Posts tagged ChipCaray at FanHouse

When a team has as much seemingly unexpected success as the Rays have, they tend to make a lot of people look very silly. It starts in the preseason, with so-called analysts predicting they'll win 70 games, and continues when people refuse to believe they're "for real" into August and September. But you'd think by now, as Tampa Bay is two wins away from the World Series, people would have figured out how and why they've been successful (from owner Stu Sternberg and GM Andrew Friedman on down), and that that success is likely to continue.

Most people may have, but as King Kaufman points out, TBS' Chip Caray certainly hasn't:

"[Upton] was the No. 2 pick in the 2002 draft and, sadly in our sport as in so many others, the men and women who have worked so hard to make these teams good often aren't around to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Chuck LaMar, the original general manager of the Rays, had a very big hand in building this current Tampa Bay club."

Are we talking about the same guy that ran the team for their first eight years of existence, when they went 518-777, losing 60% of their games? And it's not like he left the team in a great position to contend; the two years after he left, in 2006 and 2007, the team won 61 and 66 games, respectively. When Friedman took over, he had the task of completely overhauling the team; he did a great job, but that doesn't mean it was easy.

I'll admit that I am a tad bit biased on this examination, because I hate Chip Caray as an announcer. From the unoriginal "Steve Stone has never picked up a dinner check" every freaking game for his years with the Cubs to the way he laughs when he finishes non-funny sentences ... I just think he's a brutal baseball announcer. If his name wasn't Caray (or Albert or Brennaman) he'd be working minor league games on the radio.

Usually when fans say the announcers seemed like they were rooting against a team, it's lame. Yet last night it really felt like Chip was pulling for the Angels, and I'm unbiased. The cherry on top was when the Angels tied the game on a two RBI single off the bat of Torii Hunter.

You see, the Bostonians had been doing the old, slow, "TORRRRRRR - EEEEEEEEE" chant during the at-bat.

The instant Vladimir Guerrero crossed home plate, Chip exclaimed -- in jubilation -- "And no one's chanting now!"

It came off like smack-talk. I could understand if he was a home announcer -- like doing play by play for the Angels radio station -- but he's supposed to be a national announcer, thus without bias.

Sure sounded biased to me.

Now that Dusty Baker will be returning to the dugout as manager of the Cincinnati Reds, he's already got some problems to deal with. He's replaced his old feud with Steve Stone and Chip Caray for a new one with Marty Brennaman, but that's not the only feud Baker already has in the Queen City.

No, apparently he's already hated by Reds fans.

No love for Dusty Baker. Nothing but bile for a man with more than 1,100 career wins, whose teams have finished either first or second in eight of his 14 seasons as a manager. A guy who has been NL Manager of the Year three times, who took the Chicago Cubs closer to the World Series altar than any manager in almost 50 years?

He stinks, you say. Terrible pick. You won't go to the games, you won't renew your season tickets. You're done with the Reds.

Those are the words of The Cincinnati Enquirer's Paul Daugherty. According to the emails he's received, and the phone calls he's gotten on his radio show, Cincinnati is not happy with the hiring of Baker.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly a fan of Baker either. I got a front row seat for his tenure in Chicago, so I know how bad a manager he can be at times. He favors the veterans too much, and he's too loyal to his players. He kills pitchers. Though, to be fair, I think Kerry Wood's arm would have blown up with or without Baker around.

One of Dusty Baker's many failings in Chicago -- besides pitching Kerry Wood and Mark Prior into oblivion and playing Neifi Perez every day, et al.-- was his passive role in a feud between then-announcers Steve Stone and Chip Caray and various players on the team. Players thought they were being criticized too harshly, and Caray and Stone didn't like that, and everyone got all angry and huffy. And then Moises Alou urinated on his hands.

The point of all this urine talk: Reds announcer Marty Brennaman spoke openly against Baker at the time, and will now have to work with him every day. That should be fun:

In addition to his entertaining and informative style, Brennaman isn't afraid to stand up to anyone who challenges him or his comments. Brennaman stood up to center fielder Ken Griffey Jr. after Brennaman criticized him.

And Brennaman questioned Baker's control of the Cubs' clubhouse toward the end of the 2004 season when players thought then-announcers Chip Caray and Steve Stone should have been more supportive.

"Dusty Baker singularly could have stopped that stuff right from the beginning," Brennaman said at the time. "And I just think it escalated into something that was not very pretty."

While I'm not sure I agree with the "informative and entertaining part," it should be interesting how Dusty handles his new friends in Cincinnati. As if the court of public opinion weren't enough, Dusty's got to wag both the tail and the dog if he plans on being as bad in Cincy as he was in Chicago.

The Yankees are one of the most polarizing teams in all of sports, so not surprisingly a lot of people are happy to kick them when they're down. Trouble is, guys like Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez are far too polished to have a public moment of weakness, which makes it all the more difficult to take pleasure in their pain.

Fairly or not, that's why rival fans decided to target their disdain for the Evil Empire at Suzyn Waldman and her on-air tears. Is the criticism deserved? Probably not, but she doesn't care: as she explained to the New York Times' Richard Sandomir (via CSTB), it's just who she is:

"That's who I am," she said by telephone. "It's unusual, but not for me. I am emotional. I'm a conduit between the players and the fans, and everyone was crying."

She added: "That's what I felt. I am who I am. I'm emotional. A lot of people like it, a lot of people don't. I didn't do it in a game, and I recovered."

As I said before, I agree with her. She is a conduit for the fans, not a national host pretending to be objective. And she reacted as a fan would react, not as the team wanted her to. Besides, while it's easy for fans of other teams to make jest of her reaction, let's not forget her target audience: Yankees fans listening in on regional radio. As Sandomir goes on to explain:

To me, it is worse to be a clueless announcer than one who is emotional in a sport where crying is prohibited by the cinematic manager Tom Hanks. But Torre cries, so maybe it's good for all of us to get out our hankies. Chip Caray of TBS can set aside the hanky for a copy of a Manhattan map, access to MLB.com and a Yankees media guide.

Even if you think it's unprofessional for a radio host to show that much emotion, Sandomir hits the nail on the head: listening to emotional but informed local talent is still far better than the cold professionalism of an ignorant out-of-towner, right?

Earlier this week, TBS announced their broadcasting pairings for the MLB playoffs, and the list noticeably did not include TBS employee Skip Caray. And as it turns out, Skip isn't too happy about it. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via AA):

"It hurt my feelings, and I'm mad at myself for thinking there was any loyalty left in this business," Caray, the longtime Atlanta Braves broadcaster, said in an interview Wednesday. "I should have known better.

"They can do whatever they want to do," Caray said, "but I've done a lot of good work for these people, and it's hurtful that they apparently don't think I can do good work anymore."
...
"I feel like I can do a better job than a tennis announcer or a football-basketball announcer," Skip Caray said. "I'm not knocking Ted Robinson and Dick Stockton, but point of fact is they don't do baseball anymore and I'm there every day."

You know who TBS did include? Chip Caray, Skip's son, which should make for some awkward moments at the next family get-together. Personally, I couldn't care less. One Caray is more than enough for me, and the fact the list doesn't include Joe Buck makes everything else gravy. I can't believe that Skip didn't see this coming, though: he worked only 10 games on TBS all season, doing most of his work on radio.

(Note: for lack of better pictures, I went with the late, great Harry Caray, the only of the Caray announcing brood that I can honestly say I have an opinion on.)