My Favorite Blank

Well it was a normal weekend for the Atlanta Braves fans when they kicked off the month of August with a 3 game weekend series against the Milwaukee Brewers. All of the fans were going to be treated to things they have seen many times over the last 17 years or so. It’s late in the baseball season so things were pretty much in-line to see some good baseball at Fulton County Stadium and get to watch a team with a real good shot at the World Series in 2008. So the fans really couldn’t have seen anything about this past weekend that would be surprising or off of the beaten path that this Atlanta Braves team has grown accustom to over the years or could they?

Well as the story would have it, that isn’t quite how things shaped up in Atlanta for the fans at the game or watching at home on television. The games weren’t at Fulton County Stadium and they were being played at Turner Field or “The Ted”. The team with the 2008 World Series on their mind wasn’t the Atlanta Braves, but it was the visiting Milwaukee Brewers. So maybe this first weekend in August was everything but ordinary and it didn’t take long to see how different baseball in Atlanta is these days. The Milwaukee Brewers got off to a red hot start on Friday as they beat the Braves 9 to 0 and showed why they are in contention to win it all this year. The Braves wouldn’t be so easy to beat on Saturday, but again the Brewers added another tally in the win column with a 4 to 2 victory over the Braves. So why it might have been different from the last couple of decades in Atlanta, the series was actually going as it should and the better team was proving it. So there really wasn’t much hope going into Sunday and playing the final game of this weekend series. Everybody knew what was expected and how the Sunday match up would end, but someone forgot to tell Jorge Campillo. Who? Well he was the ace on the mound for the Bravos Sunday and he pitched great with 7 scoreless innings and the bullpen closed it out, as the Braves prevented the sweep with a 5 to zip victory. So the weekend wasn’t a total loss for the Braves organization and they did manage to come away with something. Unfortunately the weekend wasn’t over yet and all of the joy, smiles and high 5’s would come to a grinding halt as the Braves would soon learn about the bad news.

I can’t tell you the exact details but I can guess how the story would play out from here. I’m sure many players and coaches returned home after the game and were packing up their bags for a west coast baseball trip that would start in San Francisco on Monday Night. I’m sure many of them was spending as much quality time as they could with their families, since it would be a long time until they came back home. After all the bags were packed and the hugs and kisses were given out to their wives and children, the Braves would board their flight and rejoin their teammates that had just beaten the Milwaukee Brewers earlier in the day. Some were probably still talking about the game; while others were probably closing their eyes and preparing for a nap on the long plane ride that would take them across the country. Some where up in the darken sky between Atlanta and San Francisco the tragic news from Georgia would find its way into that plane; the sad news that the voice of the Atlanta Braves Skip Caray had passed away at his home in the backyard.

One of the people that knew him the most was in that plane and it was Skip’s longtime co-worker and friend Pete Van Wieren or “The Professor” to those that follow the Braves team. He was not the first one on the plane to learn of the horrible news and I can only assume how things proceeded on that plane. I’m sure there was a discussion on how they would tell him or better yet who would deliver that message. It turned out that it was probably the person most qualified for this duty and someone that had been giving us leadership all of these years here in Atlanta. It was the Skipper him self and Bobby Cox would be the one that would make his way to Pete and softly let him know that his longtime friend and partner was no longer with us. I’m sure everyone on that plane knew about the passing of Skip Caray before it touched down in California.

The Atlanta Braves organization has given us so many memories over the years and the type of memories that you will never forget. Who could forget Francisco Cabrera’s single to left field that would send a charging Sid Bream sliding to the plate? I think that was the finest moment ever in their 14 year-run on winning the division. I know that wasn’t Skip’s pick as the best moment ever and he chose something else that Braves fans will never forget. Skip describes the event in his own words as just a “lazy routine fly ball that centerfielder Marquis Grissom caught” and this was the final out in the 1995 baseball season and only World Series they would win during this impressive 14 year span. The people that were there to witness these things will never forget these moments. Now we get one more memory from the Braves that we will never forget and that is the shocking news that Skip Caray will no longer be watching the games with us.

