Longtime Atlanta Braves announcer Skip Caray passes away

Skip Caray may have never become the beloved and iconic figure that his dad, baseball hall of famer and longtime Cubs announcer Harry Caray, was. He didn’t sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” or have a catchphrase as identifiable as his dad’s “Holy Cow!” (though his excited exclamations of “Braves Win! Braves Win! came close). To a generation that grew up watching WTCG and WTBS as the Atlanta UHF station morphed into a “Superstation”, transforming the broadcasting industry in the process, Skip Caray was the voice of baseball.

Skip Caray died in his sleep in his Atlanta home on Sunday. He was 68. The cause of death has not yet been determined, but a number of health challenges had prevented him from traveling with the team on the road this season.

Caray was the lead play-by-play voice of the Atlanta Braves for 33 years. During that time the team went from perennial losers to “America’s Team” and a fixture at the top of their division. Caray actually “made the big leagues” first as a basketball announcer, following the St. Louis Hawks to Atlanta. He became the voice of the Braves shortly after the team was purchased by Ted Turner (more as a money saving move than anything else). When Caray first started announcing Braves games the team couldn’t have been considered “lovable losers” like his dad’s ‘Cubbies’—they were just losers. The only time anyone really cared about Braves broadcasts was on the occasions when they’d pre-empt “Georgia Championship Wrestling”, generating a barrage of nasty calls to the WTBS switchboards.

Ted Turner began to hire some good baseball people to run the Braves, and after a few false starts during the 1980’s the team became one of the game’s elite franchises during the 1990’s and beyond. Caray was the steady, solid—but quick witted and sarcastic at times—voice that chronicled the rise in the team’s fortunes. He provided the narrative accompaniment to a World Series championship, 5 NL Pennants, 13 division titles and six Cy Young Awards for Braves pitching.

Caray is survived by his wife and four children two of whom are also involved in baseball broadcasting—Chip Caray is also a member of the Braves’ broadcast team, and Josh Caray works on radio broadcasts for the Class A Rome (GA) Braves.