Skip Caray

What's WRONG? At CLUB DEAD, the bell tolls for Skip Caray. Caray, Atlanta Braves broadcaster for 33 years, dies in his sleep at 68. The South loses another broadcasting legend. And the American sprit loses another link to the days before baseball became just another string of digits on some corporate ledger sheet.

I can't say I know a lot about Skip Caray, apart from his royal parentage: son of Harry, father of Chip. I am impressed by the almost universal outporing of love and admiration from his peers. He must have been a remarkable person to inspire such devotion.

And there were the stories you didn't hear. In this age, every parking ticket is fodder for the talk shows. If we're allowed to judge someone by a lack of baggage, then Skip Caray passes with flying colors.

He was direct and on point. No razzle-dazzle announcer games required. Forget the lights and sound effects. He broadcast the game. It was the star. He was helping bring the pagaentry without becoming a member of the performing company.

Skip Caray began broadasting for the Braves a million years ago. Okay, it just seems that long ago. Cue the flowing harp sfx indicating memories of another time. It was less than a year after Hank Aaron passed Babe Ruth as baseball's home run king, and just a few months after President Nixon resigned from office rather than face impeachment proceedings. Gas was fifty cents a gallon then, and Skip Caray was there.

He was there in satellite TV's infancy when thanks to WTBS, the Braves became America's team. For a great many Braves fans, he's been there their whole life. He's all they've ever known.

And another piece of history passes from us.

Storytelling has always been the hallmark of the well-seasoned Southerner. So from Dizzy Dean, with his Arkansas wit, and Tennessee native Russ Hodges ("The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!") until today, the South has been blessed with an abundance of great sports broadcasters. John Ward (Tennessee) and Cawood Ledford (Kentucky) come to mind at once, as does Woody Durham (North Carolina) and Bob Harris (Duke).

Mel Allen grew up in Alabama and spent time calling Alabama football before joing the New York Yankees for a long and stellar career. Eli Gold hails from Brooklyn, but had enough sense to come be the voice of the Alabama Crimson Tide and NASCAR's Motor Racing Network.

Folks in Georgia are fortunate: They still have Larry Munson to enjoy, although his health is such that he only broadcasts home games now.

Skip Carey honored his father Harry by the way he lived his life. He never depended on his father's name but he always treasured it. Now his own son Chip carries on the Atlanta Braves family tradition. Stat geeks probably already know that they are the only three generation broadcasters to work the same game. Actually, they they did it twice, one in baseball and once in basketball. That's nice way to build a legacy.

On the other had, screw him; he's dead. Let's go look for crocodiles.

StevenK