RIP Pete Van Wieren

Agreed.

I think it was Mark that mentioned the man's versatility. Could be wrong but IIRC, he also did some Falcons' preseason telecasts on WTCG. Could be confusing him with Bob Neal, though.

RIP.

 

He did. And Skip was the first PBP man when TNT got Sunday Night Football in 1990.

 

I remember when the Goodwill Games was still in existence, there was one Sunday where Pete, Don Sutton and Billy Sample were all working that and Skip was doing an NFL preseason game on TNT I think.

So the TBS Braves broadcast team that day was Chip Caray (who was still a student at Georgia at the time or fresh out of school) and ... Larry King.

 

I'm trying to find it on YouTube but Sample did some games in 1988, not long after he'd retired.
He had a real smooth delivery and the network must have been high on him.
Not sure why he didn't stick.
(Looking for a Braves-Dodgers game from late 1988 that must have been removed by copyright, as a crap ton of good stuff has been.)

 

Sample was the regular fourth Braves broadcaster on TBS for a couple of years after John Sterling left and Ernie Johnson Sr. semi-retired and before Don Sutton and Joe Simpson arrived. Not sure why he left.

They also had Dave O'Brien for a few years.

 

Back in the day before everything was televised, I always thought it was sort of cool to tune into an opposing team's broadcast. Back then, all we got were a handful of the local team's game on OTA, NBC's Saturday Game of the Week and ABC's Monday Night Baseball. (Can't remember exactly what year USA Network started doing games.)

So if you were a fan of a team other than the local team, you might only get to see your team 8-10 times per year. Thus, the SuperStation concept was sort of neat back then.