Skip Caray, 1939-2008
Monday, August 4th, 2008There’s the great story where Ted Turner, not long after he purchased the Atlanta Braves, told Skip Caray to lay off criticizing the team from the television booth. Skip’s response to Turner was something like, “Have you looked at the standings lately?” To which Turner said, “Good point.” And he never tried to temper Skip again.
Like any long-time Braves fan of a certain age, I grew up listening to Skip Caray. First, through the crackle of AM radio and then on TBS. Skip was often a curmudgeon in the booth, but he did it with wit and a basic honesty that was endearing. During the Pistol Pete Maravich era, he called the Atlanta Hawks games and was always especially cynical. But, as with the Braves, Skip’s call of the game was often the only reason to stay tuned in.
When I started covering the Braves for Atlanta magazine 10 years ago, I got to see Skip around the press box and in the dugout, where he’d often hold court. He wasn’t the friendliest person to strangers (remember how he’d go off on people who called his pre-game radio show with inane questions), but I did get the chance to talk baseball with him a few times.
One night I was at a game and my father called. He was listening to the game, and Skip had just spent air-time talking about one of my stories and recommending it to his listeners. It wasn’t even a sports story.
I’ll always believe that was the moment I’d “arrived” in my father’s eyes, because Skip Carey had given me his blessing.
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