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I was probably 7 or 8 years old when I first heard Skip Caray’s voice through my TV.  I was living in South Carolina, and in my house growing up in the summer, the TV was on the Braves game every night that there was one on.  The TV would be on TBS, and every night, Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren would be there to welcome you to the game.

Skip was one of the reasons that I wanted to get into broadcasting.  His dry wit and sarcasm made it enjoyable to watch Braves baseball in the 80’s.  Back then, the Braves were bottom-dwellers in the National League.  Caray once quipped famously as the Braves took the field for the start of a game one night, “And like lambs to the slaughter, the Braves take the field.”  Caray was also famous for his foul ball calls.  It took until I was a teenager to realize he was joking.  Usually at least two-three times per game, when a ball was hit foul and ended up in the stands somewhere, no matter where he was, he would say “And a fan from (insert a suburb of the city they were playing in) caught that foul ball…”  Of course, there’s no way he could always know where they were from, but his delivery was so on point and dry that as a kid, you had no choice but to believe him.

I can remember his most famous calls vividly, as many Braves fans can.  His call of the Otis Nixon catch of an Andy Van Slyke drive is legendary.  Of course, the call in the ‘92 NLCS against the Pirates “when Sid slid” is probably the most recognizable call of his career, right up there with “The Atlanta Braves Have Given You A Championship!” call in the ‘95 World Series.

Recently, his declining health has caused him to only be able to work home games.  But recently, he’d be paired up again with his longtime partner exclusively, Pete Van Wieren.  Both have called Braves games for 33 years.

Last night, while taking a nap in his Georgia home, Caray passed away.  He was 68 years old.

Skip Caray was the reason I wanted to be a broadcaster.  He was the reason I wanted to watch the Braves games every single night.  He made me laugh over and over again, and I appreciated his talent more and more as I got older.  I’ll look forward to sharing with my kids through the miracle of the internet all the wonderful calls he had throughout his career.

Skip - you will be missed.

In keeping with the updateing trend that’s happening on onemattDOTcom, let’s catch you up on the last few weeks.

Things are going great at the new job.  I’m really enjoying what I’m doing, and I think it has real potential.  Christy and I just got back from the beach with my folks and brother, which was big fun…outside of my experience at The Track in Gulf Shores where some punk kid rammed me from behind in my go-cart and caused my leg to slam into my steering wheel, causing a huge bruise to form on the inside of my leg.  But the rest of the trip was great.

Christy and I are leaving for Atlanta tomorrow afternoon.  We’ve got a George Michael concert we’re going to tomorrow night at Phillips Arena, then we’re going to see my beaten down Braves play on Friday night against Milwaukee.  Then we’re driving back Saturday morning in time for Christy to prepare things for my 80’s themed birthday party that night!

Gifts aren’t expected, but if you’d like to make a donation to the PayPal as a way to say thanks for all I’ve done to keep you hip this year, you can do so by donating to mattplanet@gmail.com.  I’ll personally thank you in a column next week if you donate!  What could be sweeter?!?

Anyway, that’s about it.  Thanks for checking out onemattDOTcom.  American Idol auditions are happening right now in preparation for the new season…I can’t wait!

Hey, what’s this?!? A post that’s not about American Idol?? Sure you jest.

Nope. I jest not.

It’s the weekend, and it’s the last weekend in March. I cannot believe how quickly 2008 is going. Baseball season starts this weekend as the NCAA Tournament is wrapping up, then it’ll be time for our trip out to California to see our friends Hani and Katie (hey guys!), then down to Orlando for a long weekend at Disney World. After that, it’ll be time for lazing by the pool with friends as the summer drags on…and before you know it, it’s going to be my birthday (August 2nd, I accept Paypal donations and Best Buy giftcards) and then Katie will have her baby (it’s going to be a boy, BTW…congrats Katie!!!), and then football will be here.

Football season will be full of fun as it always is as my Auburn friends try to convince me that Alabama isn’t coming back into prominence and that Auburn is going to be SEC Champions. And before you know it, September will pass into October, and Halloween will be here. And then in a blink of an eye, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be upon us and cold weather will welcome itself back to Alabama.

