Chip Caray taking heat as TBS ratings soar

Sandomir wrote that Caray "is still prone to bad play calls, descriptive exaggerations and factual errors. Every announcer makes mistakes, but Caray's lips form a pattern of an announcer out of his element."

Caray, who calls Braves games on Peachtree TV, will call the Phillies-Dodgers National League Championship Series starting Thursday night.

TBS has not directly addressed the criticism.

"We are excited that baseball fans are watching TBS' exclusive coverage in record numbers and look forward to Chip, along with Ron Darling and Buck Martinez, providing the sights and sounds of the NLCS," the network said in a statement.

Here are a few errors critics have noted:

In the 10th inning of the Twins-Tigers tiebreaker before the playoffs, Caray called Nick Punto's liner to left this way: "Line drive. Base hit. Caught out there. The runner tags. Throw to the plate. On target. And in time! A double play."

During the Twins-Yankees series, he said Minnesota's Orlando Cabrera "has played in the Division Series with Anaheim, the Yankees, Boston, Tampa Bay." Cabrera never played for the Yankees or Rays, and Caray later corrected himself.

Caray mistakenly said Tigers catcher Gerald Laird had the American League's best success rate throwing out basestealers and that Yankees catcher Jorge Posada had allowed eight passed balls when it was nine, prompting Sandomir to wonder if Caray was getting bad information or conducting "rogue research."

The criticism, however, hasn't hurt ratings. Over 13 divisional playoff games, ratings were up 11 percent over last year, boosting TBS to its most-viewed week in the network's 33-year history.

TBS will carry the entire NLCS, while FOX will broadcast the Yankees-Angels ALCS and the World Series.