The White Sox Will Be Announcing Simulated Games And It Could Be Hilarious
Starting today the Chicago White Sox will be simulating a game every week on Playstation's MLB The Show with actual Sox play-by-play guy Jason Benetti and White Sox pre-game host Chuck Garfien announcing the game. We happen to think this is pretty cool, but we know what some you might be thinking. "Baseball is already the most boring sport in the world. Now you expect me to watch when a computer is playing it?" Yes, we do, because even if you aren't a fan of baseball or even video games, we guarantee you'll be a fan of two professional baseball commentators trying to make sense of this:
The beauty of video games, no matter how polished or smooth, is that they will inevitably have glitches. That Chuck Garfien and Jason Benetti are tasked with calling the game under the auspices of reality means they are essentially acting as the perfect comedic straight men. Couple this with imperfect video game logic, unexpected glitches, and what amounts to be a middling White Sox roster, and you have the makings of what could be comedy gold.
Seriously, what are they supposed to say when something like this happens?
The center fielder didn't just have a mental lapse right there. He had an on-field aneurism. Imagine Chuck Garfien trying to explain that away as early-season jitters. Or how about this one where Wilson Ramos pulls the ball a good twenty yards left of the foul pole and it gets called for a home run.
If such a call were made in real life, fans would demand the immediate firing and or/ seppuku of that umpire. And frankly the honorable thing for him to do would be to grant them that wish. Are you going to be able to keep a straight face when Jason Benetti rationalizes that call as a cheating scandal akin to last year's Houston Astros? We won't. We'll be laughing our ballpark franks off.
Hopefully every team comes around to such enlightenment and beings live broadcasting simulated games, but until that time, you can watch the virtual White Sox at 2:00 PM CT on NBCSportsChicago.com, the "MyTeams by NBC Sports" app and YouTube.com/NBCSportsChicago.
Dan Duddy loves a good video game stream. One of his favorites is a Madden franchise run by MrHurricane, if you're into that sort of thing.
Top image: MLB The Show via Gamespot
