RIP Skip Caray

Many of us grew-up listening to Skip Caray and following the Atlanta Braves from baseball’s worst franchise in the late 70s and 1980s into one of baseball’s best franchises since 1990.

The voice of our generation passed away in his sleep.

This post does an excellent job of highlighting various stories on the internet that may be of interest to you.

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22 Responses to RIP Skip Caray

  1. Noah 08/04/2008 at 9:27 AM #

    I’m sorry to hear it. Not only did I grow up listening to Skip Caray, I grew up listening to his father as well.

    I got into baseball around 1982. Not coincidentally, that was about the same time we got cable. I could come home and watch the second half of the Cubs game on WGN, then go out and play or watch cartoons or whatever was in syndication and then catch the Braves after dinner on TBS. It usually came on right after reruns of the Carol Burnett Show. If the Braves weren’t playing, they showed Sanford and Son…so that funky theme song of Fred Sanford’s was always an audio cue that meant, “No Braves game.”

    My favorite players growing up were Jim Rice and Dale Murphy…so I pull for the Braves in the national league and the Red Sawx in the American league. I always laugh when people who don’t know me well (or didn’t know me in the 80s) call me a front-runner.

    When you told people you were a fan of the Braves and the Red Sox in the 80s, people usually gave you a look of pity.

    I remember very well the Braves trading Brett Butler AND Brook Jacoby AND Rick Behenna for a washed-up fourth starter with a bum elbow and the stupidest wind-up named Len Barker. Yes, they traded the best lead-off man in the national league (and the best in baseball not named Ricky Henderson) and a third-baseman who’d go on to be an all-star and a promising pitching prospect. And they got Len Barker in return.

    A few weeks earlier, the Dodgers traded a player to be named later and $200,000 for Rick Honeycutt…who was leading the AL in ERA. The next year, the Cubs would give up Joe Carter, who was just a prospect, and a bucket of spare parts for Rick Sutcliffe. A year after that, the Indians would trade Bert Blyleven for Jay Bell and a pine tar rag to be named later.

    The Braves gave up TWO all-stars for a guy with a bad arm, a 5.11 ERA and who would go 10-30 in about 200 innings of work over the next 2.5 years. TWO all-stars.

    TWO!!!

    For NOTHING!

    They traded Butler to make room for minor league triple crown winning Dale-murphy-clone Brad Komminsk. Someone forgot to tell Ted Turner that you trade the PROSPECT…not the realized all-star for pitchers.

    The next seven seasons would basically be mirrors of that trade. David Palmer, Rufino Linares, Albert Hall, Brad Komminsk, Terry Harper, Paul Runge, Paul Zuvella, Omar Moreno…

    The Braves traded prospects for over-the-hill players, they signed has-beens and never-will-bes. And I think I watched every damn game. They lost the first 18 games of the 1988 season and they didn’t even get the #1 pick in the draft because the Orioles lost the first 30.

    Skip Caray was the soundtrack for all of it. I remember the game in San Francisco where the Braves were losing (naturally) in the ninth. Skip promo’ed the moving coming up (let’s pretend it was The Beguiled, since that was always on TBS in the 80s) by saying, “As soon as Andres Thomas hits into a 6-4-3 double-play, we’ll be going to ‘The Beguiled,’ starring Clint Eastwood.”

    On the VERY next pitch, Thomas hit a ground ball to the shortstop.

    “Six…four…three. Enjoy the movie, folks.”

    Caray’s best line may have well been, “The bases are loaded. I sure wish I was.”

    I never heard Harry Caray in his prime. I remember Caray as a loveable drunk who would do games from the bleachers and basically be unconcsious by the fourth inning. Steve Stone would pick him up and do the rest of the game.

    Harry would butcher names and have calls that sounded like, “Ground ball up the middle! It’s outta here!”

    But Skip was always the pro. When his team was losing, he let you know it without belittling the players and when his team was winning, he’d be as happy as the fans.

    When Ted Turner stepped down from TBS and sold his network to Time Warner, it felt like we had lost something. I mean…it’s television. But we lost this tiny little pop-culture UHF icon. TBS was syndication and the Braves and Ted’s latest bout of weirdness. When Time Warner took over, it was just another channel. When Liberty Mutual bought the Braves and put them on Peachtree TV, TBS became something less.

