Miscellaneous

Skip Caray 1939 - 2008

I write for three sites, yet have no good place to grieve over Skip Caray, who died in his sleep over the weekend. And since my colleague over at WIMB throws stones at my head when I write about sports over there, QL is the benefactor of this completely off-topic post.

I loved Skip Caray. The droll, often sarcastic broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves over the last 33 years had been relegated mostly to radio broadcasting over the last couple of years and, even before that, he'd started to sound a little like his old man, Harry Caray, in his later years, i.e., a little drunk and a little senile. But he was always entertaining. I grew up on Skip -- in fact, between the ages of 10 and 22, there's probably nobody I spent more of my life with than Skip Caray, back when TBS broadcast 140 games a year, few of which I missed. He was a comforting voice, wry and witty, and he introduced me to the phrase, "a can of corn." And during the dark years, 1984 - 1990, Caray often even made fun of the Braves, as only a man who loved them could. (He once said during a broadcast: "And like lambs to the slaughter, the Braves take the field.") He was a homer, through and through, and even when TBS tried to telecast the Braves games a little more objectively, Caray resisted, always referring to the Braves as "us" and "we." (They took him off the air at one point, but the Braves fans got him back on within weeks).

He was a good guy. And though I haven't heard him in a few years, when I heard of his death, I felt a deep pang, the ache of my childhood. Skip Caray will always be tied to my favorite sports moment, ever: The 1992 NLCS, when Sid Bream scored on a Francisco Cabrera single, putting the Braves in the World Series:

"Here comes Bream! Here's the throw to the plate! He iiiiiiiisssssssss ... safe! Braves win! Braves win! Braves win! Braves win! ... Braves win!"

Damn: I wish I could find video of that somewhere. It was the first and only time I'd ever wept at a sporting event.

RIP Skip Caray. You'll be missed, old man.

Update: Thanks Kushiro for the video. I could listen to it over and over again. In fact, I think I will.

Full post as published by Quiz Law on August 04, 2008 (boomark / email).