Skip Caray, longtime radio and television voice of the
Braves,
passed away Sunday.
There was no better place and time for a baseball fan than Atlanta during the 1990s. There are several reasons for this, but Skip's contribution to those halcyon days cannot be overstated. He called Sid Bream's slide, Otis Nixon's catch, and Marquis Grissom's Series-clinching grab. Those of us who remember him best, though, appreciated him for other reasons.
The man knew so much about baseball that he grew bored. Once, without provocation, he turned to his booth mate and asked, "How are our governmental relations with Spain? Do you happen to know?" He would sometimes relate traffic reports or insult whichever poor fan happened to be within the idle shot of a television camera. He endlessly harped on pitcher Jung Bong and delivered family-unfriendly word plays. I'm sure your favorite broadcaster loves the game of baseball. But my favorite broadcaster expressed his love for it with the sort of genuine, subtle, creative, grumpy manner that we would not have otherwise heard.
I'll continue to use the word "baseball" to describe this game, but when Skip Caray was with us, it meant something just a little bit different to me.
Today's Dugout is after the jump.
Hank Steinbrenner is jumping bad. As Fornelli reported earlier, the Yankees' co-owner is upset about a number of things. In a magnificent transcendence of introspection, clarity, and common sense, Steinbrenner terms the AL East as unfair, laments the socialist nature of revenue sharing, and shrieks foul of the NL West and the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals.
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