Skip Caray could make bad sound good
Skip Caray, who died Sunday at 68, mastered a baseball broadcaster’s most challenging task. Sure, it’s easy to listen to a guy talk when your favorite team is winning. How about when your favorite team is miserable for years upon years – and its games are broadcast nationally?.
For most of the ’80s, Caray presided over the inane flailings of the Atlanta Braves with bemusement, sarcasm, ridicule and mischief. He did much to make the Braves’ America’s Team, when they were the first team to have every game carried nationally via cable, and he was rewarded when the Braves suddenly became the National League’s Team of the ’90s.
Caray was the son of Harry Caray, of course, and enjoyed the dim bar lights as fervently as his old man. While Harry was an unabashed all-or-nothing fan of whatever team was paying him, Skip saw the irony in things.
ocregister.com
8/5/08
