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The Man Who Made Atlanta Famous Is Gone
By Charlie O. Mallonee August 3, 2008 |
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In the early 80’s when satellite dishes were 10 feet in diameter and cable was struggling to grab enough programming to fulfill its promise of “hundreds of channels”, a wild and crazy advertising man named Ted Turner decided that Atlanta should be the media capital of the world. “Crazy Ted” bought a failing UHF TV station in Atlanta, named it WTBS the Superstation and started beaming its programs around the world. “Crazy Ted” also owned the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks. Turner decided the Braves should become “America’s Team” and began televising every Braves game on the Superstation. With the exception of 1981-83, the Braves were not a very exciting team, so in order to make the games entertaining, it took one great broadcast team to keep people watching the games. People did watch the games. The Braves became “America’s Team”. The broadcast team of Skip Caray, Pete Van Wieren, Ernie Johnson plus a fourth person that included John Sterling, Don Sutton and others was entertaining. They also became famous. Being the baseball junkie that I am, I watched the Braves on regular basis. I also became a fan of the broadcast team. I especially liked Skip Caray. It was obvious that Caray knew the game of baseball. He called bad plays what they were - bad plays. His acerbic wit and quick, hearty laugh made him fun to listen to during the games. About a year after I started following the Braves, one of the other broadcasters asked how Skip’s dad was doing. Skip said his dad loved living in Chicago and working for the White Sox. Holy Cow! Skip was the son of the crazy ex-Cardinals announcer I listened to at night in Ohio on KMOX, St. Louis. I hated the Cardinals, but I loved Harry Caray! No wonder I liked Skip Caray – he had learned the trade from best. Skip started his career doing a weekly 15 minute high school sports show on KMOX and high school games on smaller, local stations. He later joined his father on Missouri Football broadcast and became the voice of the St. Louis Hawks. When the Hawks moved to Atlanta, Caray went with them. In 1976, Skip joined the Braves broadcast team and was still doing home games on the radio this season. Skip Caray died in sleep at his home in Atlanta last night. He was 68 years old. Caray has two sons that followed him into the family business. Chip currently works for the Braves, and Josh calls games for the Class A Rome (GA) Braves. In the 90’s, the Braves became winners and worthy of the name – “America’s Team”. During those years, Skip Caray’s final game call also became famous – “Braves Win! Braves Win!” Skip Caray is survived by his wife, four children and seven grandchildren … plus millions of baseball fans. If I might represent many of those Caray fans, thanks Skip. You will be missed. |
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