![]() ![]() “Better late than never” truly defined Dick Allen’s baseball life. And into this cesspool stepped Hemond along with new field manager Chuck Tanner when they were hired in September 1970. Anything and everything that could go wrong for the White Sox did. The Sox would even lose their radio station and have to broadcast games starting in 1971 on two small outlets in LaGrange and Evanston, Illinois. ![]() In 19, owner Art Allyn was playing a portion of his home games in Milwaukee trying the market to see if it would accept a move of the franchise from the South Side. In 1969 for example the team drew, for the season, only 589,000… even that would fall to a paltry 495,000 in 1970. Fans were staying away in droves because the area was supposedly in a bad neighborhood. Comiskey Park was falling apart from disrepair. The Sox were on their way to a franchise record 106 loss season in 1970. He faced challenges no other individual who held the position of player personnel director/G.M. When Hemond took over the organization the franchise was literally in shambles. ![]() in the history of the organization and I mean no disrespect to others who also deserve consideration for that title…men like Frank “Trader” Lane, Ed Short, Ron Schueler or Kenny Williams. It is not a job for the faint of heart or for those who don’t have the experience of upper management. He also has to balance in his head the roles of economics, baseball rules, the player’s union, dealing with the media and thousands of other things on a daily basis. He is the person directly responsible for acquiring and evaluating talent needed to win games at the big-league level. The role of a general manager cannot be understated. Roland and I had spoken a lot over the years and as I explain later in this tribute to him, he was always a man of his word. I knew Roland had been ill for the past few years but still to actually find out that he had passed was jarring and sad. ![]() Word came to me on Monday afternoon that Roland Hemond, a friend and former executive with the White Sox had passed away at the age of 92. Soon after his July 2003 death, I added Vince Lloyd at the last moment to my “Where Have All Our Cubs Gone?” book, published in 2005, as a means to remember him. But the Ford Frick Award, baseball’s highest honor for an announcer, seemed beyond Lloyd’s reach posthumously. I committed to the concept to garner honors and recognition for Vince, probably underrated during his prime since Brickhouse had the highest regional profile as Cubs TV play-by-play with the most games on video in the majors. I cherished Vince’s good fellowship and support of my career in his later life, after he had served as a youthful soundtrack of summers as he did for several million Midwest listeners as a verbally animated Cubs radio voice. A year and a half later, the man born Vince Lloyd Skaff in South Dakota in 1917 also was consigned to fond remembrance, his stout heart, trademark baritone voice and old Marine Corps toughness unable to outlast cancer at 86. Nothing is forever except friendship and great memories. “They were my friends,” Lloyd said, looking up. That’s how connected the WGN boys were through what Brickhouse called “80-hour work weeks” and rotating poker games at the sports staff’s homes. Talking about Brickhouse, Vince said he had a telling feeling that Jack had died earlier that day, before he heard the news. Back in 1998, Jack Brickhouse and Harry Caray passed away. The previous year, Lloyd’s old WGN comrades-in-arms-Lou Boudreau and Arne Harris had died. NBC Sports named Jason as the play-by-play announcer for the 2020 Summer Olympics.Vince Lloyd, depicted at Comiskey Park, in 1964 (Image courtesy Tribune Content Agency). Jason Benetti had his life-changing breakthrough when he signed a multi-year extension with ESPN, and during that year called Korea Baseball Organization games remotely for the network due to the COVID-19-induced delay of the 2020 Major League Baseball season. Having a span of 11 years as a broadcaster, Jason Benetti worked with the likes of ESPN as the main announcer for ESPN’s alternate “StatCast” telecasts, Fox Sports, Westwood One, and Time Warner. He has also been the alternative play-by-play announcer of the Chicago Bulls for NBC Sports Chicago. Benetti had an interest in broadcasting since 2016 were started as the television play-by-play voice of Chicago White Sox baseball. Jason Benetti is an American sportscaster born on September 9, 1983. Chicago White Sox TV And Radio Broadcasters 2022 Jason Benetti Jason Benetti Since its inception, the team has had lots of TV And Radio Broadcasters including Hal Totten, Bob Elson, Jack Brickhouse, Harry Caray, Ralph Kiner, and others serving the radio side and Jack Drees, Mel Parnell, Dave Martin, Billy Pierce, and others serving the television side. ![]()
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