Skip Caray's memorial service set for Monday

From braves.com:

SAN FRANCISCO -- A memorial service for Skip Caray will be held Monday in Atlanta at Cathedral of Christ the King. All of Caray's friends and fans are welcome to attend the service, which will begin at 4 p.m. ET.

On last night's pre-game Braves Live, OKT said that Brian McCann and Jeff Francoeur will serve as pallbearers and John Smoltz will speak at the service. Skip truly was part of the Braves family, as evidenced in these choices.

I'd like to share a few quotes from the memorials in the AJC that represent how Skip molded my view of the Braves while I grew up in Atlanta.

Skip saw the funny side of things and enjoyed making people laugh when we weren't giving them too much to smile about during some of those years that I was with the Braves. -- Dale Murphy

One of my favorite memories of Skip was doing a Flames [hockey] game on radio with him in, like, 1973. [Flames broadcaster] Jiggs McDonald got stuck somewhere and couldn't make it to the game. So Skip and I did it. He didn't know the [players'] names; he just said 'our guy' or 'the bad guys.' It was a perfect example of Skip Caray: It didn't matter what the sport was; he just made his own interpretation of what was going on, anyway. -- Bob Neal

When he did a call-in show on WSB in the ’80s, he suffered clever callers only grudgingly and the bozos not at all. But because he was Skip, we didn’t much mind. -- Mark Bradley

That's so true! It wasn't just in the 80s, though -- I remember listening in the car in high school and being amused at his lack of tolerance for the idiots that were like, "I'm on the air? I'm on the reddio? I'm really on the reddio?" Skip would say something like, "Not anymore," and hang up on them. Heh heh.

I also enjoyed reading the reactions of a few of the players...

"Will [Ohman, Braves reliever] came over to the bar and said, 'What was Skip's favorite drink in his drinking days?' " [Pete] Van Wieren said. "I said, 'Double Dewar's on the rocks.' And Will ordered a shot of Dewar's for everybody."

"Right now, you just think about his family," McCann said. "That's where everybody's prayers are right now. ... When I first came to the Braves, he was one of the first people who came over to me in the clubhouse and introduced himself — like he needed an introduction. ... He was the man.

"It's just crazy, to imagine him not being here."

You can hear the end of Skip's final game here, and thanks to Jenna, here are the Braves Live tributes to Skip...

Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3

Part 4 ~ Part 5 ~ Part 6


Thank you for always being there, Skip. I'm a homer (a marge? ha ha) because of you.