I’m sure I can speak for a lot of longtime Atlanta 30- and 40-somethings when I say that Skip Caray’s passing paves over just that much more of the nostalgic link to our own carefree youths. I can honestly remember Skip’s first year of Braves television on the old WTCG Channel 17 in 1976 and thinking that he was quite a contrast to his amiable partner, Ernie Johnson, Sr.(Ironically, Caray was a carbon copy of his irascible predecessor Milo Hamilton, with whom the Carays feuded for years.)
Caray was the tell-it-like-it-is filter between the listener and such Braves notables as Vic “The Stick” Correll, Larvell “Sugar Bear” Blanks and Ralph “The Roadrunner” Garr. He wasn’t scared of the owner’s wrath, as he was quick to criticize Ted Turner’s team on Ted Turner’s television station when he saw terrible play on the field. He would be sure to let us know when we could turn off the broadcast early, making sure, of course, that we patronized the advertisers all the same. Maybe more than any major announcer of his generation, he was able to marry sarcasm with self-deprecation and wry humor.
By his own accounts, he lived hard and when he spoke of “Cocktail Hour”, as he did when the Hawks were wrapping up a TV win in the early 80s, even this 12-year-old realized the man knew intimately of what he spoke. (Tellingly, in this week’s AJC, his son, Chip, candidly pointed to his lifestyle as a reason behind his death.) He could be a rabid homer and ref-baiter, and was quick to personalize the action, bestowing nicknames upon “Fast Eddie” Johnson and Billy “Whopper” Paultz. He, absolutely, ratcheted up the level of local interest in the Hawks as they were just starting to win in the late 70s and early 80s.
Naturally, everyone in the local broadcasting business has a good-natured story. Channel 11’s Sam Crenshaw tells a good one in which Caray ‘fired himself’ from his part-time job as Channel 11 sportscaster in the early 80s. He was so disappointed with his performance after one bad show, as Crenshaw tells it, that he posted a note on the news director’s door that night: “You were going to do it anyway, so I’ll relieve you of the burden.”
He raised a half-hearted fuss about being moved off Braves television a few years back, but as Braves Fox announcer Jon Sciambi told me in a recent interview, “I see Skip all the time and every time I see him, he makes me laugh,” Sciambi said. “He has really treated me … how do I describe this … well, I’d say like a son, but I can’t say that, because he has a son. But he’s been unbelievable in how welcoming and supportive he’s been. I really can’t say enough about the man.”
I only crossed paths with him a few times and actually found him to be very pleasant. Sure, we were interviewing him about his and Pete Van Wieren’s BBQ joint, but he patiently answered the same questions all over again for us and chatted about baseball when we were through. Most people I’ve talked to in recent years said he was very friendly with the local media. I came away glad to have met him.
He had great on-air moments, as anyone who has heard him call the Sid Bream Slide in the last few days can attest. In assessing his talent, he probably didn’t make the contributions to his craft as did an Ernie Harwell, Vin Scully or Red Barber, but then that’s really not a fair comparison – those men were pioneers. What he did do perfectly was entertain and keep us listening maybe just an inning longer than we would have ordinarily. And if you’re old enough to remember the 1976 Braves season, that was no small feat.
SUMMER GAMES
NBC long ago lost Major League Baseball, the NBA and the other summertime jewels that once allowed them to employ Dick Enberg, Vin Scully and Marv Albert. This week, though, the Peacock network gets to trot out the Summer Olympics and – for at least two weeks – its local affiliates can push aside Arena Football and Seniors Golf and enjoy the summertime viewership they’ve been craving since, well, four years ago.
Channel 11 is no exception, of course, and they’ve already shipped off signature anchor Brenda Wood and a videographer to China in search of national stories that have local angles.
“Having Brenda there is going to give our viewers a unique perspective beyond just the competition itself,” said Tracy Carmony, Channel 11’s executive producer for sports.
All of the local material will be compiled into a Monday-Saturday local program on Channel 11, “Olympic Zone,” which will be hosted by Fred Kalil and Ted Hall immediately preceding NBC’s evening coverage. In fact, Channel 11 has been tunneling up to this moment for several months, having aired quite a few pieces on the athletes training, Beijing construction efforts, and Chinese politics.
Behind the scenes, Channel 11 shooter David Brooks writes in his blog that he’s shipped 14 cases of equipment to China and that, at one point, Chinese officials – intentionally or unintentionally – had prevented the massive shipments of equipment from passing the border. (Fortunately, the gear eventually made it through.) His other concern comes courtesy of the state department, which has alerted the Western media that they should assume they’re being watched and monitored at all times, even in private locations.
“While the thought of sharing my hotel bathroom with a communist eavesdropper isn’t too appealing, in a way I feel pretty sorry for him since I’m afraid it’s going to be a pretty boring month for him,” Brooks said.
Jeff Batten owns Batten Communications, Inc., the Southeast’s largest independent sports production company. He also owns Complete Game Broadcasting in North Atlanta, a sports broadcasting training facility. His column appears twice-monthly in Score Atlanta. Send items of interest to jeff@completegame.tv.
Loading ...
