Detroit Tigers fans have had the misfortune of having to endure rain delays or outright postponements in each of the last three days. But to the credit of the team’s broadcasters, they have found a way to keep the rain delays interesting with the use of social media.
Over the past few days, Tigers broadcasters have responded to fan questions on X by using the hashtag “raindelayquestions”, discussing everything from how Jason Benetti landed the lead play-by-play job for the Tigers to who was the best fit for Jim in the hit sitcom, The Office over the past few days.
Friday’s game between the Tigers and the Tampa Bay Rays featured a delayed start time. So naturally, we at Awful Announcing offered our own question for Jason Benetti, Daniella Bruce, and Dan Petry in the booth regarding which character from the HBO drama White Lotus best matched their own personality.
The question was acknowledged by the Tigers broadcast team. And while Dan Petry quickly disqualified himself from the conversation since he hadn’t seen the show yet, both Bruce and Benetti took a while to think about the question.
Benetti, as he typically does, answered the question with a story, explaining how he was told by a friend prior to binge-watching the series that he reminded them of a group of three women in Season 3 of the show who go by Kate Bohr, Laurie Duffy, and Jaclyn Lemon.
“So, I got into White Lotus very late,” admitted Benetti. “Season 3 had started, and I had not seen any episodes of any of the first two seasons. And I just jammed through it at the end of college basketball season. Like I prep, and I just watch a season. That’s what I do when I’m doing notes for a game, I watch television. I have to rewatch because I miss stuff. So I have to think about character names.
“I get a call from one of my college roommates, and he says ‘I’ve got to tell you, you and a couple of our friends are in White Lotus Season 3.’ He’s like ‘Yeah, they kinda remind me of you and a couple of people. You gotta watch it.’ So, I ran through Season 1, ran through Season 2, and I get to Season 3. And I’m like, who could it be in the first episode? And I’m like ‘Oh, it’s the three friends, the three women, who are all jealous of each other and talk behind each other’s back.’ So I was like, ‘Dude, that’s awful.’
“And then he called me back at the end of the season and said, ‘Yeah, it’s not actually you. It’s just one of our other friends.’ I’m like kind of Kate. And he was like, ‘Maybe, I don’t know.’ So, yeah. Evidently, in college, we had a little mean girls thing going on at the college radio station.”
Meanwhile, Daniella Bruce couldn’t settle on anyone she related to from the show, as most of the characters are indeed pretty awful people. But Jason Benetti didn’t let her off the hook, picking a character that he believes she most resembled.
“It is a really really bad thing for me to answer that question,” said Benetti. “But I would say Parker Posey from Season 3, the mom. But she is not as aware as you are. But she is unintentionally funny, really caring. But she’s also, one of the least mean people in the show. So I select that in an effort to not get that look.”
“She might be nicer than me,” joked Bruce.
Say what you will about Benetti’s answers for both himself and his colleague. But at least fans got to know everyone in the Tigers broadcast booth on a personal level a little bit more during the delay, which in total lasted around 50 minutes from the original 7:05 PM EST scheduled first pitch time.