Chip Caray Strikes Out At TNT, Even If Chip Thinks He Only Had One Strike

Rejoice, playoff baseball fans and anyone who has an interest in being accurately told what is going on in a baseball game at any given moment: Chip Caray is no longer in your sound and light box.

↵The TNT broadcaster “parted ways” with the network today, according to the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir, who pulled no punches in the second paragraph of Caray’s professional eulogy:

↵↵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!”

↵↵Yeah. Pretty bad.

↵Don’t get me wrong. Being a baseball broadcaster would be a pretty difficult job. Sure, you get to watch baseball for free every day. That’s great. You also have to make sure everything you says is correct as you say it. Think about all the times you’ve written something and gotten it wrong and had to correct it later. There isn’t even that much of a filter for a baseball talker like Caray, so of course the mistakes are going to happen. I would be terrified every time I put on the headphones.

↵Still, there are plenty of people who aren’t terrified, and who don’t make silly mistakes in front of millions of people, and it’s probably a good thing that Caray isn’t stealing one such person’s high-profile TNT job any longer. Caray may now ride off into the sunset, which he would no doubt describe as pale and full, dotted with gray orbs -- before being helpfully reminded by Ron Darling that Chip Caray was, in fact, describing the moon.