Been thinking a lot about Phony Bennett lately.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of my guy ⁦Phony Bennett⁩ He brought a community together and did in a way very few could. RIP Chris.

I need to gather my thoughts here, this hit like a punch to my gut. I have a lot to say about this man but need a little time to process. Gutted

💔 RIP Chris AKA Phony Bennett Phony Bennett Much love from our program to you and your family. 🙏

Chris Dembitz could have made a parody account for any public figure and created a following. He was that smart, clever, and funny. So quick and sharp, he could spit out the content in real time during the case of the game, or the newsbreak. It was so natural.

Settling on Tony, a man who goes out of his way to have as little presence or recognition as possible - and then somehow being embraced by the man himself, the program he represents, and thousands of fans is crazy considering the line you have to walk between classy and funny.

Chris had no intention for his account to blossom how it did. For reporters to write stories. I remember when he agonized over the decision to go "public" with his name. He loved the anonymity of it. He felt that added to the account, he wasn't searching of any personal acclaim.

I found myself listening to a couple archived "The Hard Hedge" podcasts this week, just to hear Phony Bennett's voice and to remember those days and how lucky I was have to even have my account mildly associated with the genius that was his.

My favorite part of the podcast was text exchanges about who we were able to land for the show, whether it was Seth Greenberg and media personalities or former #UVa hoops players. We would chase them down and get all excited that they would actually hop on our show.

That intro that Chris recorded.. he was so excited about the song and voiceover. We had no idea what we were doing, he was the recording piece of the show and learned how to make all the stuff long before simple podcasting products were all over the place. Man was so smart.

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me about Phony Bennett. Referenced his account to me. Asked me about him. I am not sure even he would have ever known how many people got a good honest chuckle and felt good because he shared his wit on this platform.

Outside of the content he provided that will live on forever, I will remember this. We celebrated a national championship together. So many years of tweets, texts, podcasts, good, bad, everything. But we were together, with his new wife, when we raised a fricking banner.

We didn't stay close outside of the occasional check in text later on. When this account became a little in the background of my life, so did my relationship with Chris. But 10 years is a long time, and he made my life better the time he was in it. I am incredibly thankful.

I'll be doing one last tip of his favorite,a good neat bourbon for my friend tonight. If you are reading these tweets, I undoubtedly know that you follow Phony Bennett and got immense value out of his humor. There was a man behind those words, a genius, and he will be missed. ❤️

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I hate to armchair coach.. but.. yes. Everyone on earth could see that coming. There is absolutely nothing about how Florida hitters were seeing his pitches that would allow for him to stay in this game. Stop looking at charts and look at what's happening in front of you.

The original Joey hoops is retiring. ✊️

As tough as the loss was, I was reminiscing last night to my visit to the CWS a couple years back and what a great experience it was. Omaha really does a fantastic job with this event. You should add it to the list if it's not there already.

Just got word that the second home run hit in the 9th just landed.

Just in case you've desperately missed me putting words together I wrote a thing on one of my favorite little phenomena in life. Or hell you can just connect with me on LinkedIn. 😆 Hope everyone is doing fantastic. Wahoowa linkedin.com/posts/michael-…