What is the most unusual sporting event Jason Benetti ever had to broadcast?
The most unusual event Jason Benetti ever broadcast was the National Electrician's Championships. He handled play-by-play and post-production from a studio, with his analyst being Scott Karen — the electrician familiar to viewers of This Old House on Bob Vila's show. Benetti improvised the transition line "sparks will fly" going into a commercial break, only for an organizer's representative to pull him aside and explain that the phrase implied bad craftsmanship and could not be used.
The anecdote says everything about the breadth of work a broadcaster takes on before landing the big stages. Long before Benetti became the Sunday Night Baseball voice on NBC, he was doing the kind of live television where the rulebook for clever wordplay is written by the trade associations — not the production team. The "sparks will fly" moment is a small, perfect illustration of what it means to improvise in front of a microphone for a niche audience with very specific professional sensitivities.
Benetti shared this story during an interview with Peter Sagal on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, as part of a 2026 summer spectacular episode recorded at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago. Sagal explored Benetti's full origin story on the show — a career built one unconventional gig at a time. You can hear the full conversation on Listenly's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! page.
"As somebody with a mild case of cerebral palsy, the marching with the tuba that I selected as my instrument was a horrendous idea."
— Jason Benetti, on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!About Jason Benetti
Jason Benetti
Play-by-play announcer, Sunday Night Baseball · NBC
Former announcer, Detroit Tigers & Chicago White Sox
Jason Benetti grew up in Chicago and discovered broadcasting almost by accident. He has a mild case of cerebral palsy, which made marching in the high school band with a tuba — his chosen instrument — completely impractical. His band director at Homewood Flossmoor High School ultimately solved the problem by putting him behind a microphone to announce the band's set, planting the seed for an entire career. He pursued the craft seriously at Syracuse University, going on air at the student radio station in 2003 — the same institution that trained Bob Costas, Marv Albert, and Sean McDonough — and his very first on-air lead-in was the NPR News with Carl Castle. He spent years as the play-by-play voice of the Chicago White Sox, then moved to the Detroit Tigers, and in 2026 made the move to national television as the play-by-play announcer for Sunday Night Baseball on NBC. His path from a high school sideline microphone to NBC's premier baseball broadcast — with stops including the National Electrician's Championships — is one of the more unconventional origin stories in sports broadcasting.
See also
-
What was Jason Benetti's connection to NPR early in his broadcasting career?
The student radio station at Syracuse University, where famous sportscasters like Bob Costas, Marv Albert, and Sean McDonough came through, was an NPR station — giving Benetti a direct connection to public radio at the very start of his career.
-
How did Jason Benetti first get behind a microphone as a broadcaster?
Jason Benetti has a mild case of cerebral palsy, which made marching in the band impractical. After failing as drum major and then marching in place on the sideline, his band director put him behind a microphone to announce the band's set — and that was the beginning of everything.
-
What roles has Sally Field played that illustrate the range of her acting career?
Sally Field has played both Gidget and Mary Todd Lincoln, illustrating an extraordinary range across her 60-plus-year career. She also starred as a flying nun, among many other memorable roles.