Growing up I never thought Jack Brickhouse and Jim West, or Vince and Lou would ever need a third voice to call games. Obviously, Harry Caray could have operated on his own during his better days and for the most part three-man booths are horrible. With the exception of the NBA TNT crew, it doesn’t work with pregame shows either. No matter how good the straight man is and how well produced the show is, it’s always too many egos fighting air space.

All that being said, tonight’s NBC broadcast of the Cubs-Cardinals has been (so far) the best nationally televised game of the season and Jason Benetti is the main reason for making the 3.5 man booth work. Benetti is proving to be an established national sportscaster because of his ability to work with so many different partners. Tonight, he’s working with Albert Pujols, Jim Deshaies, and Anthony Rizzo (the .5 because he’s not in the booth). The banter between division rivals is nice and nobody is fighting to put his two cents in. Benetti obviously does his homework and knows what questions to ask his less experienced partners. It helps to have former players that respect the game and their opponents. And honestly, Deshaies has been much more bearable to listen to without his usual Marquis partner. It’s too bad the three buffoons on the FOX pregame show won’t learn from this experience. That show is like a parody despite the star power. It would be nice if the Cubs salvage the series.