See how quickly time passes? Do me these three favors:

1) Download some Jack Johnson for your music player of choice (any album will do, but his latest “Sleeping Through The Static” is pretty darn good).
2) Block off a couple days and head down to the beach. I prefer Destin, but others prefer Orange Beach. You can’t go wrong either way.
3) Take your favorite beverage and a beach chair at sunset to the beach and sit down and listen to the waves and drink your beverage, listening to a little Jack Johnson and the sound of the waves crashing.

Enjoy life. You only get one. However it is you enjoy it…just do so.

And with that, I’m to do just that with some friends at a couple’s baby shower. Take care friends…Top 9 Week on Idol is only days away!

I dunno…April asked me that the other day, and I guess I have no real answer other than I’ve been busy.

So American Idol is back!  They are finishing up their audition shows in Miami, FL tonight, and then the “Hollywood” phase of the season begins before the Top 12 for both males and females in announced and the real fun begins.  By the way, that’s when my reviews will begin, when the Top 24 are announced.  I just don’t see keeping up with a bunch of people I might not have to talk about later.  And the audition shows are typically all over the place.

The Mets just traded for Johan Santana.  Yay…there goes the Braves chances of winning their division this year.

That’s about all.

When the first bowl game of the year is the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.  Wow…just…wow…

Coming next year, the Billy Bob’s Convenience Store & Thrift Stop Independence Bowl.

More shopping…yay.

Blogged with Flock

I just downloaded the new Jack Johnson single, “If I Had Eyes”, which is a bit more electric than his usual stuff.  I like it, so the album is pre-ordered.  More news on that in February.

I took the job with IACT, and I could not be happier about it.  This company’s philosophy is 180 degrees different from the VCO.  Speaking of that, we’re getting together with some VCO folks tonight at Pub 261 as a little farewell for me.  I’m going to miss all these wonderful people, but those who are my close friends will still be my close friends no matter where I am.

Here’s something ironic…I have two fantasy football teams this year, one is a pay league (just $20) and one is a free league.  I’m in the playoffs in both leagues, but because of Brady’s tank-job on Sunday, I’m in the consolation game in my pay league, and in the finals of my free league for the same reason (my opponent had Brady).

I think we are just scratching the surface of what’s out there with regards to steroid use in baseball.  Several players have come forward confirming that they used substances like HGH and steroids during their careers since the Mitchell Report was released.  It will only continue.

Amy Lee’s voice is pretty awesome.  I’m in love with that song “My Immortal” right now.

Are dreams the incarnation of true desire or complete randomness (like this post)?

I’ve pretty much stopped playing LOTRO.  Guild Wars is now loaded up and I’m enjoying that.  You can solo that game for a while.

Peppermint Mocha CoffeeMate Creamer is nearly as good as sex.  You know what I’m talking about Pickerings!

Enough randomness!

I wanna go back again…please let me go back again…

Back from The Trip of a Lifetime!  Why am I putting an exclamation mark there?  I’m not excited about it.

I have to say, it is nice to sleep in my own bed again…but it is NOT nice to have to think too hard about dinner, and groceries, and all of what life is all about.  While on the trip, Christy and I met the most amazing people that have become our good friends from all of our adventuring together!  So a big shout-out goes to Hani & Katie, Denise and Luis, Joe & Amber, and Russ & Lindsay!!!  We miss you guys and can’t wait to travel again!

Work is good…we’re in a new office now, and I took yesterday to come in on my day off to set up my desk (which I’ve changed already), so that’s good.  It’s nice catching up with my work people…I do work with a bunch of great people so I’m lucky in that way…even if the work is a bid tedious at times.

My fantasy teams went undefeated while I was gone, as did Alabama, so on that front I’m totally happy!

Enough of this update…Bus 2 people!  Come my flowers!

I hope you know…that this is nothing to do with you…

Okay Gina…I know it’s late, but it’s growing on me.

By the way…we’re under 2 weeks now until the Trip of a Lifetime.  It seems ages ago that I told the world about this trip.  I’m going to be blogging a bit on this trip, so I’ll try and update it at least once every other day with a chronicle of our adventures.

The new TV season started this week, and already waiting on me on the DVR at home is the premiere of Heroes.  According to some who’ve watched it, it was quite different but good from last year’s finale.

Oh, before I go…one last shout-out to April who likes to read my blog from the comforts of her palatial Homewood estate…thanks for letting Ramey out of the house last night. 

