CHICAGO — The Detroit Tigers released a statement Wednesday saying they were “incredibly proud” of announcer Jason Benetti being named the new voice of NBC’s “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcasts.

In only 10 years, the Homewood-Flossmoor graduate has gone from budding Chicago White Sox play-by-play man to the top of the business, landing one of the most coveted announcing jobs in sports.

“This recognition reflects his exceptional broadcasting talent, tireless commitment to excellence, and engaging personality, all of which combine to make him a premier storyteller across all of sports,” the Tigers statement said.

This is great news for baseball fans and a brilliant move by NBC, which also recently hired ex-Cub Anthony Rizzo to be part of its pregame shows. The only thing that would make Wednesday’s announcement better would be if Bill Walton were still alive to join Benetti in the booth on occasion, as he did for a Sox game in 2019.

Benetti wasn’t sure what to expect from Walton but told me beforehand: “I’m not going to have the media-room brownies, is my guess.”

Benetti survived without experiencing any high anxiety, and the broadcast was as weird and full of non sequiturs as you’d expect.

In a nice twist, NBC won’t have a regular sidekick for Benetti like most national broadcasts. Instead, he’ll be paired with analysts from the teams playing that night. That means we could see a reunion of Benetti and former partner Steve Stone, assuming the Sox are competitive enough to merit a spot on “Sunday Night Baseball.”

If it wasn’t clear by now, it’s safe to say letting Benetti leave the Sox TV booth in 2024 was the organization’s biggest mistake since letting Harry Caray depart for WGN-Ch. 9 and the Cubs in 1982. Like Benetti, Caray felt the Sox disrespected him and left a job and fan base he loved when the team moved from free TV to their pay-TV channel, SportsVision.

The Sox still haven’t learned their lesson, as evidenced by the recent separation with Hall of Fame slugger Frank Thomas. And if you want to go back a few decades, you can add Carlton Fisk, who was ripped by Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf in 1993 when Fisk balked at signing a minor league deal. “He’s 45 years old; it’s time he grew up,” Reinsdorf told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I’m sick and tired of him acting like a baby. He believes he has been mistreated, but nobody has ever been catered to here more than Carlton Fisk. He’s a prima donna. He must think he’s Michael Jackson.”

The Sox, you may recall, didn’t like Benetti missing some games for national TV assignments. Vice president Brooks Boyer reportedly made some harsh comments to Benetti that belittled him, so Benetti waved goodbye to his hometown and the team he grew up rooting for as a boy in Homewood.

The Tigers allowed him to miss 35 games for national assignments for Fox, and now that he’s with NBC will let him do likewise for “Game of the Week” broadcasts. Why would you not want your own announcer to be recognized by a national audience?

There were also stories about Reinsdorf not being amused by the wise-cracking or esoteric commentary by Benetti during play-by-play, as if baseball were a deadly serious sport that should be treated with more dignity. Benetti did it his way and never wavered in his beliefs.

Admittedly, some of the stuff went over my head, too, like in a game in 2021 when he watched Sox closer Liam Hendriks get upset on the mound over a bad call. “And Liam looks back in anger,” he quipped.

Only after I thought about it did I realize it was a subtle nod to Oasis, the band led by Liam and Noel Gallagher, and its hit “Don’t look back in Anger.”

Too obscure? Maybe. But it’s only baseball.

During a college basketball game I was watching in 2022, the score was 54-40, which led Benetti to head into the commercial break announcing it was “54-40 or fight” for the trailing team. It was vaguely familiar, and a little googling reminded me it was a famous slogan of a territorial dispute in the Pacific Northwest in the 1840s. Kudos to the H-F history teacher who stuck that in his head, and to Benetti for having the confidence to bring up an obscure factoid of American history in the middle of a basketball game.

Both of those calls elicited a time-release chuckle, which often happened when someone with Benetti’s intelligence and quick wit was behind the mic.

Calling the game is the most important thing, of course, and he’s very good at that. But making a viewer laugh isn’t such a bad thing, and during that miserable 2023 season, he and Stone were the only reasons to watch the Sox.

Caray went on to become a national icon when he left the Sox for the Cubs, and Benetti is seemingly headed in the same direction. At age 42, he’s already at the top of the ladder, so who knows what else is in store for his career?

Whenever I’d see him at the ballpark I’d ask about the “Curse of Jason Benetti,” which I admittedly made up during the record-setting 121-loss season in 2024.

“This has nothing to do with me leaving,” he repeatedly said.

Maybe not, but everything has certainly gone right for Benetti since leaving Chicago, proving the grass is sometimes greener on the other side after all.

No doubt Walton is smiling from on high.

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