No one has ever said Hamilton shied away from work by the time he came to Atlanta, he had broadcast, in addition to those White Sox games, Big Ten football and basketball, calling at least 250 games a year between 19. 5) Elson was impressed with the massive notes and information that the junior partner fed him. (“What made us a great team, I believe, was that some regarded me as ‘a Bob Elson with enthusiasm,’” Hamilton said. After a three-year stint with the Cubs, Hamilton became a nighttime rock ’n’ roll disk jockey for four years in Chicago, until the White Sox and WCFL (a 90-station network) called him to work with boyhood hero Bob Elson, Milo’s favorite broadcast partner. Said Caray to Hamilton: “Kid, don’t worry about your mike being on because I am the announcer here.” 4 It was the beginning of a lifetime mutual enmity, and Milo lasted only one year with Caray – this time – because Caray preferred a baseball player, Joe Garagiola. Louis basketball, he obtained a secondary position (very secondary) with the legendary Harry Caray in the Cardinals’ booth. However, because of his connections with Anheuser-Busch while doing St. When the Browns moved to Baltimore, Milo lost the job to Ernie Harwell. Louis Browns in 1953, working with Dizzy Dean and Buddy Blattner. Hamilton broke into major-league broadcasting with the St. After graduation he spent three years in or near Davenport broadcasting minor-league baseball, local high-school sports, Golden Gloves boxing matches (including 16 matches in one day), and re-creating games, including basketball games involving the Quad City Black Hawks, precursor many years later of the Atlanta Hawks. 2 Hamilton, from Fairfield, Iowa, began his career with the Armed Forces Network on Guam in 1945 and took a degree in radio speech at the University of Iowa. Hamilton was well known in Atlanta since local station WGST had been broadcasting these games for the past four years. In November of 1965 the Braves announced that well-known journeyman Milo Hamilton, a broadcaster for the Chicago White Sox, would be the Braves’ main announcer. In addition, Morgan had other duties at WSB (a 50,000-watt clear-channel station with the slogan “Welcome South, Brother.”) 1 This, however, was not to be as the Braves management declined to hire Allen, and Allen himself had been reluctant to move from New York. Fans naturally expected the famous former Yankees announcer to come to the Braves in 1966 and many wanted Crackers announcer Morgan to be his broadcasting sidekick. During 1965 Milwaukee games were announced back to Atlanta by Mel Allen and Hank Morgan, with Ernie Johnson as color man. Because of lawsuits in Milwaukee, the Braves’ move to Atlanta was delayed a year until 1966, but Atlanta Stadium was completed a year early and exhibition games were scheduled to whet the interest of the new Braves fans. Atlanta Crackers broadcaster Ernie Harwell famously had such a reputation in the 1940s that he was traded to a major-league team for a catcher. Simpson is a member of the Braves Hall of Fame, while Ingram was recently named Sportscaster of the Year in Georgia.When the Atlanta Braves began broadcasting in April of 1966, Atlanta area listeners had a long history of baseball radio. The Carays recently added a fourth generation to baseball, when Chip’s sons, identical twin brothers Chris and Stefan Caray, worked as the radio announcers for the Double-A Amarillo (Texas) Sod Poodles.Ĭurrently, Ben Ingram and Joe Simpson are the Braves’ primary radio broadcasters. In the Braves booth, Caray was most recently joined by Jeff Francoeur, who was the main color commentator. In 1987, Caray graduated from the University of Georgia. He also called University of Florida and Florida State University football and basketball games for the Sunshine Network. Eventually, he earned a job as the play-by-play man for the Orlando Magic of the NBA. His career began with jobs as a weekend TV sports anchor in Panama City, Florida, and Greensboro, North Carolina. In 2004, he won Illinois Sportscaster of the Year. Explore AJC Braves Report podcast: What we learned from Braves Festīefore broadcasting Braves games, Caray worked seven seasons as the play-by-play announcer for Cubs games on WGN. His family moved to Atlanta in 1968, when Skip, his father, moved with the team. Skip was a longtime Braves broadcaster who called Hawks games before that.Ī move to the Cardinals booth would be somewhat of a homecoming for Chip Caray, who was born in St. Harry spent 53 seasons as a big-league broadcaster, including stints with the Cardinals, White Sox and Cubs. His father, Skip, and grandfather, Harry, both worked as play-by-play announcers. Sports broadcasting has been the family business for the Carays. Caray, a graduate of the University of Georgia, was also the play-by-play announcer for Cubs games on WGN-TV from 1998-2004.
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