Chicago White Sox TV play-by-play broadcaster John Schriffen has been involved in several public feuds over the course of his tenure. And briefly, it appeared as if some dismissive comments toward Fox Sports and Peacock MLB analyst Rob Friedman on Tuesday night may lead to another adversary in sports media for Schriffen.
Friedman, who is perhaps better known by some for his presence on social media as the “Pitching Ninja,” has become an incredibly popular account amongst baseball fans on for his videos where he analyzes pitchers that have unique arm angles or movement on their pitches.
During Tuesday’s game, White Sox on-field reporter Brooke Fletcher brought up how a number of pitchers have actually used Friedman’s social media account to try and experiment with new pitching techniques.
But instead of speaking favorably of Friedman’s work, Schriffen largely dismissed Friedman as a source of knowledge for players, which the Pitching Ninja took notice of.
“Pitching Ninja is a real thing,” said Schriffen. “He’s become very popular. But if that’s how you want to find some info, go for it. It won’t be my source…”
Notably, the Pittsburgh Pirates broadcast on Tuesday night had a very different view on the work Friedman does, with Pirates relief pitcher Justin Lawrence and SportsNet Pittsburgh on-field reporter Hannah Mears discussing their love for Friedman’s account.
Initially, it appeared as if Schriffen was, intentionally or not, throwing a bit of a dig at Friedman. But in a follow-up post on Tuesday, Friedman detailed how Schriffen actually apologized privately for how his comments came across on-air, detailing how he meant that he simply isn’t on social media anymore.
“For the record, John Schriffen apologized to me,” wrote Friedman. “He meant nothing by it other than that he doesn’t use Twitter/X any longer… And he said he was a big fan. He said it just came out awkwardly.”
Whether you believe that Schriffen was intentionally trying to downplay Friedman’s work or not, it’s certainly a plus that this seems to have just been a misunderstanding of what Schriffen meant. Especially considering Schriffen’s debut season in the White Sox booth last year was marred by a lengthy feud with numerous personalities at 670 The Score.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.