in terms of national work, except to one day do the big games.  .  He gets to be grounded most days with the Tigers and still do football nationally.  Maybe his deal with Fox for football required him to do baseball for them as well or he would like to one day be a prime national crew.  That's not a conflict with his Tigers work other than we lose him from time to time.  

There really isn't a full time national baseball broadcaster on the networks.  Most national TV broadcasters also work for individual teams.  Joe Davis for example works for the Dodgers.  Brian Anderson works for the Brewers.  Wayne Randazzo works for the Angels.  Sean McDonnough works for the Red Sox.

 

[oblong]

I also think there's some benefit to having Benetti, as a national broadcaster, linked to the Tigers.  Especially as an employee although most people won't know that fact.  It shows some legitimacy as an organization that they would have a guy considered a top broadcaster to do national games, rather than some local guy they can get cheap who was available, like the former guy.

 

[Sports_Freak]

1 minute ago, oblong said:

I also think there's some benefit to having Benetti, as a national broadcaster, linked to the Tigers.  Especially as an employee although most people won't know that fact.  It shows some legitimacy as an organization that they would have a guy considered a top broadcaster to do national games, rather than some local guy they can get cheap who was available, like the former guy.

 

IMO, Shep always seemed like he was just filling in. Like a temporary broadcaster. I never disliked the guy, he always just seemed...meh.

[Sports_Freak]

I saw something funny on Twitter. I can't find it but it was something like;

Water covers 2/3 of the earth. Parker Meadows covers the other 1/3. 🤣🤣

[romad1]

7 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

I saw something funny on Twitter. I can't find it but it was something like;

Water covers 2/3 of the earth. Parker Meadows covers the other 1/3. 🤣🤣

And the USAF covers all of it. 

[Shades of Deivi Cruz]

I love Benetti and I'll be thrilled to have him for as long as the Tigers possibly can. I have no problem with him working other games, and don't take it as some slight on the Tigers that he does so. He does go off the rails occasionally, but that's OK with me. He's a marked improvement over Mario and Shep, and that's all I care about.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, romad1 said:

I used to like this town before old man Ford built the Rouge Complex!

:--)

Everybody's always looking to leave here for better gig. The place 1st went to hell when Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac banked his promotion to Louisiana.

Edited September 25 by gehringer_2

[Edman85]

If we are bashing Benetti, I will say my hope is we don't get JR Simmons telling uninteresting acting stories while the Tigers are clinching this weekend. I've about had enough of that.

[HeyAbbott]

2 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

If we are bashing Benetti, I will say my hope is we don't get JR Simmons telling uninteresting acting stories while the Tigers are clinching this weekend. I've about had enough of that.

I am tired of that and the endless feel good human interest stories and other sideshow events. Bally can always launch a soap oprea if they wanted.  I want a baseball broadcast

[Sports_Freak]

The Astros are just rolling over for Seattle. The division is locked up so they're resting many of their regulars. I hope the Tigers sweep them. 😅

[Tenacious D]

Mario > Benetti > Everyone Else > Shep

I like Benetti better when he’s with Petry, because Dan doesn’t indulge his silliness.  However, I like Dirks much more than Petry.  That’s my quandary and why it’s not easy being me.

[Tiger337]

2 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

Mario > Benetti > Everyone Else > Shep

I like Benetti better when he’s with Petry, because Dan doesn’t indulge his silliness.  However, I like Dirks much more than Petry.  That’s my quandary and why it’s not easy being me.

Benetti and Petry is a great combo.  Dickerson and Dirks is a great combo.  That's what I would like to see most of the time.  

[holygoat]

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

Benetti and Petry is a great combo.  Dickerson and Dirks is a great combo.  That's what I would like to see most of the time.  

Same. Dickerson is pretty much the same with whomever is in the booth with him, and Dirks is at his best with him. Benetti is too easily distracted when paired with someone who tries to match him at his own game. He's at his best with someone like Peaches or Gibby, both of whom tend to be far more game-focused.

