All posts tagged: Skip Carey

My Own Personal Spring Training

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As I post this, the clock on Spring Training Countdown (motto:  Winter Bad. Baseball Good.) reads:  4 days, 7 hours, 37 minutes, 7 seconds.  It is clear I don’t have much time to get in shape for the season! My own personal spring training generally consists of reading a new baseball book and re-watching Bull Durham (best baseball movie ever).  However, our tape/CD player is broken (I know, we’re old school), and so I had to improvise and instead read two baseball books.  It is tough duty, but sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to get into shape. I began with 2015’s Big Data Baseball: Math, Miracles, and the End of a 20-year Losing Streak by Pittsburgh writer Travis Sawchik. This is a terrific book about how the 2013 Pittsburgh Pirates, stumbling along in a 20-year losing streak (remember Sid Bream and Barry Bonds and Skip Carey’s classic 1992 “They may have to hospitalize Sid Bream” call) turned around their fortune as a baseball club.  The Pirates did it using big-data …

Free Baseball

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I love October baseball.  Friday’s games – the first between the Phillies and Dodgers followed by the Red Sox vs. the Rays – were both terrific.  And tonight, the Sox and Rays just went into extra innings – or what Skip Carey use to call “Free Baseball.”   And as I was typing those words, lo and behold, Ernie Johnson, Jr., whose dad was Carey’s longtime broadcast partner with the Braves, just used that term.  Skip lives! Yesterday, Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia was rocking – and I was reminded of my visit there just two short weeks ago when I saw the Phillies take a win that may have been the pivotal one towards the division championship.  The view (see photo at right) was very similar. More to come… DJB

Scoring a Walk Off

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Walk Offs.  The name is pretty descriptive.  One pitch and the game is over.  And last night, I had the chance to see one in person.  From my perspective, nothing in sports is so exciting.  You may ask, “What’s the difference in a walk off in baseball and a sudden death touchdown or field goal in football, when the last score wins it all?”  (I recall Curt Gowdy liked to rename these extra periods “Sudden Victory” in place of “Sudden Death.”)  What about the last second shot in basketball? Here’s why…in baseball, the walk off comes as part of the normal course of the game.  Baseball is famous for not having a clock.  This infuriates some when it is 11 p.m. and you have babysitters at home or an early morning alarm clock is on the horizon for work.  But there is no sudden death (or sudden victory) in baseball.  When you win with a walk off, it means that the home team has won in the course of the normal rules of the game.  It …

Skip Carey – RIP – A Follow-up

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A friend of mine, John Lane, sent an email after the post I made last week on the death of long-time Braves announcer Skip Carey.  It included a great story that I just had to share.  After noting that he appreciated baseball and was headed to Fenway next month for a game, John turned to basketball announcers when he wrote: “That brings to mind Johnny Most, who was for many years the radio voice of the Boston Celtics (1953-1990), one whose allegiance was never in doubt.  Catch him on YouTube. On one occasion the game had gotten very exciting.  Most was screaming into the microphone when suddenly his voice was lost, though the crowd noise in the background continued at a roar. After nearly two minutes of no play-by-play, Most’s voice resumed:  ‘Sorry about that Celtics fans.  I got so excited I fell out of the press box.’” If you have stories to tell on your favorite sportscaster, please feel free to write a comment to this post. Off to hike the Grand Canyon.  More to come… DJB