Pedro Grifol and three of his coaches left quietly last week after Chicago White Sox general manager Chris Getz fired them.
Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who had final approval, said goodbye to a man who has praised him so much over the last two years it became embarrassing to listen to the serial bootlicking.
But firing Grifol and the coaches whose names you’ve probably already forgotten in the final stages of this sinking ship of a season won’t improve the product enough for Sox fans to start caring about it now.
With the New York Yankees coming to town Monday, the ones who remain on board will be showing up or tuning in to watch stars Aaron Judge and Juan Soto and to dream of having a team of their own trying to win on an annual basis like the hated Yankees.
They know it’s a pipe dream, of course. But maintaining those fans who are still clinging to the idea of better days ahead should be the primary objective of Sox upper management over these final weeks.
Grifol’s departure was long in coming, and whether it’s a blip or not, the energy at Sox Park on Friday and Saturday in the City Series was palpable. No one expects this team to magically start winning, but they’d like to see a team that looks like it’s truly upset about losing.
Grady Sizemore might not be the answer, but at least he’s trying to change the perception of a team that seems resigned to its place in baseball immortality.
Change for change’s sake can sometimes be good.
Which leads us to the elephant in the Zoom room: What can the Sox do about John Schriffen?
If history is any guideline, the answer is “nothing.” This is the organization that brought back Terry Bevington, the least popular manager in modern Sox history, and the one that canceled SoxFest. Audibles aren’t its strength.
Schriffen, the rookie play-by-play man, has two years left on a deal that hasn’t worked out as the Sox expected, to put it mildly. Hiring an unknown with no experience as the voice of a major-league team was an inherent risk. But who knew replacing Jason Benetti on the Sox broadcasts would be as nightmarish as replacing Phil Jackson with Tim Floyd after Michael Jordan’s retirement in 1998?
As you recall, then-Bulls general manager Jerry Krause desperately wanted to move on from his popular coach, Jackson, to hire old pal Floyd. It was chronicled in “The Last Dance,” which everyone saw during the pandemic.
Fast-forward to 2023: Neither Sox marketing boss Brooks Boyer nor Reinsdorf was a fan of Benetti’s wry game-calling style, which tended to include pop-culture references, playful insults with partner Steve Stone and joking around during dull moments of the game. Feeling unwanted and disrespected, Benetti left for the Detroit Tigers’ opening, giving up a dream job from his childhood days.
The common denominator in those two moves is Reinsdorf, who allowed Jackson and Benetti to leave and replaced them with untested talent. Floyd lasted into his fourth season before being let go. Can Schriffen survive through 2026?
Aside from Schriffen’s seemingly obsessive need to popularize a catchphrase (“South Side, stand up!”) and his growling like a carnivore on Luis Robert Jr. home run calls and his apparent refusal to learn the basics of White Sox history from the pre-Frank Thomas era and his sugarcoating of a team on pace to finish as the worst in major-league history, it’s his ongoing feud with WSCR-670 AM that has become most untenable.
The vast majority of viewers either don’t know about his beef with the Score or don’t care, yet he continues to bring it up, months after rants on “haters” and “radio losers.” It’s telling that no one in Boyer’s department has told him to tone it down.
The game itself is what Sox fans tune in for, not Schriffen and his grievances. During the final inning at the end of the Sox’s American League record-tying 21-game losing streak in Oakland, Calif., Schriffen told partner Gordon Beckham “I need” the win.
Beckham facetiously asked Schriffen if he was going to go down to the clubhouse after the win and celebrate with the players. Beckham was joking, of course. But anyone who has watched Sox telecasts all season had to wonder if that’s what Schriffen planned to do.
His “We ain’t taking that!” rant during Tommy Pham’s brouhaha with Milwaukee Brewers catcher William Contreras in early June has not entirely faded from the memory banks. Schriffen is the only play-by-play man in the game who pretends he’s part of the actual team.
So do the Sox thank Schriffen for his hard work and effort and part ways after the season? Is a new play-by-play man necessary for a fresh start for the organization in 2025, when a new manager will be in place, presumably accompanied by several new players?
Based on many years of observing White Sox management, my guess is he’ll be safe at home for at least one more year.
So, stand up, South Side. Or remain seated. It probably doesn’t matter.
The song remains the same.
