Braves Broadcaster Pete van Wieren Dies At 69

Another voice of the HQ's youth has left us too soon.
Long time Atlanta Braves announcer Pete van Wieren has passed at the age of 69.

The "Professor"- nicknamed so for his encyclopedic knowledge of the sport and levels of preparedness- was a part of the Braves booth that spread the "Superstation TBS" across the country and turned the Atlanta Braves into America's team- even more so than WGN's Chicago Cubs during the battle of cable powers Tribune and Ted Turner.

The group of van Wieren, Ernie Johnson, Senior, Skip Caray, and then later Don Sutton and Joe Simpson were the voices of some very bad baseball but also got their shot when the Braves won their only World Series.

On November 4, 2009, van Wieren felt a bump on the back of his head; when he got it checked, he learned it was Stage 4 non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He had been battling it ever since.

van Wieren retired from the Braves booth in 2005.

In October of 2008, Van Wieren announced his retirement after 33 seasons with the Braves. His departure came less than three months after the death of his longtime on-air partner Skip Caray.

During the 2008 season, Van Wieren announced that a publishing company approached him about writing a book about his time in the booth. His book, written in 2009, is titled "Of Mikes and Men: A Lifetime of Braves Baseball" and was released in April 2010. It was co-written with Jack Wilkinson.

The broadcast booth for the Braves' home games at Turner Field is named for van Wieren.

Here was "The Professor's" good-bye to his broadcast partner:

UGA Fan Cries Over Clemson Loss On Radio... Really...

((HT: Viral Chhadua))

First and foremost, the HQ thinks this HAS GOT TO BE A WORK...

After most college football games, local sports talk stations have their own call-in shows so fans can vent about the wins and losses of their favorite schools and their enemies...

On 92.9 "The Game" after the Georgia loss to Clemson...
This happened...


FOSG Robb Tribble was one of the voices that was chasing after the caller and his on-air tears...

And the HQ knows that college football fans are like this... on some fringes...
Now, we have the new example that has set other examples into the stratosphere...

Atlanta Radio Station Becomes Alabama Flagship Station

((ht: ajc.com))

Hmmm....talk about think a bit outside the box. Either that or it's a desperate attempt to draw some sort of college football (SEC) audience.

Atlanta sports talk radio station 92.9 the game has taken the unusual step of being the local affiliate for the University of Alabama's football team.

Mind you Georgia Tech is based in Atlanta and the Georgia Bulldogs are a mere 70 miles away and are the assumed kings of Atlanta areas sports.

But The Game has no college teams. Both Tech and UGA are spoken for in the Atlanta market and they aren't leaving their homes. So that left 92.9 with few, if any options. They are a fledgling Sports talk station in the market (a market with 2 other sports stations--none of the 3 are very good), and want to in some way, draw a fall audience.

To their credit the station did acquire the rights to Atlanta Hawks games, not a huge get, but a franchise never the less.

More on this from the AJC.com Radio blog RIGHT HERE

No, this really doesn't mean a whole lot to anyone outside Atlanta, but then again, that is where we are based.

But it speaks volume's to the reach of College Football in general and SEC football in particular. Yes, there's a significant Alabama fan base in Metro Atlanta, but no more so than the University of Florida's.

And more importantly, it gives the Crimson Tide a bigger voice in a city brimming with high school football talent. Talent that coach Nick Saban has said publicly he covets and talent that if they know where to look, will get full-on exposure to his teams games.

For you 'Bama fans out there, enjoy a fan made "Hype Video":