    Thank you, Skip, for being the soundtrack of a lot of great days.

  2. wufpup76 08/04/2008 at 10:12 AM #

    So glad you guys posted something about Skip Caray … I grew up listening to Harry butcher names during Cubs’ broadcasts (Gary Templeton was often Gary Pendle-Temple-Wendle-ton, for instance 🙂 ) and listening to Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren talk about their golf games and tee times during Braves games back when Atlanta was awful (67-95 – EVERY YEAR!!!)

    I remember pulling so hard for the Braves with Dale Murphy, Gerald Perry, Oddibe McDowell and others even though they would lose at least 2 nights out of three … I watched almost every game … Then, 1991 was one of the best seasons and some of the best fun I’ve had in my life … My dad had grown disinterested in baseball, but I kept telling him ‘we’ (the Braves, of course) could be good this year … Sure enough, ‘we’ were – and my Dad and I even drove down to Atlanta to catch an important series vs. the Dodgers that year in old Fulton County Stadium

    Watching the Braves win that thrilling race against the Dodgers to capture the NL West that year was nothing short of amazing, and good ol’ Skip Caray was there w/ me and my Dad the whole time … Skip was never afraid to openly root for the Braves and ridicule other teams, and it was great hilarity!

    R.I.P. Skip Caray – you will be missed

    I hope Skip and Haray are calling games together up above 🙂

  3. SaccoV 08/04/2008 at 10:17 AM #

    Noah, that game you’re referring to was against the Giants at home (Fulton County Stadium) and it was Jeffrey Leonard who hit into the double play and Gene Garber was pitching. The movie was “The Magnificent Seven” and Caray perfect delivered, “The Magnificent Seven is on deck and will be on just as soon as Leonard hits into a 6-4-3.” I was watching that game at the time because my dad is a huge western fan and made me watch most of the classic films. We were waiting for the game to end as we were not Braves fans. Though not pulling for the Braves, I loved the teamwork between Skip and Rick Barry on TBS for the NBA games they did in the 80s. That was some great calling from two straight shooters. You’ll never see anything like that today. Godspeed, Skip Caray!

  4. sf59 08/04/2008 at 10:22 AM #

    My favorite skip quote:

    “Chipper Jones”

  5. Noah 08/04/2008 at 10:30 AM #

    Another memory: Losing 13-2 to someone and Chris Chambliss finishing off the bottom of the 9th. Two men are out and Chambliss has a couple of strikes on him.

    “As soon as Chris figures out a way to hit an 11-run homerun, we’re right back in this one, folks.”

    Ted Turner reportedly told Caray to cool it with the criticisms that Caray heaped down on the Braves in the 70s. Caray responded by saying, “Have you seen the standings recently?”

    Turner said, “Good point. Say whatever you want.”

    A lesser man wouldn’t have admitted that Caray was right, so kudos to Ted Turner for giving Caray free reign. That willingness to say whatever was on his mind was what got us through the 1000 or so blowouts we had to endure.

  6. Noah 08/04/2008 at 10:33 AM #

    “Chopper to Chipper.”

  7. Dr. BadgerPack 08/04/2008 at 10:40 AM #

    I recall a conversation between (I believe) Skip and Don Sutton a few years back during a dreadful game against the Rockies… Centering around an aardvark and an anteater.

    I always enjoyed Skip- he made you pay attention even during particularly lopsided games.

    Noah- just to see your reaction, I’ve got two words for you… Terry Harper. 🙂

  8. sf59 08/04/2008 at 10:53 AM #

    the ennudeno and what was not said during down times was always my favorite 🙂

  9. Noah 08/04/2008 at 11:08 AM #

    Badger – Harper actually turned in one of the few decent seasons that any left-fielder had post-Butler, pre-Lonnie Smith.

    Harper, in 1986 (or so) hit about .270 and hit 17 homeruns. This is after Komminsk proved his inability to hit a curveball and after they traded both Steve Bedrosian and Milt Thompson for Ozzie Virgil (hey, there’s a great trade. Another all-star leadoff man and a Cy Young-winner for a .220 hitting catcher).

  10. Dr. BadgerPack 08/04/2008 at 11:51 AM #

    Noah, yeah that was 86. Then the at the end of the next year they unloaded him for a bag of spare pinball machine parts. One year later he was out of baseball.

