CHICAGO—Prior to calling this past week’s Sunday Night Baseball matchup between the Cubs and Giants at Wrigley Field, NBC play-by-play broadcaster Jason Benetti spoke with Front Office Sports..We discussed what it means to become the voice of a national marquee property, how he developed the confidence to tell jokes with a dry sense of humor during games, and what he learned from working with Bill Walton. He also reflected on the recent passing of Stacey King, the late Bulls color commentator who won three championships with the team as a player.
Front Office Sports: You’re now the signature voice of a marquee national property for the first time. What has it been like to consummate that journey?
Jason Benetti: It’s a total honor to do a package that I grew up watching, albeit on another network. The confluence of NBC Sports, where I watched the Bulls all the time growing up, and then Sunday Night Baseball, which was always on TV [on ESPN], we all want to do things people care about in life. We want to do things that make an impact.
When you have an opportunity to be in that sort of chair, it’s a total honor. You see the resources that NBC puts into it, and you see the great people that we have around, drumming around flashbacks from who-knows-where, and the analysts that we have that are spectacular on the whole—I grew up wanting to do radio, because I love words, and I love describing things. But the teamwork that TV can provide when you have a high-level group is just different.
