Keep Skip!

Yesterday, TBS Superstation quietly announced that the broadcasting duties for all 90 of the Braves games they'll show this year will be handled exclusively by Don Sutton and Joe Simpson. I'd like to be the first of hopefully many voices protesting this move.

I can remember watching Richmond Braves games on TBS during the strike of 1981. That's 22 years of following this team. In that whole time, the formula has been the same - Sutton and Simpson start the game, and then in the 5th, they switch with the radio crew, Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren. It's very unique, and you get to listen to the different perspectives from four people as opposed to two.

TBS is saying that the purpose of this move is to create a more balanced and in-depth coverage of the games they show. I have a hunch that what they're not saying is that Skip's too much of a hometown team fan and that it comes through on his broadcasts. I say, so what? A large part of the appeal of watching a Braves game on TBS is that the announcers know and like the team. If TBS wants to carry regular old games with regular old announcers, then let them bid for a TV rights deal with baseball. What they are is the home of Braves Baseball, and what they are doing is destroying one of the unique things in television in the name of bland political correctness.

I think it's crap.

WGN sure didn't take Harry Caray off the air, and he was an even bigger homer... I hope TBS will re-think this plan. Baseball doesn't need slick marketing - we've already got more than enough with the games that FOX carries.

What do you think? Drop us a line at webmaster@simpleprop.com and give us some feedback. Maybe we'll even run your letters in future Gambits. 'The Daily Gambit' is updated every weekday.