CHICAGO -- John Schriffen grew up in a family of civil rights activists.
His grandfather, Alphonso Deal, was the NAACP president of North Philadelphia among his myriad accomplishments. As a kid, Schriffen remembers leafletting buildings in New York City and doing phone bank calling on behalf of political candidates. That desire for change also came from his grandmother, Ponsie Hillman, and his mother and father, Cassandra and Gerard.
So it’s understandable why Schriffen’s status as Major League Baseball’s sole Black television play-by-play man has special meaning. Schriffen holds great appreciation for those who came before him and made this opportunity even possible, including Dave Sims -- his friend, mentor and one of the first people to call Schriffen when he was hired by the White Sox -- who moved from Seattle television to Yankees radio. Schriffen also shared a special story with MLB.com during a recent conversation at SoxFest Live in connection to keeping that dream moving for the next generation.
“I remember we had a talk earlier this year in the [Rate] Stadium, and it was young people who stayed after my discussion. They wanted to ask me personal questions not in front of the group,” Schriffen said. “These are people of color who wanted to ask me what it was like growing up and being a person of color, competing, getting a job in the industry. What would it be like for them?
“The advice I gave to them was, ‘Be yourself.’ Don’t shy away from who you are and what makes you unique. That is what essentially is going to separate you. Lean into diversity. Diversity is great.”
There isn’t a ton Schriffen remembers personally about his grandfather, as the now 40-year-old was very young when Deal passed away on June 3, 1987. He describes Deal as a man who was “way ahead of his time,” a state assemblyman for Pennsylvania and somebody who wanted to build the community and build a bridge between the community and the police department through that North Philadelphia branch of the NAACP.
“They called it the Action Branch,” said Schriffen of his grandfather’s work. “Whenever there were allegations of police brutality or something within the community that went unchecked, he took it upon himself to make sure it didn’t go unanswered. He made sure there was accountability within the police department within Philadelphia.
“And I grew up as a kid going to NAACP conventions, Urban League conventions. Every year we would go to a different city, and my grandmother and my mother and my father would go. We were making sure that we were part of the next generation of people who wanted to make change in the country. … I was very involved and had the inner workings when I was a kid of what you needed to do in order to make change.”
Schriffen is biracial, with his mom being Black and his dad being white. There was still racial tension in New York, growing up there in the late '80s and early '90s, by Schriffen’s depiction.
As a kid, he didn’t know what to make of it. But he was there, and he felt it.
“It would be something as simple as when I would be on the corner with my father and trying to hail a yellow taxi, they would practically get into an accident and run on to the sidewalk to compete to see who would pick up my dad,” Schriffen said. “But when I was out there with my mother, it was a very different story.
“We would be out there for a long time trying to hail a cab. It was little things like that that I knew there was a difference in how people were treated growing up. I saw it first-hand. I was with my white dad, and it’s one set of treatment, and my mom, who is Black, and it was a very different set of how you are treated.”
Baseball always has been special to Schriffen, a safe place from an early age. He could get away from the world, not as a biracial kid, but as a baseball player.
His voice now is admittedly different than any other MLB broadcasters, and he’ll use slang such as ‘my man’ or his signature call of ‘South Side, stand up!’ Schriffen is being authentic to himself, and to the Chicago listeners.
“Look at the White Sox fan base: It’s a representation of the demographic of the city of Chicago,” Schriffen said. “That’s what makes me so proud to be the voice of the White Sox, because I represent a city that’s so diverse.
“I’ve always wanted to get here to this position, because baseball helped me get through my life. One outlet was baseball. That’s why baseball always has this special place in my heart, and that’s why I love the game.”