Fresh Loaf

BULLDOGGED: Did an Athens site for a federal research facility get left off the finalist list because of politics? It’s suspicious that a site in Mississippi that scored lower than Athens on the Department of Homeland Security’s checklist made the pool of finalists, and Athens didn’t.

ADULT SWIM: Squirty the loggerhead sea turtle makes its first foray into the ocean, and 1,000 people gather at Tybee Island to watch.

STEEP HILL: Clayton County is so exasperated with Sheriff Victor Hill that it has filed papers in federal court asking that a special monitor be appointed to run the sheriff’s department until Hill’s term expires.

SKIPPING A BEAT: The Braves are back in Atlanta for the first time since Skip Caray died. And Pete Van Wieren dreads a press box that doesn’t have Skip holding court.

JUDGMENT DAY: The former judge in the Brian Nichols trial joins the chorus of those who say the reason the trial is so costly is because Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has turned a simple, one-week trial into a tangled mess of hundreds of witnesses and a dozen crime scenes.

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Longtime Atlanta Braves announcer Skip Caray, who died this week at 68, once described himself as the “wise-ass cynic” of the Caray broadcasting dynasty. Eschewing his famous father’s effusiveness, he won over Braves fans with his dry, pithy humor and unabashed honesty. He was often at his best when the Braves were at their worst.

“The bases are loaded again and I wish I was, too.”
— Caray, during a disastrous outing by the Braves’ bullpen in 2007

“It’s another partial sellout.”
— A line Caray used often in the late ’80s when games were drawing just a few thousand fans

“Have you looked at the standings lately?”
— Caray’s response to then-owner Ted Turner after Turner asked him to stop being so negative in the booth during a losing season in the ’80s

“Good point. Say whatever you want.”
— Turner’s answer

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Beloved Braves announcer Skip Caray will be honored at a 10 a.m. memorial service Tuesday at Turner Field.

Caray’s long-time broadcast partner Joe Simpson will lead the event, which will include tributes from Pete Van Wieren, Chip Caray, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Braves CEO Terry McGuirk. Fans who wish to attend can park in the Green lot and enter through the Plaza gates. Gates will open at 9 a.m.

There will be more tributes at Tuesday night’s game (ironically against the Chicago Cubs, where Caray’s father, Harry, was a broadcast icon), with a pre-game ceremony that will include the Caray family.

To read CL’s tribute to Skip, click here.

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There’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.
(more…)

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SKIP CARAY: The voice of the Atlanta Braves dies at 68.

OLYMPICS: Beijing’s unprecedented attempts to clear its polluted skies for the Games are drawing scientists from around the world seeking the rare window to study pollution’s dynamics and health effects.

BOLT FROM THE BLUE: Obama starts making moves on seven historically red states, including Georgia, where he opened five offices over the weekend.

LAKE LANIER: Has an alligator in it.

SHOOTING: At Jermaine Dupri’s party at Club Dream early Saturday was reportedly over guests who were angry at being double charged; the only injury reported was a security guard who was shot in the arm but later released from the hospital.

THE VARSITY: Turned 80 this weekend.

TOO EXTREME: The Augusta Chronicle’s editorial board writes that the recently foreclosed “Extreme Makeover” home in Clayton County shows that charity can be taken too far.

COAST NOT CLEAR: Jellyfish, the “cockroaches of the open waters,” are growing in numbers on coasts around the world and forcing many beach closures, which scientists say is a result of overfishing, pollution and rising temperatures killing off their natural predators.

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It’s obvious that the suits over at TBS don’t like Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren.

In 2003, TBS banished the two longtime Braves announcers from TBS’ dwindling broadcasts of Braves games before fan anger drove it to rescind the decision. This year, TBS takes over the broadcasts of baseball play-offs from ESPN, and when the network announced its lineup of announcers, Caray and Van Wieren were nowhere to be found.

As the AJC’s Tim Tucker writes today, Caray is, understandably, peeved.

A TBS flack issued a fairly terse statement: “TBS has put together four telecast teams that we feel will best serve our national baseball audience. … We appreciate Skip’s abilities as a play-by-play announcer and look forward to his [Braves] calls for us next year on Peachtree TV, but we decided to go in another direction as we look to brand our new MLB-on-TBS playoff package.”

Skip Caray has called baseball on TBS since 1976. He is destined for the Hall of Fame. He is one of the best baseball announcers still working.

But he’s not good enough for the network he helped build into a national presence?

I have one word for the TBS suit who made this decision: stupid.

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