Sure the game will go on, but it will never be the same.

Sportsbyfletch correspondent Paul Mac offers a tribute to the late, great Skip Caray

As I sat at my computer playing a clip from the broadcast of the 7th game of the 1992 NLCS with the current braves broadcast out in San Francisco it hit me. This is historic, and it will never be the same. It’s not 2004 and no amount of justified letters to the editor are going to bring Skip back on the air. With all due respect to John Sciambi who calls a fine game, it’s impossible not to feel a little or a lot depressed that Skip Caray won’t be there anymore.

Skip got it. He was our eyes and our ears… I know the rest of you turned had your radios turned to “our guys” and had your televisions down like we did back in the days before digital TV and 7 second satellite delay. There I was in the peak of my baseball fandom just having turned 13 and full of hope. “A lot of room in Right Center if it hits it there we can dance in the streets…” It must have been 10:30 or 11:00 at night, my mother and sister had gone to bed, and my father and I were on the edge of our seats as Francisco Cabrera stood at the plate. “ The 2-1… swung line drive left field One run is in here comes Bream, Here’s the throw to the plate…. He is……SAFE!!!! BRAVES WIN! BRAVES WIN! BRAVES WIN! They may have to hospitalize Sid Bream; he's down at the bottom of a huge pile at the plate. They help him to his feet. Frank Cabrera got the game winner! The Atlanta Braves are National League champions again! This crowd is going berserk, listen to this CROWD!”

That moment to me is the most memorable of all and it has been made so mainly because of that call. Whenever I see the picture of Bream mobbed at the plate, Braves Win pops into my brain.

I‘m not sure why I remember specifically jumping up and shouting my dad subsequently high fiving me and giving me a hug while telling me to be quiet because my mom and sister were sleeping but Sid’s slide and the subsequent Skip Caray radio call made it immortal. Jay Bell had no shot at Cabrera’s line Drive, but one of the best 5 tool players in the history of baseball in Barry Bonds was bearing down on it and Sid Bream formerly of that same great Pirates team with 2 really bad knees coming all the way from second represented the game winner…. Impossible right? I guess not. The throw, Bream and Mike Lavallier’s glove got there pretty much the same time even though I visually saw the umpires arms outstretch. “He is SAFE BRAVES WIN!” gave me the ability to exhale and celebrate.

Through the exuberance of Skip Caray’s voice I knew victory; I knew triumph; I knew joy. It’s almost as if last nights braves broadcast was a reminder of all we took for granted for so many years. He laughed with us, cried with us, never talked down to the audience like others have. He called the game exactly the way he saw it with no BS and he spoke his mind and that’s incredibly rare in today’s PC media world. He had the perfect sense of humor that the great ones have. The braves broadcast for so many years with Skip Caray; Pete Van Wieren; Ernie Johnson and Don Sutton among a few others we simply didn’t know how good we had it. I can’t count the number of times I’d be in the middle of nowhere in Georgia trying to find a crackly AM station to tune into the game as I drove across the state be it north or south Georgia Summertime I’m always game for baseball on the radio. It’s almost more fun listening than it was watching what happened. I think I preferred listening on the radio because Skip and Pete were as good as or even better on the radio than they were on TBS. Pete always ready with a stat or information… Skip always on point to tell the perfect joke.

I know the Braves will go on and Pete will still be there calling the games for a while at least on the radio… but it’s never going to be the same without Skip. The unique nasally voice and acerbic wit that sometimes left you running for a dictionary to find out just what he meant. Boog does a fine job along with Joe Simpson who has been there for quite a few good years too but summer will never quite be the same without Skip. A career spanning the entire Atlanta Braves history to date from the roughest times to the top of the world has come to an end and Atlanta and the Braves will never be the same. Well done Will Ohman for your fitting toast in San Francisco. I sure hope we can find a way to hang on to you next season.



Thank you, Skip. for everything,

Paul
You can hear Paul Mac following every Braves weeknight Home game on Sports Radio 790 The Zone. Paul will next bring his football prowess to the airwaves starting August 23 with the Corky Kell Classic, to air on 790. Catch him in a booth, calling a game at his Mecca the Georgia Dome, with Fletcher and Trey McDaniel at 2:30 and 5:30.