We all know that everything must come to an end sometime. Nothing last forever and sometimes change comes soon and sometimes it can come much later. We all know the feeling we had in Georgia when the Braves just kept winning division after division and it seem like it was going to last forever. It just wasn’t us that thought this and all of the teams and fans in our division were sharing these same thoughts too. You can even go outside of the division and look at all of the other Major League Baseball teams and they wanted to know where the end was too. Even the other professional sports like the NBA, NFL and NHL could recognize how special it was for one team to win their division year in and year out. It’s great that the fans of the Braves got to enjoy that feeling for so long but the Skip Caray streak goes way beyond 14 division titles in a row. In fact, it’s more than double that because Skip Caray has been doing this for the last 33 years! How do you say good bye to someone that has been a part of your life for 33 years? I think the simple answer is “you don’t”. I don’t believe any of us are ready to let him go yet and if he can’t be around here to speak or give us his thoughts on our Atlanta Braves, we will just have to do it for him. It’s up to us to wipe away those tears and leave the sorrow behind, because now is the time for celebration and to honor a man that gave so much of his life for the Braves organization, the fans, the game of baseball and to the residents of Georgia.

The Skip Caray legacy is much different from the other legendary sports announcers that came before him. The person that has did this job the longest was Vin Scully and we may never see anyone else that makes it 59 years in this profession like the voice of the Dodgers did. The Scully family has not escaped tragedy either, as Vin lost his 35 year old wife in the early 1970’s and he lost a son in the 1990’s. Vin Scully has roots that go back to the Brooklyn days and the ones he grew in Los Angeles. This is still a very small comparison to the roots Mr. Caray has grown all over the country. Ted Turner was able to beam the airwaves of TBS for everybody in the country to see. Turner being the owner of the Atlanta Braves meant that he would show his team on the television station he owned called TBS. So the Atlanta Braves were America’s team and this wasn’t just a slogan but the actual truth. A person living in Florida or North Dakota at the time didn’t have a baseball team in their state and the only professional baseball they could see on television was the Braves games. The states that did have their own teams and fans could only watch their local team and if they wanted to watch any extra baseball on tv, they had to do so via TBS. So the Atlanta Braves was the most loved team in those early 80’s and if they weren’t your favorite team, chances are they were the team you liked 2nd best. So while the whole country was falling in love with the Atlanta Braves, it was Skip Caray that was coming into their living rooms every evening and letting the fans around the country know what was going on with the Braves. Most baseball fans can tell you that Vin Scully is the voice of the Dodgers because he did it for 59 years. Most baseball fans can tell you that Skip Caray is the voice of the Braves because they use to watch him and this makes his legacy much different.

Skip wasn’t the pioneer for the Caray family even though Chip Caray is currently an announcer for the Braves and another son named Josh does the radio for a minor league team associated with the club. Most people remember the late Harry Caray and he was a big staple in the Chicago Cubs history. Harry is the father of Skip and he is the one that got everything started and the reason so many baseball fans around the country know the Caray name. Harry Caray is most remembered for the 7th inning stretch where he would sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game over the PA system in Chicago. It’s a tradition that still lives on today and a different celebrity now wails out the lyrics for each home game the Cubs play. It was always fun for the Braves and Cubs to play each other with Harry still around and hear the different things him and Skip had to say. It just doesn’t seem right without them and I know everyone in Cub nation knows what the folks down in Atlanta are going through now.

The first game has already been played that Skip Caray wasn’t watching and this was in San Francisco on Monday night. The Braves lost the game but it was the best game I had seen all year. I’m not sure how many loyal Braves fans stayed up that late here on the east coast watching it, but I’m sure there was some. It was great watching all of the old footage they showed that Skip Caray was a part of. The stories and memories that the Braves crew was telling was really soothing to all of the aching hearts back here in Georgia. I think a lot of the things Joe Simpson said were the best and he did such a great job sharing his memories of Skip with us. He does a great impersonation of Skip’s voice, so a lot the things he shared on television last night, he could tell the viewers what he said and then when he wanted to tell us what Skip said, he changed his voice and it was just like hearing it on replay. I think Joe will need to bring that voice out a lot more for the rest of this season as the Braves try to finish up a rough 2008 year that just got a lot rougher on August 3rd.

“Well if you promise to patronize our sponsors you have permission to go walk the dog now”…….Skip Caray