[monkeytargets39]

My personal preference is Josh Lewin

[casimir]

Benetti has his moments that annoy me, but nobody is going to be perfect for everyone in that role.  I think he's an upgrade over Shepard.

Unfortunately for Shepard, its easy for a broadcaster to take on part of the persona of the team over the course of a season.  He broadcast some awful baseball.  Not his calling necessarily, but the action on the field.  I do feel some sympathy for him that he misses out on calling a playoff contention caliber season, and that it happens to be his first oine out of the booth.

[RandyMarsh]

6 hours ago, monkeytargets39 said:

My personal preference is Josh Lewin

Lewin and Gibby were definetly my favorite duo of the last 25 or so years. 

[casimir]

All I will say about winning the World Series is a 1 (winner) out of 12 (total playoff teams) is it is a 8.3% chance.

[Edman85]

36 minutes ago, casimir said:

All I will say about winning the World Series is a 1 (winner) out of 12 (total playoff teams) is it is a 8.3% chance.

4 teams get a bye, so a coin flip should be about 1 in 16 for the other 8. 1 in 8 for those 4.

[oblong]

I have a trip planned in late Oct.... if the Tigers make the WS... I will have to change those, or just watch them from TN with my cousins.

[Tiger337]

34 minutes ago, oblong said:

I have a trip planned in late Oct.... if the Tigers make the WS... I will have to change those, or just watch them from TN with my cousins.

You'll have to explain to them how the Tigers pitching staff works with openers and bulk relievers.  

[chasfh]

13 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

Benetti and Petry is a great combo.  Dickerson and Dirks is a great combo.  That's what I would like to see most of the time.  

I think there’s not not half bad chance that we see Benetti and Alex Avila as next year’s combo.

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, casimir said:

Benetti has his moments that annoy me, but nobody is going to be perfect for everyone in that role.  I think he's an upgrade over Shepard.

Unfortunately for Shepard, its easy for a broadcaster to take on part of the persona of the team over the course of a season.  He broadcast some awful baseball.  Not his calling necessarily, but the action on the field.  I do feel some sympathy for him that he misses out on calling a playoff contention caliber season, and that it happens to be his first oine out of the booth.

The problem with Shep is that he was not a baseball guy coming in. He’d done some replacement work on the Tigers’ broadcasts before 2019, but the sum total of his baseball experience was less than 25 games when he’d been handed the job. Shep was kind of the Xavier Nady of biography league broadcasters.

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, oblong said:

I have a trip planned in late Oct.... if the Tigers make the WS... I will have to change those, or just watch them from TN with my cousins.

My wife and I set up a driving trip around Lake Michigan to watch the leaves change from October 8 through October 11. We were to go clockwise around and stop in Menominee (du dooooo, du-dudu), Mackinaw City, and Manistee.

We were talking on the way back to the car after the White Sox winner last night, and we decided if the Tigers make the LDS, we would start on October 9 and go to Detroit for the game; then drive up the east side of Michigan to Alpena on the 10th; go across the top of the mitten, swing through the TC area, and end up in Mackinaw the night of the 11th; swing around to Menominee (du dudu du) on the 12th, and then home.

I’m rooting for the second itinerary.

Du dooooo, du dudu, du dudu, du dudu, du dudu dudu du du dudu du.

[bobrob2004]

On 9/25/2024 at 10:07 AM, Tenacious D said:

Benneti reads his own press on X, methinks.  I like him, but wish he’d dial it down some.  And agree Dirks might be a better fit with an adult in the booth (DD).

I suspect we’re seeing more of Dirks on TV to appeal to a younger audience who might be tuning in regularly for the first time given the playoff excitement.

The only thing I don't like about Benneti is when he goes off topic and talks about the moon for 30 minutes.  Stick to baseball, that's the reason I'm watching.

[oblong]

what did he say about the Moon?  I'm a space nerd and interested.