WWTBAM Bored

Longtime Braves broadcaster, at age 68....

Thanks to Braves Fan sister, I got to hear plenty of him, and his other three cohorts Pete Van Weiren, Don Sutton, and Joe Simpson on TBS back in the 90's.....

lb13

Way too young. I heard him a lot on the radio in the car.

I found a picture for our baseball notebook tonight, of Harry and Chip and Skip, in 1991.

I know he had been sick this year and hadn't gotten to any road games, plus his voice wasn't what it used to be. Skip has been a fixture on the Atlanta sports scene and he will be missed. His son Chip continues the family tradition as an announcer for Turner's basketball broadcasts.

When I saw this on the crawl this morning, I expected him to be younger.

May he rest in peace.

Braves Win!!!! Braves Win!!!! Braves Win!!!! Braves Win!!!!

Doesn't seem likely we were going to hear that line again as Sid Bream rumbled around third and beat the lady like throw from Barry Bonds that sent the Braves to World Series for the second time in a row in 1992 as the 14 year dalliance with the playoffs was getting started. Maybe (a big maybe at this point) the Braves will eventually return to prominence but it won't be the same without Skip to make the call.

And of course:

"There's a foul ball up into the Lexus level caught by a fan from Hiram, Georgia."

When Skip came to the team in 1976 I was a teenager that had grown up with the Braves, having moved to Atlanta with the Braves in 1966. It was Milo Hamilton who was the primary radio announcer in those days. But it is Skip and Pete who would become the voice of the Braves for me. Even as his speech started to get a bit slurred in recent years, rather like his father, his humor and sarcasm never did and he is the one I will indentify with as the voice of the Braves.

Completely ridiculous sidenote LB thought of last night....

The second time he played Final Fantasy (The original version on the good ol' NES), he named the four characters in his party Skip, Pete, Don, and Joe..... yes, after the Braves broadcasters....

They never made it to the end before he lost interest like the original party did....

My favorite Careyism occurred whenever the radio station would have one of those home run contests where a selected fan would win cash if a Braves player would hit a home run during the designated inning.

Carey would always say, "Our next contestant is (hypothetical person here) Mr. Barney Fife, who lives in a post office box in Mayberry, NC." No matter how many times he did it, I always got a chuckle out of his line.

Hope he and his dad are calling the big games upstairs as a team now.

By my estimation, I have heard Skip Caray's voice at least once in any given day probably more than 100 days a year, for 28 straight years.

To say he'll be missed here is an understatement.
He's certainly among the last of a dying breed of opinionated announcers who get sent to pasture for the blah types.

That said, in recent comments he said he was prepared for death, and said -- almost verbatim -- If I go tomorrow I'll have no regrets, I've had a quite a life.

There you go.