Published Monday, August 04, 2008

Memories of Carey’s Hawks, Braves and moto-ball

Like most of us who grew up in Georgia during the 1970s and 80s, we used to hear the voice of Skip Caray working either an Atlanta Braves’ game or one of the Hawks.

As I was watching television on Sunday night, it was a surprise to hear of the passing of the longtime announcer in his sleep that afternoon.

The last time he was seen on television was when he “stole” a slice of pizza Thursday night during Peachtree TV’s broadcast of the Braves’ game with the St. Louis Cardinals from son Chip and long time associate Joe Simpson.

When the pizza arrived, Chip and Joe knew somebody was coming and it wasn’t Pete Van Wieren or a producer, but another Braves announcer named Caray.

Unfortunately health was the story of Caray over the past few years as he suffered from diabetes, kidney and liver failure as well as a back injury suffered from a fall off an exercise bicycle.

When I attended several games at Turner Field, I sat in the press box and had opportunities to see him and the wear and tear on his body showed one night on the way to the parking lot when he had a great deal of trouble crossing the street but he managed to make it to his vehicle.

However, the memories I had as a fan of the Braves and the Hawks overshadow the last few years of Caray’s life.

When I was in high school in Savannah, I was able to get WSB and listen to the Hawks’ broadcasts for a number of years with Caray as the announcer for games played at the Omni and selected road games that weren’t on TBS.

Two of his signature statements were “It’s Cocktail Hour” and “If you promise to patronize our sponsors, you have our permission to go walk the dog” as they were announcing a win for the Hawks or a blowout regardless of the victor.

Caray was also quite descriptive with shot attempts when a player missed a 15-foot jumper that went 16 feet or a shot from 21 that went 20.

He didn’t have the time to inject his style of humor during the Hawks years, but now and then he could stick a jab on somebody.

In sports journalism, one has to be able to expand the horizons a little bit and Caray was no exception as he did play-by-play during TBS coverage of the 1986 Goodwill Games for something called moto-ball which involved a soccer ball and an ATV.

However, most of us are going to have memories of Braves games past that were good or bad.

There was the call of Otis Nixon’s catch of a flyball in a 1992 game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Francisco Cabrera’s pinch hit single that scored Sid Bream and the call of the final out of the 1995 World Series.

The latter two calls were etched in my memory as my car broke down two blocks from my house and I listened to Skip make the call before I was rescued and I heard the World Series call on my way back from the Georgia-Florida game in Athens while I allowed my youngest brother to drive us home.

Other calls that made the list were the 1991 game at Cincinnati in which David Justice had a two-run home run to give the Braves a 7-6 come-from-behind win and the statement, “I have to borrow this from you dad, but holy cow”.

There was also the time when he promoted a TBS movie that would follow after the Braves turned a 5-4-3 double play and behold the two outs came and the game ended.

I also got a kick out of foul balls being caught and Skip’s perception of where they were from like Sharpsburg or Dunwoody or Cochran while also “praising” the DOT for the construction on the interstates.

With Skip’s passing I guess we will never know where foul ball catchers hail or the type of mischief the DOT gets into.

Godspeed Skip and thanks for the memories.