    That pretty much sums up 80s Braves vs. 90s Braves. 80s Braves would trade players (good or washed up) for garbage (note, I know good and well when the Doyle Alexander trade was…). The “90s” Braves would unload washed up players, or players just past their peak, for quality.

    I remember the crappy 88 season. WRAL-FM had their “8 in a row in 88” for the Orioles/Braves and it just became a running joke… At least the Orioles had Cal Ripken Jr…. The Braves had… Andres Thomas?

  11. Noah 08/04/2008 at 12:44 PM #

    Harper ended up with the Tigers, I think. I think he played in Japan after that.

    The Alexander-Smoltz trade really was an odd deal. Alexander still had a little juice in the tank and was perfect for the Tigers. He went 7-0 down the stretch and helped get them in the playoffs (for the last time that century). The braves got Smoltz in return…but Smoltz was NOT some hot phenom.

    He was a 25th round draft pick (or something like that) and put up pretty mediocre numbers in the Tigers org. He wasn’t one of their top prospects and didn’t really do anything prior to joining the Braves that really blew your socks off.

    Either the Braves were ridiculously lucky…or someone really did their homework and saw something that they liked. He went 2-7 with the Braves after joining them.

    He and Glavine took their lumps in 1988, but I think it was in 1989 that they became a pretty solid 1-2 punch. I remember Skip saying that if the rest of the rotation could come around, they might have something. That was when they were still trying to get guys like Derek Lilliquist and Kevin Coffman and maybe Tommy Greene to be big league pitchers.

    My family moved in the summer of 1988, so I watched a LOT of baseball that year. I didn’t know anyone in my new neighborhood, so there wasn’t much to do other than play basketball and watch the Braves.

    The one game I remember best was against the Mets in the middle of July. The Mets were awesome that year. The Braves had gotten to David Cone early and had a 3-0 lead, but the Mets had chipped away and tied it in the bottom of the 9th on a Darryl Strawberry homerun. Naturally, Bruce Sutter blew the save for the Braves. He did that a lot.

    The Mets ended up going ahead in the 10th and brought on Randy Myers to close it out. Somehow the Braves got a runner on and Dale Murphy came up.

    Like all young, southern baseball fans, I loved Dale Murphy. He had been as dominant a five-tool player for the Braves for six years. In 1987, he probably had his best season…hitting almost .300 and hitting 44 homeruns and still playing great defense.

    But in 1988, he went off a cliff. He was barely hitting .200 and couldn’t tell the difference between a strike and a ball that would end up at the backstop to save his life. It was horrifying to watch. But he was the perfect guy to face Myers, who thought he could throw his fastball by anyone.

    Murphy, in what was probably his final moment of glory, took a fastball and just crushed it into the bleachers in left field for a walk-off homerun.

    I remember how excited everyone was and how it was this tiny little moment of glory. The Braves went on to lose something nine of their next 10 games. They were about 20 games out of first and would only win 54 games that year. But for that one second, they had a reason to be happy.

    54-108 is about as bad as you can possibly get in the modern day. That’s the only specific game I remember from the entire season. But I watched everytime they were on. For one reason, hearing a game called by Skip and Ernie was about as good as you could hope for unless you had acccess to a game Vin Scully was doing.

  12. choppack1 08/04/2008 at 1:17 PM #

    My favorite negative Caray comment was when they’d do that disclaimer:

    “Major League baseball prohibits the rebroadcast w/out their consent”…or whatever..

    Which skip followed with:

    “Not that any Braves fan would want to watch this game again.”

  13. Texpack 08/04/2008 at 5:14 PM #

    I grew up as a Braves fan and Skip got me through a lot of horrible years with the Braves.

    After coming back from the commercial break between innings the camera shot is a well endowed woman jogging up the steps of the stadium in a tube top and Skip says, “There hasn’t been a pitch thrown in the inning and there were almost two out.”

    After the Ted Turner issued ban on the use of the word “foreign” on the Turner family of networks – “I think Terry Pendleton has an international object in his eye.”

    Skip’s call of the Rick Camp home run in the bottom of like the 18th inning to tie the game and force the 19th inning was his greatest call ever. The only possible competition would be the Sid Bream slide into home to beat the Pirates in game seven.

    I first listened to Skip doing Hawks games before Milo Hamilton left the Braves broadcast crew and his sarcasm was just as rich in the NBA as it was for baseball.

