Chip Caray Hired To Call Braves Games For FS South, SportSouth

Caray Scheduled To Call Braves Games On FS South, SportSouth

FS South and SportSouth yesterday announced that Chip Caray will be the networks' Braves play-by-play announcer. Caray will join analyst Joe Simpson for 105 Braves games on FS South and SportSouth during the '10 MLB season. Caray announced Cubs games for seven years before covering the Braves for Turner Sports, Peachtree TV and the Braves Radio Network from '05-09. Simpson is returning for his 16th season (FS South). In Atlanta, David O'Brien notes Caray signed a multi-year contract to replace Jon Sciambi, "who left after last season for a position at ESPN." The schedule of 105 games is "more than twice as many Braves games as Caray worked last year" for the Turner-owned Peachtree TV. The news comes just three weeks after Caray parted ways with Turner Sports. Caray "still had three years left on his contract" with Turner when they "agreed to split on Nov. 30, a decision one Turner official confirmed was prompted in part by poor reviews of Caray's postseason work by critics and viewers." Turner is "still in the process of hiring a replacement for Caray for Peachtree TV Braves broadcasts as well as its TBS Sunday games and playoffs games" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 12/22). Caray: "This is the job that I've wanted since I was 12 years old and serving as a bat boy. People in my business go from job to job and essentially climb the rungs of the ladder. For me, this is the top of the ladder" (MLB.com, 12/21).

THE RIGHT CHOICE? SPORTINGNEWS.com's Andy Hutchins wrote no one is tuning into baseball games "because of the announcer, but some will flip away if the coverage is poor." Hutchins: "The Braves already struggle for part of the apathetic Atlanta sports area; why handicap the team further by putting a broadcaster who has proved a poor choice before at the mic again?" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 12/21).