There were some worried people around Braves Country when it was announced that Chip Caray, longtime play-by-play announcer for the Braves, was leaving Atlanta to head to St. Louis as new Voice of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Caray originally joined the Braves for the 2005 season, working alongside his father Ski Caray after six years in Chicago, where he worked alongside his grandfather Harry Caray. He stuck around for eighteen years, being named the primary play-y-play announcer for the team in December 2009.
So it's change, and a significant one. I get it - we're resistant to change.
But Atlanta brought in a new announcer - Brandon Gaudin, football and basketball announcer who was, among other things, the voice of EA Sports' Madden video game. And then we found out that Gaudin was actually a HUGE Braves fan - he still has a copy of a letter he wrote Skip Caray as a child, asking how to be a broadcaster one day.
And when the season started and Gaudin was in the booth, everything seemed to work out - Braves fans seem happy to have Gaudin, for the most part (even if his Waffle House order is...weird), and he's happy to be here.
Awful Announcing, the longtime sports media blog, brought back their MLB local broadcaster ratings for the first time since 2019. They polled over 10,000 fans, asking them to grade their local team and then ranked the broadasters 1-30, based on the scores.
Brandon Gaudin and the Bally Sports South/Southeast team came out well, finishing at #11 in the rankings. The most common grade they received was a B (34.01% of voters gave them a B), and the 11th place finish ranks as the highest Atlanta's gotten, dating back to 2014.
Here's what they said about Gaudin:
Speaking of new play-by-play broadcasters, welcome to Atlanta, Brandon Gaudin. After replacing Chip Caray this year, Gaudin has taken off in the Braves’ booth, freshening up a broadcast that was beginning to grow a bit stale.
The St. Louis Cardinals, however, came in at 26 on the survey, scoring a 1.92, It's an improvement, given that the Cardinals were hovering between 27th (2018, 2019) and 30th (2016). The survey speculated that the situation could improve with another season for Caray, as the fans got used to him.
Are you excited about Brandon Gaudin in the Braves booth? Let us know in the comments!
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