    Being a Braves fan through the 70’s and 80’s made me appreciate the 90’s. Bob Walk, Paul Zuvella, Sugar Bear Blanks, and Biff Pocaroba, just couldn’t quite get over the hump and get to .500.

    Skip would likely be fired by the PC police before his career got off the ground today. Those of us who listened to him for those many years are thankful he came along when he did.

    RIP Skip, and thanks for everything.

  14. LRM 08/04/2008 at 6:46 PM #

    Sorry guys, but Skip’s best moment was BY FAR Francisco Cabrera’s Game 7-winning hit against the Pirates in 1992:

    “Swung, line drive left field! One run is in! Here comes Bream! Here’s the throw to the plate! He is…SAFE! Braves win! Braves win! Braves win! Braves win! Braves win! They may have to hospitalize Sid Bream!”

  15. graywolf 08/04/2008 at 9:16 PM #

    Skip’s voice and showmanship will be missed by Braves fans just as Harry has been missed by Cubs fans. RIP Skip and thanks for the memories!

  16. Noah 08/05/2008 at 8:13 AM #

    Speaking of Harry, one of my favorite moments of his was in 1983 against the Dodgers in Wrigley. The Dodgers had men on first and second with no one out. Pedro Guerrero hit a sharp ground ball down the line and Ron Cey, who had been protecting the line, snagged it and stepped on third, flipped it to Sandberg, who relayed it back to Leon Durham for a triple-play.

    That was the first triple-play I had ever seen. The WGN guys kept flashing, “TRIPLE PLAY!!!” on the screen and they showed replay after replay after replay. They didn’t even go to commercial.

    I honestly thought Caray might have died of a heart attack. By the time Sandberg threw to Durham, Caray was so overcome with emotion and excitement, he couldn’t even talk. Steve Stone had to do the replay commentary.

  17. wbnation 08/05/2008 at 11:07 AM #

    catcher: Bruce Benedict
    Pitcher: substitute Any Tomato Can
    1st Base: Chris Chambliss (long after his stint with the Yankees)
    2nd Base: Glenn Hubbard
    Short Stop: Rafeal Remirez
    3rd Base: Bob Horner
    Right Field: Claudel Washington(that guy fought more than Joe Frazier)
    Center Field: Dale Murphy
    Left Field: about a million different stiffs

    For some reason I have this line up etched in my brain since about 1983. God they sucked. Their team batting average was like .222. And yet there I was every night they were on TBS pulling for them. Like Noah it was right about the same time my family got cable. I actually got into watching the Braves at my Grandparents house in Charleston, SC because they had cable about 3 years before my parents got it. So Skip Carey and the Braves go hand in hand with some of the great moments I had sitting with my grandfather watching baseball. It didn’t matter that they would be down 6-0 by the 3rd inning and by the 7th you could here Skip say “I guess its cocktail time”. Anyone remember Bob Horner’s 3 homers in one game? Didn’t he start a restaurant chain? Chicken?

    I also caught a few Cubs games, but mostly to just listen and laugh and Harry antics and to hear “Jody…Jody Davis” song. Why again did that guy have his own song?

    RIP Skip you will definetly be missed by all Braves fans.

  18. Noah 08/05/2008 at 11:49 AM #

    Brett Butler would have been the left fielder in 1983. He was technically the player to be named later in the Barker deal, so he didn’t report to Cleveland until after the season.

    Starting rotation in 1983 was:

    Pasqual Perez
    Craig McMurtury
    Phil Neikro
    Tomato Can

  19. wbnation 08/05/2008 at 1:37 PM #

    Pasqual Perez. That guy looked like Mr. T’s cracked out little brother with all the damn gold chains around his neck.

  20. Noah 08/05/2008 at 1:43 PM #

    Perez and his brothers were the inspiration for Pedro Cerrano in “Major League,” as I understand it.

    Perez’s religious affiliation was some bizarre combination of voodoo and Catholic.

  21. sf59 08/05/2008 at 4:43 PM #

    i remember horner’s 3 homer game and yes he had a restaurant in shelby NC

  22. Noah 08/05/2008 at 7:31 PM #

    It was actually a four-homer game. And there was a Bob Horner’s in Knightdale for a long time. I don’t believe the building is there anymore.

    It was a Cap’n D’s and about nine other things. But I think it’s been torn down.

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