Posted on 08/03/2008 7:30:48 PM PDT by TN4Liberty
The Atlanta Braves are sad to report the passing of longtime broadcaster and friend, Skip Caray. Caray died in his sleep earlier today at his Atlanta home. "Our baseball community has lost a legend today," said Braves President John Schuerholz. "The Braves family and Braves fans everywhere will sadly miss him. Our thoughts are with his wife Paula and his children."
This season marked the 33rd year Caray had been calling games for the Atlanta Braves, a majority of which were for TBS, which gave Caray a national audience and fan base.
Caray came to broadcasting naturally as the son of Harry Caray, the former Chicago Cubs Hall-of-Fame play-by-play announcer. Skip began his broadcasting career at KMOX-Radio in St. Louis, Mo., as host of a 15-minute high school sports show and as a sportscaster for high school basketball games. He later joined his father as a color commentator for University of Missouri football.
He began broadcasting baseball for the Tulsa Oilers of the Southern League in 1963. He also has announced for the Atlanta Crackers in baseball's Southern League and basketball for St. Louis University. He joined the NBA's St. Louis Hawks broadcasting team in 1967, moving to Atlanta with the team the following year.
Caray was inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame in 2004 with his longtime broadcast partner Pete Van Wieren.
He devoted many hours to volunteer work, serving as a board member of Camp Twin Lakes, a camp for children with special needs and worked with the Hemophilia Association.
Born in St. Louis, Caray was a graduate of the University of Missouri, with honors in journalism. Skip is survived by his wife, Paula, and four children; Chip, Cindy, Shayelyn, and Josh and seven grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements will be announced at a later time.
I'll miss him.
And I misspelled his name in the title. It is Caray. Please edit for search purposes. Thanks.
Skip was fantastic, this coming from a Giants fan. Perhaps the most underrated sports broadcaster of my lifetime.
Even though the signal faded in and out at times, Skip's father Harry along with Jack Buck, even though I was not actually in attendance, made me feel that I WAS at the game.
IMHO, Skip also did a wonderful job of calling games with the Braves, and he will surely be missed by this baseball fan.
RIP, Skip.
You will be sorely missed.
Very sad. He’ll be missed. May his family be comforted.
I used to listen to Skip nearly every day during those long summers in the 80’s when I watched the Braves on TBS. He’ll be missed and now the Caray legacy is carried by Chip.
I think I might just cry.
I always loved Skip. I’ve been following the Braves very closely now since the early 70s.
Skip, Pete, Ernie Johnson. That was a team!
Goodbye Skip, we love you!
RIP Skip.
I used to do that when the Braves were playing during the post season. I've listened to Skip since my early childhood, and he has always been my favorite sports commentator.
RIP.
I'm too young to speak from experience, but I've heard that when Skip and his brothers were younger whenever their father was broadcasting from the road he'd interrupt the play by play at 9 PM and say 'Goodnight' to his boys.
Skip will be missed greately. Right along with Milo Mamilton.
This is so sad. He and his father were such familiar voices in my childhood. I grew up watching a lot of baseball. We did not get all of the cable channels we do now. WGN was channel 16 and TBS was channel 17.
RIP.
Very sad news. Skip was part of our baseball-loving family. Atlanta sports won’t be the same without his voice. He could be hilarious, crotchety, insightful, silly, irreverent - but he was always entertaining.
One of my favorite Skip Caray stories... back in the mid 80s, when the Braves were really bad, they had a double header (remember those?) with the Expos. I was driving back to Tennessee through Alabama from Panama City.
The Braves lost the first game, something like 15-4. The game was a rout from the get go.
The second game started at night and it was late. Braves trailed in this one, too, something like 12-2 in the late innings... maybe the 7th or so.
Anyway, I am listening to Skip call the game with Billy Sample. In the middle of a discussion, Skip made an out of nowhere reference to “an elephant with three balls.” Billy fell silent. Skip asked Billy what he would do with one. Again, silence. Skip answered his own question, “You walk him and pitch to the giraffe.”
I can only imagine what happened in the booth as I heard Billy laughing and saying something slightly off-mike to Skip. Skip didn’t miss a beat, simply telling those in the broadcast booth, “Don’t worry about it, nobody is listening anyway.”
That’s hilarious! The late-night telecast tonight (West Coast game) is featuring numerous Skip stories like yours from the broadcasters. It is very touching, a little sad, but heartwarming just the same. The last couple years I took Skip for granted as his role and frequency in the booth diminished, now at his death I remember so clearly what a big part of my life as a baseball fan he was.
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