R.I.P. The Voice of the Braves

It would be unfair to say that I learned to speak English from Skip Caray, who died yesterday in Atlanta, since I did go to a bilingual school. But when you watch baseball games every day during the summer, sometimes as many as 100 a year, it's difficult not to see an influence there. I grew up listening to him calling baseball games. Every day I would tune in and Skip would welcome the viewers to the broadcast. "Hello again everybody, and welcome to another night of Atlanta Braves baseball..."

He was a magnificent broadcaster, sarcastic and droll and so much fun to listen to. I'll never forget a call he made, late at night some summer evening. It was the bottom of the ninth and the Braves were just about to close out a win against the Mets:

"Man on first, one out. The movie following the game tonight is Blazing Saddles, and we'll get you to that as soon as Tod Phillips grounds into a 6-4-3 double play. Here's the pitch... and it's grounded to short. Out at second... out at first. Hope they have that movie ready."

Of course his call during the '92 NLCS is his most memorable one, but what I'll remember best is the jokes he'd make during games. "The bases are loaded and I wish I was too." There'd be 7,000 people in the ballpark and he'd call it a "partial sell-out." A grounder to third would be "a chopper to Chipper."

He always used to sign off the broadcast by saying, "So long, everybody." So long, Skip.