Chip Caray and TBS Part Ways

Richard Sandomir writes in the NY Times,

Chip Caray’s tenure as TBS’s lead major league baseball announcer ended Monday when he and the cable network agreed to part ways.

Caray’s high-volume style was mixed with a penchant for bad play calls, embellishments and factual errors. His best known incident occurred during the American League Central Division tie breaker between the Twins and the Tigers in October. He called an obvious lineout this way: “Line drive. Base hit. Caught out there. The runner tags. Throw to the plate. On target. And in time! A double play!”


In a memo sent to company employees, David Levy, the president of Turner Sports, wrote on Monday: “Since the end of this year’s M.L.B. playoffs, we’ve had several discussions with Chip Caray regarding 2010 and beyond. Both sides have agreed that now is the right time for Turner Sports and Chip to move ahead on different paths.”

Caray had some time left on his contract with Turner, where he also called Braves games on the Peachtree TV cable network. Levy said the company was looking at a “number of candidates” to replace Caray at both positions.

Through a TBS spokesman, Levy declined to comment.

Caray has called TBS’s Sunday game of the week for the past two seasons and was the network’s No. 1 playoff announcer since 2007.

Caray has also called Chicago Cubs games.