Jason Benetti was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a toddler. He grew up impersonating Chicago White Sox announcer Hawk Harrelson in his living room. Today, he's sitting in the legendary broadcaster's seat. (OnlyAGameNPR)
Jason Benetti remembers practicing to be a sports broadcaster when he was 12 years old, doing voice impressions of Harrelson."So I would play Madden or whatever baseball — Ken Griffey Jr. [Presents Major League] Baseball or whatever, NHL 94, like that sort of thing," Benetti recalls."And I would do play-by-play of the games while I was playing with my friends."just any other kid. Benetti was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a toddler.
Benetti graduated from high school in 2001 and continued his radio broadcasting career at Syracuse University. Before long, he was running Syracuse’s sports radio department.On the surface, everything was great. But Benetti's rise through the ranks also dug up some familiar issues. Benetti realized working in TV could help him get to the top, so he put aside his reservations about being in front of the camera — landing a part-time broadcaster job with ESPN in 2011. He started traveling the country to call college football games. His career was taking off, but he still had moments of frustration.
Harrelson was 74 years old at the time. As the 2015 MLB season wound down, reports trickled out that the long-time voice of the White Sox was scaling back his workload with retirement in sight. Despite being caught off-guard, Benetti felt good about the interview. But the team told him there was one big meeting needed to seal the deal.
"Like, the odds of that happening are so infinitesimally small, I get that," Benetti says."But the odds of Hawk remaining in the job and have me be the one to actually take over for him is — they're even smaller."
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