Braves Hall of Fame broadcaster Van Wieren retires

Hours before every home game of the 1991 postseason, Pete Van Wieren strolled the concourse of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium to take in the sights of Braves fans celebrating the worst-to-first run.

“I didn’t think we’d be there again,” said Van Wieren, who remembers fans beating on drums all day, cars decorated with Tomahawks, Indian protesters. “I just wanted to make sure I remembered it all.”

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Pouya Dianat/pdianat@ajc.com

‘Most of all I want to thank the fans,’ Pete Van Wieren said during his departing press conference, stopping to clear his throat. ‘You can’t do this job successfully without a lot of support from the fans and they have been tremendously supportive of our broadcasts going back to 1976 my first year here.’

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Van Wieren did the same thing in effect all of last season, taking in sights around baseball in what became his final year as a Braves broadcaster.

Van Wieren announced his retirement Tuesday after 33 years in the Braves booth.

It’s something he’s been considering since the spring when the Braves offered him a contract extension. He knew he couldn’t commit to that. He wanted to take some time to decide whether to retire.

At the urging of the Braves, he took two more weeks after the season to think about it. He still felt the same way.

“There really is no exit strategy for this job,” Van Wieren said. “People get this job and they stay in it until they want to walk away or until they can’t do it anymore. And I never wanted to be in the position where I was going to continue to work until I can’t do it anymore. Because if you can’t do this anymore, you can’t do anything anymore. All you’re doing is sitting and talking.”

Van Wieren, 64, said he made sure Braves president John Schuerholz understood this move had nothing to do with three things: his health, the recent passing of broadcast partner Skip Caray, and the disappointing season the Braves had.

“My decision was pretty well made before [Caray’s death],” Van Wieren said. “It did reinforce my belief that I didn’t want to work until I couldn’t do it anymore.”

This was something he was ready to do.

“This is something my family and I have been talking about for the last two or three years,” Van Wieren said. “It’s something Elaine and I have been planning for the last 45 years, getting to that day when we were in both good health and able to do some of the things we wanted to do but were unable to do because of the restrictions of the baseball schedule.”

They’d like to take an Alaskan cruise and travel to Holland, where his ancestors are from — neither of which are great to do in winter.

He wants to spend more time with his children and granddaughters, Chaney 10, and Grace 7 and a third, Rebecca, on the way.

Van Wieren missed only one game out of 162 last season when he had laryngitis. He watched that game from the press box. He figures he actually broadcasted 34 years for the Braves because he called about 135 postseason games.

The wife of his former broadcast partner Ernie Johnson Sr, the one who nicknamed him “the Professor” because he looked like Johnson’s teammate Jim Brosnan, gave Van Wieren’s wife a ceramic plaque when they first got to Atlanta in December 1975. It said: “We interrupt this marriage to bring you the baseball season.”

He said it hung in their kitchen for years.

“That’s a good description of what it’s like going through the year,” Van Wieren said. “And I just didn’t want to do that anymore.”

The Braves offered him a part-time position but he knew that he would still feel tied to watching the games during his off time to keep up.

By Tuesday afternoon, Van Wieren had to reiterate he was serious about retirement. Once the Braves released his announcement, he said he received three job offers from a major league team and two regional TV networks.

He was mostly smiles on the dais at the Turner Field press conference in his sports coat and plaid oxford shirt, like when Schuerholz pointed out he was surprised to see Van Wieren without a tie. “He said ‘tie my eye, I’m retired,” Schuerholz said.

The one moment he choked up was when he mentioned Braves fans.

“Most of all I want to thank the fans,” Van Wieren said and stopped to clear his throat. “You can’t do this job successfully without a lot of support from the fans and they have been tremendously supportive of our broadcasts going back to 1976 my first year here.”

The Braves are planning an official retirement celebration where fans can show their appreciation.

Fans, like players and fellow broadcasters, will remember Van Wieren for his smooth delivery, his preparedness and his professionalism.

“He’s a guy who knew the game, the inside of the game, loved being inside the game, understood the game, had a joy and a spirit about it that was so real and so consistent,” Schuerholz said. “He’s a real baseball man.”

Things Van Wieren will remember? Camaraderie with his fellow broadcasters, morning coffee in hotel lobbies on the road with manager Bobby Cox and spending time around the players.

When asked for his favorite call from over the years, it was fittingly from that 1991 season — the day the Braves clinched the division.

“The Dodgers had to lose for us to clinch and that happened within about three minutes from the time our game ended,” Van Wieren said. “Being on the air for that moment. …so often you can’t see the players, they’re back in the clubhouse. But that day they were all out of the mound watching the big screen. You could see their celebration. It was the first time in 10 years the Braves had gotten to the postseason. That was a special moment.

The words he used that day?

“Let the celebration begin, Atlanta.”