Wow. I can’t believe Skip Caray, the longtime Braves' announcer, has died.
I knew he was in poor health, but the news was still shocking. Even though I didn’t know him, and only met him once, it felt like I had lost a friend.
I don’t know why we feel that way sometimes about people we don’t know. I think with Skip, longtime Braves’ fans felt like he suffered along with us when they were awful, and celebrated with us when they were good. He was our confederate, especially during the lean times. He was our guy.
Hearing him do the Braves’ games on the radio was the soundtrack to my summers when I was growing up. Broadcasting baseball on the radio is an art, and Skip was one of the best. He was funny, sarcastic, insightful, and always interesting.
They made him do that dumb call-in show for a while, and he could get a little bit cranky doing it, but I didn’t blame him, because he would get some of the stupidest questions imaginable. “Yeah, Skip, this is Randy in Dahlonega. Can you tell me how many stitches are in a baseball?”
Skip used to do the Hawks games on TV, and he was just as good at that as he was at baseball. When John Drew would make a shot, he would say “Drew for two.” That line was similar to my favorite Braves’ line of his: “There’s a chopper to Chipper.”
He never minded getting on the umpires, referees or players when it was necessary. If there were a lot of fouls being called in a basketball game, he would say that the people in the crowd “didn’t pay their money to watch tall men shoot free throws.”
Skip used to have a battle with the bottle, and he would joke about it. One night a dreadful Braves team was playing the Houston Astros, and Skip announced that Rafael Ramirez had just tied a record with four doubles that night. “And I plan to break that record after the game,” he said.
Since I’ve been accused of being a cynic myself (shocking!), I loved that side of him. He would read the sponsor promos sometimes with barely disguised disdain. He didn’t like all the gimmicks and sideshows that baseball teams feel they must offer their fans these days. But he loved baseball and the Braves.
I don’t know what kind of guy he was away from the field, and that really doesn’t matter. When I met him, it was at a charity golf tournament, and he was on the driving range next to me, sweating and cursing with each swipe at the ball. It looked more like he was trying to kill a snake than hit a golf ball. I spoke to him briefly, and he was very cordial, though he looked like he was about to melt from the heat.
Maybe it’s not possible to miss somebody you didn’t even know, but I think all Braves’ fans are going to miss Skip. It’s just not going to be the same without him.
1 comment:
my favorite Skipisms come from his early days as a Hawks announcer:
"If Maravich makes this free throw, the Hawks will go up by 4.....he does, and, they do."
and the best, in the days of the 3 to make 2 bonuses on free throws in the NBA, was (after two successive bricks, before the bonus third attempt) "Bellamy goes for the hat trick here..."
Skip was hilarious as a Hawks announcer, and the only interesting thing about the late 70s Braves. His wry sense of humor made watching a 100 plus loss team entertaining, and in the early days of the Superstation, people from Valdez, AK to Key West would tune in just to see what Skip would say next.
So long, Skip. I dont know if they have a Brave/Falcon Lounge where you've gone, but the Great Beyond just got a new patron saint of sarcasm.
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