Jason Benetti will be away from the booth for some additional time.
The White Sox announced this afternoon that television play-by-play voice will miss the team’s upcoming broadcasts after a break-through positive test for COVID-19. Benetti, who most recently announced the Olympic semifinals and finals for NBC in Tokyo, is currently recovering at his home in Chicago.
After the announcement, Benetti took to Twitter with a rather positive message. Despite being mildly symptomatic, he managed to poke fun at the situation while saying he hopes to return soon.
In his place, Mike Monaco will join Steve Stone in the booth for the foreseeable future. The play-by-play announcer has worked for ESPN and its ACC Network, as well as called action as the fill-in play-by-play announcer for the Boston Red Sox on NESN.
The team says it’s still unclear how many games the vaccinated Benetti will miss, though it will likely be for the next couple of series.
Featured Photo: White Sox/Twitter
Jason Benetti isn’t the first person involved with the Tokyo Olympics to test positive for COVID-19 despite the banning of spectators at the games. This just points to the highly contagious Delta variant(s) that doesn’t seem to care whether a host has received a vaccine or not. It wasn’t made clear in the article that Benetti actually received a vaccine although one would guess that he would have had one with an underlying respiratory disease as a preemie that resulted in his cerebral palsy diagnosis as a toddler. His occupation and the fact that he was also traveling abroad should have also made him a prime candidate for a vaccination. If Benetti did have one, he’ll at least have the advantage of fending off the virus and likely not wind up in the ER or in the ICU. Either way, here’s hoping for a speedy recovery to the young voice of the White Sox who has become quite the inspiration for all of us, particularly to those who have had to deal with a severe handicap.