If you followed the Braves during the lean years and listened to the game on radio or watched on television, Skip Caray always found a way to keep us entertained. The son of the great Hall of Fame announcer Harry Caray and father of current Braves play-by-play TV voice Chip, Skip had not only a tremendous sense of humor and feel for the game but he always said what he thought.
Said Chip about his father, who in this 1993 photo appears with another longtime Braves announcer and Hall of Famer pitcher Don Sutton, “It’s different these days. The younger announcers focus on numbers and stats and make very little effort in getting to know the people in the game. People like my father, or even my grandfather, wouldn’t be hired these days because they were too honest. When it wasn’t going well for the team, they said it. They attached themselves to the teams, to the personalities. They wanted their team to win but people appreciated their honesty.’’
The Braves were always very talented in the broadcast booth as for many years. Skip was joined by Ernie Johnson and Pete Van Wieren. They all are gone now as Skip passed away in 2008, Johnson three years later and Van Wieren last August. But Skip was always the heart of the announcing teams, the one who both loved to grumble when the team didn’t play well and then made some of their most memorable calls ever such as shouting “Braves win! Braves wins! Braves win!’’ moments after they won the National League championship in 1992.
His candor and ploys on the air always kept us in stitches such as when he would mention the names and hometowns of fans who caught foul balls though not having any idea of who they were and where they were from. “There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him,’’ said Chip, who works with Joe Simpson on all the Braves telecasts. “I was lucky to work with him. When I come in the (broadcast booth) I see a big gigantic picture of my dad and it is both rewarding and painful. I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with my dad until I got out of college but to work with him for those four or five years was incredible. We really got back together as adults and had a ball. I tell everyone, tell the people you love that you love them because some day they are not going to be there.’’
— I.J. ROSENBERG
