RIP

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Fire Phil Emery

Baseball mourns loss of Skip Caray
Beloved Braves announcer continued legacy of excellence
By Mark Bowman / MLB.com


ATLANTA -- The Braves family lost one of its most beloved members on Sunday, when Skip Caray passed away at his Atlanta-area home. He was 68.

Caray, who would have celebrated his 69th birthday on Aug. 12, went to take a nap Sunday afternoon and didn't awake. He is survived by his wife, Paula, two sons, Chip and Josh, two daughters, Shayelyn and Cindy, and seven grandchildren.

"Our baseball community has lost a legend today," said Braves president John Schuerholz. "The Braves family and Braves fans everywhere will sadly miss him. Our thoughts are with his wife Paula and his children."

The two sons will carry on the family's rich broadcasting tradition, which began with Skip's father, Harry Caray, a Hall of Fame announcer who remains one of the most popular figures in baseball history.

Josh currently calls games for the Braves' Class A affiliate in Rome, Ga., and Chip serves as both a Braves announcer and the play-by-play announcer for TBS' Major League Baseball coverage. Chip was broadcasting Sunday's game between the Angels and Yankees at Yankee Stadium when he heard the startling news about his father.

"I'm just in shock," Chip said. "I know he wasn't feeling good, but this was unexpected. He hung the moon for me. I got to talk to him [on Saturday], and the last thing I got to say to him was, 'I love you.'"

Caray, who began broadcasting Braves games in 1976, battled multiple ailments over the past year that he linked to diabetes. When he wasn't available to broadcast this past weekend's series against the Brewers, it was revealed that he was suffering from bronchitis.

Although he was visibly weaker, Caray still brought his smile and humor to the ballpark on a consistent basis this season. Since the final month of last season, he had been limited to broadcasting only home games.

Caray was hospitalized during the latter portion of last season and faced even greater complications once the season concluded. In October 2007, doctors were concerned enough about Caray's health that they asked for all of his family members to come to the hospital to possibly pay their last respects. His liver was failing and the doctors in the intensive care unit felt they had done all that they could do.

Caray battled back and spent most of this past winter continuing to fight ailments that were affecting his liver, kidneys and heart. He said some of his prescribed medications worked in a counteractive manner and made it difficult for him to sleep.

When Caray returned to broadcast games at the beginning of this season, he talked about his near-death experience and said that he was happy to at least have an opportunity to return to the baseball world that had provided so much to himself and his family.

"I'm 68," Caray said on April 2. "If I go tonight, I've had a hell of a life."

While his presence may be gone, Caray's voice will continue forever live with the history of the Braves. His most memorable call arguably came when he exclaimed, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" after Braves center fielder Marquis Grissom caught the final out of the 1995 World Series.

The son of a Hall of Fame broadcaster, Skip devoted much of his life to the broadcasting world. He began his broadcasting career at KMOX Radio in St. Louis as host of a 15-minute high school sports show and later had an opportunity to broadcast University of Missouri football games with his father.

While he was most recognizable as a baseball announcer, Caray's versatile broadcasting skills allowed him to serve as an announcer for NBA games, NFL games, and other ventures like the Goodwill Games. He was named Georgia Sportscaster of the Year six times.

Caray's baseball broadcasting career began in 1963 with the Tulsa Oilers. He joined the NBA's St. Louis Hawks' broadcasting team in 1967 and relocated with them to Atlanta the following year.

Caray's arrival in Atlanta allowed him the opportunity to develop a friendship and working relationship with Ted Turner, whose innovative media initiatives allowed Caray and his close friend, Pete Van Wieren, to broadcast Braves games to a national audience on a superstation that would become TBS.

Caray and Van Wieren began broadcasting Braves games together in 1976 and were still serving as broadcast partners during radio broadcasts this season. Both of them were inducted in the Braves Hall of Fame in 2004.

Last year, when TBS ended its 30-year affiliation with the Braves, Caray was saddened to know he was saying goodbye to a number of people that had been so good to him. He was always extremely grateful for the outpouring of sympathy he received after his father died in 1998.

"In essence, you're saying goodbye to people who you've been part of their life for a long time," Caray said last August. "My access to them will now be denied."

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That's a shame. I'll miss the way he used to say "Rafael Furcal".

Aw man, RIP.

Should be in the "Media Graveyard" section though.

That section isn't worthy of him...

Zing!

for the 3rd time, I like Chip and I'm sorry his dad died.

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

that is sad; he wasn't that old either...damn.

That's life. 68 years old. His Dad, Harry, lived to 84 and was a daily drunk into his late 70s.

From what I understand Skip wasn't like his dad. Wasn't a drunk. He was a fat man. That probably hurt him. Just goes to show you. Drink.

They list Harry at 84 but he was probably older. He was an orphan, never had a birth certificate, so they just gave him the birthday March 1, 1914.

Nice job, AP.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries ... 08.article

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

Is it just me or has 2008 and the last few months in particular, been really bad for celebrities and retired sports figures. It seems like every couple days we're hearing about a new one. I don't remember this quantity or consistency of celeb deaths in the past. This sucks though, feel bad for Chip.

On the contrary, Skip was known as a pretty heavy drinker, hence the liver failure and all. The obituaries all gracefully allude to him "acknowledging that he wrote some checks that were getting cashed" and so forth.

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I wonder if Chip is the same, too.

When the Atlanta Braves were billed by TBS as "America's Team", even before they won 13 division titles & the 1995 World Series, Skip was a hoot to listen to, no matter who he worked with on the broadcasts. It wasn't just how he said the names "Chipper Jones" & "Rafael Furcal" when they were up, there were stories he told to the likes of Pete Van Wieren, Joe Simpson, John Sterling, Don Sutton & Ernie Johnson Sr. during the game they made him chuckle. Also, as TBS was wrapping up its coverage, Skip's promo for what was following the game was a hoot as well. Former "ESPN SportsCenter" anchor & NFL Network host Rich Eisen always imitated Skip whenever Braves' highlights were shown. He was hilarious and he'll definitely be missed by fans everywhere.

Each generation of Caray gets worse at the profession. In another 2 or so generations there will be a Caray sitting behind a mic who can do no better than drool.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Harry is coming back then?

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That's true. Skip really wasn't good. Nobody likes Chip.

Man, what Harry did for his offspring.

That poor orphan boy who later went on to become a hard-living drunk really set up the Caray empire. They don't even have to have talent. Does Chip have any boys?

Chip was better than Skip? Discuss...

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

i don't get the chip caray hate...

Yeah, he's actually pretty good. The combo of Chip and Steve was the best in Chicago, of all the broadcast booths. All the others had some sort of weak link (Santo, Farmer, Red's senility, Hawk not getting along with DJ, etc.) They were a solid duo.

That would be Josh Caray.

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He has the unfortunate combination of a five head and Mac Tonight chin.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.