O'Donnell: Benetti's sudden South Side farewell brings back memories of Jim Durham
WHEN JASON BENETTI TOLD JERRY REINSDORF to take his White Sox TV job and shove it this week, somewhere the spirit of Jim Durham was chortling.
Durham was the global-class, Hall of Fame broadcaster who was abruptly disconnected from the Bulls after the first Michael Jordan championship in June 1991.
The micro rift was actually between Darcy Bouzeos, Durham's green-bean agent, and Steve Schanwald, the Bulls' fussy VP of marketing & broadcasting.
But the directly damaged were Durham - with 18 seasons already in his NBA Chicago kitty at age 44 - and Bulls fans, who quite rightfully embraced the game caller's ambient audio authority and style.
While Bouzeos and Schanwald were busy flinging their KinderCare snack packs, where was Reinsdorf?
Chair Jer' had just finalized a sweetheart deal for a new Sox ballpark and was well on his way to being the primary mover behind the privately financed United Center.
And he couldn't step in and mediate a flash flood between two negotiating neophytes to save the iconic presence of Durham for Jordan and the Bulls?
BENETTI DEPARTS A SOX FRANCHISE with prospects far less golden than what was taken away from Durham.
Neil Funk got to call the final five Jordan titles. These days, that'd be like hearing that Nathan Peterman will be starting for somebody at QB next February in Super Bowl 58.
The White Sox would be an overwhelming civic embarrassment if it weren't for the Sammy Maudlin soap opera doing business as the Chicago Bears.
At Dunk Tank Chicago, it's hard to say whose platform would draw a more expensive toss fee - Reinsdorf or George McCaskey.
McCaskey, at heart, is really a place-holding mannequin who probably needs a mirror to practice looking stern. Reinsdorf is a former IRS auditor with a law degree and an audacious business imagination, now analogous in autumnal arc to King Edward "Longshanks" in "Braveheart."
FOR BENETTI, HIS MOVE TO THE TIGERS is swift and smart. His departure further weakens a Chicago sports media generally more lamblike than anything Dr. Hannibal Lecter ever envisioned.
His relentless deadpans and deep-cut trivia were not for everyone. But game after game, he did the impossible - he lent pace and spark to the self-satisfying mechanics of Steve Stone.
This past season, until early checkout in August, he also made the telecasts of a 101-loss South Side snooze crew even reasonably watchable.
A GRAND IRONY WOULD BE if Benetti returns a few seasons down the road as the No. 1 TV voice of the Cubs. Currently, listening to Boog Sciambi and Jim Deshaies - or whomever - is like toasting Thanksgiving with a snifter of Listerine Classic.
With Grade-A intellectual energy, Benetti elevates any broadcast situation he walks into.
In that sense, he sails the same rare airwaves as Durham.
Only unlike Durham, Benetti didn't hang around to let an organization's teeming toxicity suddenly move to take him down.
Instead, he's headed for the echoey night moves of Detroit.
That's more than enough of an early-withdrawal penalty.
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WHEN CRAIG COUNSELL IS PRESENTED as the new manager of the Cubs Monday, the first media question should be right down the pipe:
"Craig, $40 million, you've got to be droppin' 'em. And you don't manage winners in October. What's that all about, bro'? A lot of novenas up at Our Lady of Summerfest?"
Counsell's base path to Wrigley riches is filled with tales of roads taken. An early one led him to the cheer, cheers of old Notre Dame - and longtime associate Pat Murphy.
Murphy is the 64-year-old bench coach of the Brewers. Some say he's in the running to succeed Counsell, 53, in Milwaukee. Much more likely is that he follows the yellow brick road down I-94 to Clark and Addison.
THE COUNSELL-MURPHY CONNECTION has been steeped in timely green fortune.
It began in the spring of 1988, when Counsell was finishing a solid career at Whitefish Bay High School with few college scholarship offers. Murphy was completing his first spring as head coach of the Fighting Irish.
John Counsell - the manager's father - played at Notre Dame from 1960-64. Following four years deep in the Twins organization, he returned to ND as an assistant coach. A good pal became Roger Validiserri, the university's mythic director of sports information.
In 1979, Counsell moved on to become director of the Brewers speakers bureau. Nine years later, he called Valdiserri looking for some way to get his son on Murphy's radar.
VALDISERRI SPOKE TO his rookie baseball coach and found out he was going to take a scholarly look at Sal Bando Jr. before an exhibition event at Milwaukee's old County Stadium. Murphy told Valdiserri to tell the Counsells to be there with Craig ready to swing and sway.
A short while later, Counsell had a partial freshman ride to Notre Dame baseball - a $750 tuition credit.
But it was an opening.
Now, $40 million later, he's the fresh prince of Wrigley Field - where Cubs fans can only hope the October ivy once again meets the lucky charms.
• Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Thursday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.