anouncers, originally uploaded by Valerie Reneé.

Skip Caray, long time Atlanta Braves' sports announcer, died Sunday. I was very sad to hear this - he has been announcing Braves games for a litle longer than I've been a Braves fan. He started in 1976, I started in like 1980 or maybe a little earlier - I remember watching baseball on WTGS because that UHF station (later to be WTBS) would show tape delays of the games, and I was a nightowl, and that was the only thing on TV that late. That and Hogan's Heroes reruns.

Skip had a wonderfully dry, sarcastic sense of humor, and when he got excited about something, it was something to be really excited about. The 1991 season stands out especially, when the Braves for the first time in God knows how long made it to the World series.

Like many Atlanta fans, I turned the sound down on the TV for the playoff / series games to listen to Skip, Don, and Pete (and Joe) on the radio because Joe Morgan and Tim McCarver just plain sucked.

I watched the pregame show Monday night on SportsSouth and cried some - sometimes you don't realize that something is a constant in your life until you lose it.

On a related note, I don't think I ever wrote here that I'm glad I got to go to Wrigley Field and sing along to 'Take Me Out To the Ballgame' with Harry Carey (Skip's dad) during the 7th inning stretch before Harry passed away. This was in 1990. I hope Turner Field memorializes Skip in some way like Harry is at Wrigley.