Connor McKnight will join the White Sox’ broadcasts on Chicago Sports Network this season, ending his four-year run as studio host on the team’s radio flagship, ESPN 1000.
McKnight, who becomes a Sox employee, will serve as the team insider, reporting from the field and appearing on CHSN shows. He also will fill in on play-by-play for TV and radio broadcasts.
“I’ll be weaning 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 executives] Brooks Boyer and Cris Quintana and those attached to creating White Sox broadcasts have for me.
“Play-by-play is a bug, and I’ve got it bad. I’ll be filling in for [Len Kasper and Darrin Jackson] whenever they miss some time on the radio side and filling [for John Schriffen and Steve Stone] on the TV broadcast whenever that’s needed, as well.”
McKnight was one of three finalists to replace former Sox TV voice Jason Benetti last year, along with Will Flemming, who returned to the Red Sox, and Schriffen. McKnight proved to be more than capable of handling play-by-play as a fill-in on NBC Sports Chicago and ESPN 1000.
He said Boyer, the Sox’ senior vice president and marketing officer, and Quintana, the team’s director of broadcasting, talked with him late last season about where he might contribute best to the broadcasts. McKnight has a keen knowledge of analytics that the Sox figure to use.
“I think the numbers of the game are a great way to tell a story,” he said. “I think, too, with the White Sox being so youth-focused, we’re seeing a revolution in the way the data sources tell you how to project some of these prospects.
“But it’s important to not just let the numbers tell you this guy can or can’t perform in the majors. 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 the games. Comcast has yet to add CHSN to its Xfinity cable system, which accounts for about 1 million customers in the Chicago market. The network is available on DirecTV satellite, RCN/Astound cable and streaming services DirecTV Stream and Fubo. It’s also available over the air via antenna.
“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.
“Baseball has always been an enormous passion for me. 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.”
McKnight is grateful for his time at ESPN 1000, which he joined when the station picked up the Sox’ rights in 2021. He had been let go by The Score during the pandemic in 2020 after co-hosting the midday show with Dan Bernstein for two years.
“Good Karma Brands and ESPN 1000 is the best place I’ve worked,” McKnight said. “It’s an incredible atmosphere, teammates up and down the board, and every time you go into another office and say, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about doing something like this,’ the response you get is, ‘Great, how can we help,’ not, ‘Cool, enjoy doing that on your show.”
McKnight has been in Chicago sports media since first joining The Score in 2009. He also has worked at The Game, a short-lived sports station, WGN-AM and WLS-AM, where he hosted Sox pregame and postgame shows. He expected to continue calling college baseball for the Big Ten Network this spring.