It turns out the White Sox do listen to their fans.
The Sox sought a McKnight in shining armor to improve a TV broadcast that sunk in popularity with first-year play-by-play voice John Schriffen. They didn’t have to look far.
Connor McKnight was sitting in their flagship radio station’s studio, doing yeoman’s work for four years on ESPN 1000’s pre- and postgame and “White Sox Weekly” shows. Now he’ll work for the Sox and appear on their new home, Chicago Sports Network, as a team insider and field reporter. He also will fill in on play-by-play for TV and radio broadcasts.
“I’ll be wearing a lot of different hats, and I’m pretty excited about that,” McKnight told the Sun-Times. “I like the vision that CHSN and [Sox senior vice president] Brooks Boyer and [director of broadcasting] Cris Quintana and those attached to creating White Sox broadcasts have for me.”
“Connor has built a reputation across the Chicago sports-media industry as a high-caliber talent whose hard work is only matched by his passion for the game of baseball,” said Boyer, the Sox’ chief revenue and marketing officer. “Throughout his time working with the White Sox, he’s built strong relationships with the team and also with Sox fans. His contributions as part of our coverage team going forward will add a new layer of storytelling and information to White Sox game telecasts.”
The broadcasts need the boost. Last July, Schriffen and analyst Steve Stone rated as the most disliked local MLB broadcast in sports-media website Awful Announcing’s fan voting. That was more disparaging to Schriffen than Stone, who’s the saving grace of the booth.
McKnight, who also has worked at The Score, WGN-AM and WLS-AM, was one of three finalists to replace the popular Jason Benetti last year, along with Will Flemming, who returned to the Red Sox, and Schriffen. McKnight was more than capable of handling play-by-play as a fill-in on the defunct NBC Sports Chicago and ESPN 1000.
“Play-by-play is a bug, and I’ve got it bad,” McKnight said. “I’ll be filling in for [Len Kasper and Darrin Jackson] whenever they miss some time on the radio side and filling in [for Schriffen and Stone] on the TV broadcast whenever that’s needed, as well.”
How often McKnight will fill in is uncertain. What is certain is the effect he’ll have on the broadcast. McKnight has a deep knowledge of the organization and a keen understanding of analytics. He said that’s an effective way to tell the story of a player, particularly for a rebuilding Sox team focused on projecting how its stable of prospects will fare in the big leagues.
“But it’s important to not just let the numbers tell you this guy can or can’t perform in the majors,” McKnight said. “We’ll bring perspective from Sox scouts and scouts across the league about who and how these prospects are going to be when they get to the big leagues.”
The question remains how many Sox fans will see McKnight. Comcast has yet to add CHSN, the home of the Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks, to its Xfinity cable system, which accounts for about 1 million customers in the Chicago market. CHSN is available on DirecTV satellite, RCN/Astound cable and streaming services DirecTV Stream and Fubo, as well as over the air.
“I have to echo the sentiments of people that have come on to the network over the last couple of months: It’s above my paygrade,” McKnight said. “I’m hopeful and excited about it. I think more than anything else, I know the product we’re going to put out there is going to be worthy of everyone watching.”
Team executives, coaches and players have expressed frustration with the lack of exposure. There’s hope that baseball, with its large inventory of games, will spark a deal by Opening Day. Comcast continues to move regional sports networks to its most expensive programming tier, and it recently drew attention for moving its own RSNs there, as well.
Perhaps CHSN and the Cubs’ Marquee Sports Network will make the leap simultaneously. Marquee has maintained carriage on Comcast’s middle tier with short-term extensions while its broadcast partner, Sinclair, negotiates for its other stations. Eventually, it will move to the highest tier, and CHSN will have to follow it to get on Comcast.
In the meantime, McKnight will be preparing for the season with a month to go before the Sox’ first spring-training game Feb. 22 (against the Cubs).
“Baseball has always been an enormous passion for me,” he said. “It’s really where my heart lies, and the ability for me to be closer to it and bring the game to our fans, it’s a dream. So to be able to do this now on a TV format, I see it as the next step. I’m overjoyed to be able to take this next adventure and stay here at home in a market like Chicago.”
Remote patrol
- CHSN will air live hits from the newlook SoxFest at Ramova Theatre during programming Friday evening.
- Prime Video will carry the newly named Stars’ NWSL season opener at 7 p.m. March 17 at Orlando.
- Mike Tirico will be NBC’s lead NBA play-by-play voice when the network begins coverage next season.