Chicago White Sox TV broadcaster John Schriffen continues feud with local sports talk station

Chicago White Sox television play-by-play announcer John Schriffen came into this job under tough circumstances.

He replaced the very popular Jason Benetti, who left the club for the Detroit Tigers gig because the organization grew tired of his national TV commitments. It was also reported that the owner did not like Jason's humor.

Schriffen has done some good things to ingrain himself with the White Sox audience by mingling with the fans at tailgates before games and leveraging Steve Stone, the best TV analyst in the game, during broadcasts.

He has made it hard on himself to win over everyone by having some cringe-worthy calls. He also has not played the local media game very well.

Most TV broadcasters create positive relationships with local sports radio stations and newspapers as the quid-pro-quo is they give free promotion in return for getting content. Plus, having the local radio and newspapers on your side usually provides grace when you screw up and the chance to have positive coverage.

John Schriffen has not done that at least with local sports talk station 670 the Score.

The Score may have started with the feud with the Parkins and Spiegel show being critical of how Schriffen mispronounced legendary former owner Bill Veeck's last name. Schriffen kept it going by calling them losers.

He certainly continued it with his recent take on a report the Parkins and Spiegel show had about the players not being pleased with manager Pedro Grifol.

At the heart of it, executive producer Shane Riordan reported that many players did not take kindly to manager Pedro Grifol's post-All-Star break speech along with making batting practice mandatory.

Grifol denied that he said he would refuse to take any blame if the team did finish with an all-time worst record in the 162-game era. However, Chicago Sun-Times beat reporter Daryl Van Schouwen did report players were not happy with the mandatory batting practice.

Gavin Sheets did go on record recently to say what Pedro said was taken out of context. That is why Schriffen took the opportunity on Sunday to hammer the Score for what they reported.

The Score has responded.

Whether you love the Score or hate the station, and the same goes for Schriffren, at least this is an interesting distraction from this 21-game losing streak.

This is not the first time a White Sox TV announcer has feuded with the Score. Hall of Famer Hawk Harrelson constantly feuded with host Terry Boers and Dan Bernstein.

Here is the catch, and Bernstein has always pointed that out: Harrelson was an accomplished big-league player before going into the booth, and Hawks also developed himself into a franchise icon before slinging arrows. Plus, Hawk became a passionate Sox fan. He scolded from a place of loving the team blindly.

Schriffen is scolding the Score out of what seems to be spite. Plus, he is not even close to reaching Hawk status.

Schriffen is in his first year on the job, where his lack of calling games already put his credentials into question. Hawk could afford to have a feud because he was on his way toward winning the Ford Frick Award. He did not need friends as he became mostly beloved by the fanbase by the time he kept going after Boers and Bernstein.

Schriffen is filling a job that not only Hawk did to get into the Hall of Fame, but so did Harry Caray. The Sox TV play-by-play job is an iconic role and Schriffen could use friends to help him get there instead of enemies.

However, he is broadcasting for an audience of one--owner Jerry Reinsdorf. It is well known that Jerry disdains the media, so as long as Jerry is happy, Schriffen does not need to care who he upsets.