Skip Caray 1939-2008

Monday, August 04, 2008


The Baseball community lost a good one yesterday as Braves announcer, and son of the legendary Harry Caray, Skip Caray passed away Sunday afternoon....

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

Caray, who would have celebrated his 69th birthday on Aug. 12, went to take a nap Sunday afternoon and didn't awaken. 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."

"I'm just in shock," Chip [Caray] 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.'"
I grew up watching Braves games on TBS and he was always one of the guys I enjoyed listening to. While it's always sad to lose someone of Skip's stature and talent, it's good to know that he went peacefully and that his son got to say he loved him.

Baseball mourns loss of Skip Caray (MLB)

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 7:15 AM

16 Comments:

I'm from the Boston area and started watching Braves games when the Red Sox were on the West Coast on TBS. Skip was one of those announcers who let the game come to him instead of trying to be the show (are you reading this, Joe Buck and Chris Berman?). He truly seemed to love the game and had a wonderful sense of humor. Braves fans were lucky to have him. All the best to his family.

bceagle91 said...
Aug 4, 2008, 7:46:00 AM  

i also grew up with TBS back in the 80s when the braves had guys like claudell washington, murphy, bob horner and glenn hubbard. i felt bad for them at the time because they were always chasing the dodgers.

even though carey's homerism became unbearable once the braves turned it around, condolences to the carey family. it's always a sad day when someone loses a husband, father and grandfather.

-dan

Anonymous said...
Aug 4, 2008, 8:05:00 AM  

if you had cable you definitely watched tbs. i remember being in new york and houston listening to hawks games and other nba games on tbs with skip caray and van wiernen. great times.

chip caray did the yankees angels game yesterday and called a good game considering the circumstances. im sure he found out before

madnice said...
Aug 4, 2008, 9:28:00 AM  

A very sad day for all baseball fans. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but does anyone know who had been filling in for Skip on the road games? I guess Chip could have done some of the games that were airing on SportsSouth TV. Also, did Chip do the TBS game at Yankee Stadium yesterday?

Anonymous said...
Aug 4, 2008, 9:28:00 AM  

It's a sad day for baseball, losing a legend like Skip. Gotta be hard on Chip, not only losing his dad but knowing that he's now the sole mantle-bearer for the legendary broadcasting family.

Thoughts and prayers to the Careys.

Anonymous said...
Aug 4, 2008, 9:30:00 AM  

Chip was on the TBS game yesterday.

Aug 4, 2008, 9:33:00 AM  

I'm part of a large generation of Braves fans that never knew Braves baseball without Skip. It felt like a punch in the stomach when I found out the news. Skip felt like part of the family moreso than many members of the family.

Chip does TV games for Peachtree TV in the south and on radio when he's not tied up with TBS. Former Braves great Mark Lemke has done spot fill in work for radio.

Big D said...
Aug 4, 2008, 9:44:00 AM  

For ONCE, they can't write "he died peacefully with his family by his side."
Chip wasn't there! Now he has to live with that the rest of his life.

Anonymous said...
Aug 4, 2008, 10:32:00 AM  

He hung the moon for me.

No disrespect, but what the hell does that mean?

GMoney said...
Aug 4, 2008, 10:42:00 AM  

I didn't know what that meant either, but it sounds good.

Aug 4, 2008, 10:46:00 AM  

@anon10:32-Why even bother posting that garbage??? Get a clue..and keep your stupid thoughts bottled up in your tiny brain.

Monty said...
Aug 4, 2008, 10:50:00 AM  

he (or she) "Hung the moon" is just an idiom used for someone you think very highly of.

Anonymous said...
Aug 4, 2008, 11:25:00 AM  

Anon@10:32,

You're a pretty sad individual if you take some sort of pleasure out of that.

Anonymous said...
Aug 4, 2008, 11:56:00 AM  

It was a sad day indeed. When I heard about this, I was like "Wait.. no way. I just heard him in a game not just last week", but then I saw it on SC and I dunno. I hardly cry, but I almost cried here. He's been apart of the Braves family; my family for a long time, and to lose him is like losing another grandfather. I feel so bad for Chip and the rest of the Carey family.

Also, yeah. He did PTV games with Chip sometimes, but mostly it's Chip and Joe Simpson on PTV. Boog/Simpson do games on Fox Sports South/SportsSouth.

Anonymous said...
Aug 4, 2008, 12:09:00 PM  

"Like lambs to the slaughter, the Braves take the field." Probably the all time best Skip line of all time, other than when the Braves won the World Series. I believe he said it during one of the many Braves losing streaks in the late 1980s.

Anonymous said...
Aug 4, 2008, 1:57:00 PM  

Skip will be missed greatly here in Atlanta. Skip, Pete Van Wieren, and Bobby Cox have been constants during the Braves run of the 90's and early 2000's. Getting to listen to him regularly here in Atlanta was a great pleasure and his style, humor, and chemistry with his announcing partners was legendary. His greatest call in my opinion was his call of the Sid Bream slide in 1992 against the Pirates to win the NLCS. You can find that audio here: http://www.bayblitz.com/WEB%20GIFS%201/The%20Slide%20-%20NLCS%20-%201992%20-%20Atlanta%20Braves.mp3

Anonymous said...
Aug 4, 2008, 3:13:00 PM  

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