Minnesota Sports Forum

Sad day by Ballys. Terrible company anyways and terrible decision

Ok there has certainly been some times I roll my eyes at Benz but he also had a certain exuberance about life that was endearing which was one of many positive sides of him. I know he did a lot of work speaking to players and coaches getting info just being around the game. He will land on his feet and find work elsewhere. On the whole I really enjoyed the 10 years he was here. It will be interesting to see who they replace him. I do hope they get someone better but the bar is fairly high IMHO. I appreciate him being with us doing a good job calling games for some mostly awful years of Timberwolves basketball.

monsterpile wrote:Ok there has certainly been some times I roll my eyes at Benz but he also had a certain exuberance about life that was endearing which was one of many positive sides of him. I know he did a lot of work speaking to players and coaches getting info just being around the game. He will land on his feet and find work elsewhere. On the whole I really enjoyed the 10 years he was here. It will be interesting to see who they replace him. I do hope they get someone better but the bar is fairly high IMHO. I appreciate him being with us doing a good job calling games for some mostly awful years of Timberwolves basketball.

For a person who listened to a lot of away broadcasts when in college. Wolves fans were spoiled compared to what other teams have to listen to

I couldn't agree with you guys any more. I wasn't so sure about Benz in his first couple seasons, but he really grew on me. I loved his exuberance, but also appreciated that he wasn't always a homer. He really developed a great rapport with Jim Pete over the years. Who knows...maybe Bally's will find a replacement whom I like even better, but that won't diminish the appreciation I developed for Benz over the years.

Was there a reason given why he was let go? I liked him too. I do think sometimes J-Pete would respond to some of Benz's takes with "huh?" type incredulity and it sometimes came off as a bit rude, but that's on him, not Benzie. But most of the time they indeed seemed to have really good chemistry.

Q-was-here wrote:Was there a reason given why he was let go? I liked him too. I do think sometimes J-Pete would respond to some of Benz's takes with "huh?" type incredulity and it sometimes came off as a bit rude, but that's on him, not Benzie. But most of the time they indeed seemed to have really good chemistry.

They opted out of his contact stating "wanting a fresh start". Rumors are a streaming service is coming for 20$ a month you can watch local MN sports

Really? That's sad.

I watch games on League Pass, and I often choose the other team's announcers during road games, mostly because I like hearing how outsiders view our guys, but also because their mood matches the crowd's, which I like. So I know basically all the play-by-play folks in the league, and Benz is one of the better ones. He's pretty good at sounding excited without shouting, he's fairly quick on his feet with the calls, he's got a good rapport with JimPete, and he can transition side-chatter into play calling pretty well in clever ways. The "ant facts" were a little hokey, but he wasn't as Ned Flanders-y as Tom Hanneman (who I liked almost because of that stiff, wholesome delivery).

That's sad to hear. They better get somebody better. Or, get more of a straight-up play-by-play guy who doesn't banter too much and put Marney and JimPete both in as a color duo! I actually think that could work fairly well in a JVG-Mark Jackson kind of way when they work together with a play-by-play guy like Mike Breen. We heard Marney and JimPete together a bit at the end of the year, but Marney was doing the play-by-play and you could tell she wasn't as used to it. I think she's funny, so putting her in there with JimPete could lead to some good banter. Somebody needs to keep things a little light-hearted with JimPete, who tends to give a full essay-length analysis if you let him. Benz was good at that.

Pour one out for Benz, boys. Let's hope that he is like the Peruvian arboreal ant--if they get knocked off a tree, they have an uncanny ability to glide onto the tree trunk as they fall so they don't have to climb all the way back up.

https://bugguide.net/node/view/11433

Bummer. I thought Benz was terrific. They'll have a hard time finding anyone as good as him in that role.

I don't like this news either. Good guy, hope he finds another gig soon.

No more "Ant facts"... I'd say that's a plus.