The countdown is officially under a month to go until the Trip of a Lifetime!  Christy and I are pumped…I mean, really psyched!

On the “not psyched” list is the VCO softball team I’m managing…we have a problem with the girls not showing up or just out and out quitting.  It’s discouraging, and it makes me never want to mess with anything like this again.

In the category of “things that are back to how they should be”…Auburn lost it’s football over the weekend and Auburn fans everywhere are already calling for Brandon Cox (the 5th year starting QB) to sit in favor of one of their younger QBs.  I’m not sure having a different QB in there on Saturday night would’ve made that much of a difference…the O-line isn’t blocking like they should and their RBs are fumbling it too much.  The QB doesn’t have anything to do with that.  That being said, I’m sure Auburn could do with a dose of confidence, and maybe starting a younger, more exciting player would help do that.

I spent Saturday watching college football all day, and I have a few observations:

• Notre Dame is not good, but they aren’t as bad as people think.
• Michigan is that bad.
• LSU might beat everybody they play by 40 points.
• Texas woke up in the 2nd half against TCU on Saturday.  Be afraid, Big 12…unless you’re…
• Oklahoma, who took care of business against a beleaguered Miami team.  Oklahoma is back.
• Georgia is the “what team are they?”team so far this year…beating a pretty good Oklahoma State team, and they lost to South Carolina this weekend.

That’s all I got…oh, and ROLL TIDE!

Well, I guess it was only a matter of time before the pundits and idiots alike had their say with regards to the Michael Vick/dog-fighting case. In case you all have been living under a rock for the past 3 months, Vick has agreed to plead guilty to all the charges in his indictment in hopes that the federal judge will go lenient in sentencing. Most of the so-called experts have said that they expect Vick to be handed a sentence of around 12-18 months in jail. This would mean the very earliest we could see Vick in an NFL jersey again would be the 2008 season, possibly even 2009. But the potential future of Mike Vick in an NFL uniform is not the point of this post.

Recently, Stephon Marbury was quoted in a New York paper saying this:

“We don’t say anything about people that shoot deer or shoot other animals. From what I hear dogfighting is a sport. It’s just behind closed doors. And I think it’s tough that we build Michael Vick up and then we break him down. I think he’s one of the superb athletes and I think he’s a good human being. I just think he fell into a bad situation.”

Let’s take a look at all the things that are wrong with this statement.

• Dog-fighting is not a sport. It is not sanctioned by any organization. It is illegal in all 50 states in the US. Being ‘behind closed doors’ doesn’t change that.
• Dog-fighting is nothing at all like hunting deer. I’m not a hunter, nor have I ever wanted to hunt, but living in the South, I’ve been acquainted with many people who are avid deer hunters. Most of them have a love for that activity that I can’t describe. It’s thrilling for them. The deer are out in the wild, in their habitat…the hunter moves in for the kill. They use guns and bows to kill the deer, but they don’t do it merely for the aspect of the kill. Many hunters create trophies of their kills, honoring the deer and the chase that led to the kill, and many hunters use several parts of the deer for food. And in many instances, deer hunting helps control the population of deer, because in many situations, too many deer in one area can be a bad thing for the ecology. I don’t think that Vick was doing his best Bob Barker impersonation by helping to control the pet population.
• Michael Vick is not a good human being. Good human beings do not allow themselves to get caught up in as many illegal activities as this, even if it was not entirely him at every stage of the way. He was way too involved to not know what was happening at Bad Newz Kennels.
• There is only one person to blame for the situation that Michael Vick finds himself in…and that person is Michael Vick. He’s not someone who just ‘fell into a bad situation’. He created the situation when he chose to bankroll this insane idea.

Mr. Marbury is showing his own ignorance here, and his agent should’ve known better than to put him in front of a microphone to talk about this situation. It’s sad when people in the spotlight stand up for people like Vick. He is not to be pitied. He is not someone we should feel sorry for. He’ll get a second chance to prove his worth to the world when his jail sentence is up and he rejoins society. For now, he’ll need to face the demons that will haunt him from this point going forward. I’m not sure if he has any remorse for his activities. I’m not sure if he feels any regret for what trouble this has caused his organization and league. I do know that for possibly the next 12-18 months, he will get to think about from the confines of a cozy 10′ x 10′ cell. I can’t think of any better place for him.