I’m telling you, Detroit is going to love Detroit Tigers' new broadcaster Jason Benetti

About 30 minutes into a video conference call with Jason Benetti — the Detroit Tigers' new play-by-play announcer on Bally Sports Detroit — I found myself thinking, I don’t want this to end. I could just sit here and listen to this guy all day.

Benetti was smart and humble, funny and reflective, emotional and entertaining, seamlessly telling stories and casually dropping concise observations and making jokes, all while being so likeable, leading only to this conclusion: Tigers fans are gonna love him.

“Jason, I feel a bit like Chris Farley in the old SNL sketch just to kind of say, I'm a big fan and nothing else to follow up on,’” Brad Galli, the sports director at Chanel 7-WXYZ, said.

Without missing a beat — without hesitation — Benetti played along.

“Do you want me to do like a Paul McCartney impression or something like that?” Benetti said with a laugh. “ 'Do you remember the time we were on Zoom together?' ”

The guy is a natural.

Benetti, who spent the past eight seasons with the Chicago White Sox, replaces Matt Shepard. The Tigers haven't announced who will work as the color analyst.

“We were looking for somebody who can take our broadcast to the next level,” said Ryan Gustafson, executive vice president of Ilitch Sports and Entertainment.  “Jason's a world class talent, there's no doubt about that.”

This hire says everything

This seems bigger and more important than hiring a TV announcer.

Because of what it represents.

The Tigers can talk about the quest for excellence. They can talk about upgrading their front office and improving the analytics department and making all kinds of changes in how they train prospects and improving the clubhouse and improving the facilities in Lakeland, Florida, and getting a new team plane and controlling the strike zone.

But it’s hard for the average fan to see the improvement, to judge it other than by wins and losses.

But this?

This was massive.

The Tigers swung for the fences and hit a home run — in November. They went after one of the best in the business and got him to leave his hometown — got him to leave his “dream job” — and that says everything about what this organization is trying to do.

More than anything, this is a concrete example of how Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris is trying to improve every aspect of the organization.

Benetti could sense that philosophy — that overriding quest — and it actually sold him on Detroit.

“In the interview process, I felt and I knew — it wasn't just a feeling — I knew that I was surrounded by people who want to be so extraordinarily great and forward-thinking and do this in a smart, analytical way,” Benetti said. “That is just beyond the scope of anything I would have expected in terms of what they also want from their television announcer….

“They want somebody who's going to think about the game from all facets, who is going to have a good time every once in a while, whose dad jokes will be terrible and frequent.”

Which only sparked another round of jokes.

“These dad jokes you speak of, what are those exactly? I wouldn't have any idea,” deadpanned Bally Sports host John Keating.

“Oh, my goodness,” Benetti said.

“I’m kidding,” Keating laughed.

“I have a friend who says to me, 'If words didn't have multiple definitions, you wouldn't be funny at all,' ” Benetti said. “And so that's what we're talking about here.”

It was lighthearted and quick-witted and, well, just refreshing.

A creative move

Benetti was born and raised in the Chicago area, and that fact that the Tigers were able to pry him out of the Windy City says everything.

He said it wasn't about money. But I have to believe the Tigers forked over some serious cash to get him.

“I'm never gonna not have Chicago in my heart because I love it,” Benetti. “But I love the people that brought me here. And I know, the sensibility of Detroit — I know, I know. I know, we're gonna get along well.”

There was another side of this that I found interesting: The Tigers made this hire by being creative.

Benetti is more than a local, baseball-only broadcaster. He is a national talent.

But the Tigers found a way to hire Benetti while also allowing him to continue to do Fox's national baseball broadcasts, as well as college football and college basketball.

Benetti will call at least 127 games a year for the Tigers, and when he is off doing national broadcasts, the Tigers will bring Dan Dickerson from the radio to the TV side — hallelujah.

That’s like bringing one superstar off the bench to replace another.

The fact that the Tigers were able to find such a creative solution says everything.

It all started with a new way of approaching broadcasting. Ilitch Sports and Entertainment has formed a new communications and broadcasting department, and the search for a new broadcaster was led by Senior Vice President Ron Colangelo and director Ben Fidelman with input from Bally.

“Sometimes you show up at a place and you say, 'Oh my gosh, this is right,' ” Benetti said. “And I can't believe it's right. Because I'm leaving home. Please don't underestimate how much I have to feel this to leave there.”

A Detroit mentality

There is one other side to the Benetti story. He was born with cerebral palsy, and maybe, he suggested, that helps him understand Detroiters.

“This is from a distance, right?” Benetti said. “And so I don't want to make a generalization. But part of my life has been, I am somebody who does not walk like the average human being, I have an eye that drifts, I have cerebral palsy, like, that is part of me. And I quite often get reactions that are not completely representative of who I am as a full person. I'm physically different. But mentally I can hold a conversation. And so I do think I get underestimated sometimes. And not to say it with a chip on my shoulder, but that's just the way life works. Like, sometimes people think I can't do stuff.

“And from a distance — again, gross generalization alarm going off — but from a distance, I think that's how Detroit gets treated. I think quite often, Detroit is not known for its passionate fans or what it's done for the music industry. I think people reduce Detroit to a couple of statistics. And I don't like seeing people and the whole place get reduced to anything. I know how much people care and I know like how much people here want to just matter and be seen for what they are, and not some overgeneralization. So for me, as I've thought about this, that is where we link up and that is why, you know, they'll make the decision on me. I can't say we're going to be the best of friends right away, because that's super-presumptuous of me. But that's where I think Detroit and I really get along.”

Man, this guy is something.

I'm telling you, Detroit is going to love him.

Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers hit a home run with Jason Benetti announcer hire