Let’s take a ride on the King Ryan time machine. Let’s dial in our date and location.
Y’all didn’t know I had a time machine, did you?
The date: October 14, 1992.
The place: Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.
The event: Game seven of the National League Championship Series.
Doug Drabek was pitching an absolute masterpiece for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He held the Braves scoreless headed into the ninth. The Pirates were trying to make their first World Series since 1979 and they appeared to be well on their way as they led 2–0 through 8 innings.
Headed into the 9th, Drabek appeared to tire. He let a couple of runners on and eventually was lifted for a reliever named Stan Belinda.
After Belinda came in, the Braves finally managed to put a run on the board but still trailed 2–1.
The Braves had two outs and two runners on base. The Braves had but one man on their bench to pinch hit for the pitcher Jeff Reardon. He was a 3rd string catcher who had all of 16 at-bats in the Majors all season.
His name…Francisco Cabrera.
The Braves baserunners were David Justice (who could actually run pretty well) and Sid Bream (who moved with a piano on his back.)
Cabrera worked the pitch count to 2–0 before he rifles one foul past Barry Bonds in left field.
The pitch count was 2–1
This game and this play are two of the most memorable and important in my life as a baseball fan. But with all the future hall of famers on that field, the thing I remember most is a Voice. The Voice of the late Skip Caray.
I will never forget this call as long as I live.
“A lot of room in right-center, if he hits one there we can dance in the streets. The 2–1…swung, line drive left field. One run is in! Here comes Bream! Here’s the throw to the plate. He is….SAFE! BRAVES WIN! BRAVES WIN! BRAVES WIN BRAVES WIN!” The Braves go back to the World Series…and lose.
A Voice — and make no mistake Skip had a powerful Voice — can take a moment from ordinary to absolutely magical.
Eli Gold is one of those Voices to me. Here’s a nasal-Voiced Yankee from Brooklyn. He did not attend the University of Alabama. Yet, he’s been the Voice of so many magical moments in his 30 seasons as the radio Voice of Alabama Crimson Tide football. And for many years, he was also the Voice of Crimson Tide basketball.
“…and the roses in this Grand Old stadium are once again Crimson,” he said after the Tide clinched the National Championship in 2009 against Texas in the Rose Bowl Stadium.
When one of those Voices falls silent, it’s a kick in the teeth. It is truly tragic. Not just as fans of that particular team too.
When Skip passed away in 2008 (as well as his longtime partner Pete Van Wieren who we lost in 2014) I felt like a piece of my childhood died. Part of the soundtrack of my life had been silenced.
During my all-too-brief sportscasting career, I was friendly with the late Jim Fyffe. He was the long-time Voice for Alabama’s archrival Auburn Tigers. While he called some magical moments and followed some amazing players — Charles Barkley and Bo Jackson to name two — he never got to announce a National Championship for Auburn fans.
His replacement sure did.
Rod Bramblett graduated from Auburn and loved his alma mater. He started announcing Auburn baseball when he was in his 20s and took over for Fyffe after his unexpected passing in 2003. He was at the mic for Auburn’s first National Championship since 1957 during the 2010 season.
And in 2013, he announced two of the most remarkable plays in college football history.
Against Georgia, Auburn QB Nick Marshall had a 4th and 18 pass deflect off a UGA defender’s helmet and into the hands of Auburn WR Ricardo Louis who took it in for the go-ahead score late in the 4th quarter. “It’s a miracle at Jordan-Hare!”
And two weeks later in the Iron Bowl, Auburn faced Alabama in a game for the ages. Alabama was attempting to win their 3rd National Championship in a row and came into the game undefeated.
With :32 left, Auburn scored a touchdown to tie the game at 28. I figured that Bama would play for overtime, but they had different ideas. Bama tried to drive down to attempt a game-winning field goal. But they could get no further than a 57-yard attempt.
Alabama’s kicking game had been shaky all day (and honestly for the past decade.)
Bama sent out Adam Griffith to attempt the 57-yard kick. Griffith hadn’t attempted a kick all day, but Bama sent him and not Cade Foster out for one of the biggest kicks in school history.
Auburn played a hunch that paid off with one of the most amazing (and heartbreaking for me) plays in the history of college football. They sent Chris Davis underneath the goal post to return what many believed would be a short kick. And indeed, it was a short kick.
Davis took the kick and had a convoy of blockers down the left sideline. He took the errant kick 109 yards into history for the winning touchdown.
“And we thought a ‘Miracle in Jordan-Hare’ was amazing! Oh, my lord in Heaven!”
It’s a magical call of a magical play. We don’t remember the TV call from CBS’s Verne Lundquist. We don’t remember Eli Gold’s call on the Bama network.
It’s Rod Bramblett’s magical, once in a lifetime call that we remember.
We remember the Voices of these moments. We remember the Voices that make these magical moments iconic.
Rod Bramblett and his wife Paula were killed in a car crash last weekend. Rod was only 53 years old. The Brambletts leave behind two children, and millions of fans (of Auburn and not.)
I call myself the Deacon of the Church of the Crimson Tide. At one point in my younger life, I dreamed of being the man to replace Eli Gold as the Voice of the Crimson Tide.
And I just spent several hundred words acknowledging the Voice of my hated archrival.
There’s actually a life coaching lesson in this.
Everybody reading this, you have one of those Voices. You have one of those Voices that people can latch onto. You have a message that people need to hear.
You have one of those Voices.
You ARE one of those voices.
I posted a piece a few weeks ago on the Good Men Project called Do You Have the Royal Voice? In that piece, I asked three questions about how you can nurture your Royal Voice.
- What are you passionate about?
- What sparks joy?
- What do you love?
It’s clear to me that Rod Bramblett had that Royal Voice. He was passionate about his work. He found great joy from his work. And he loved his Alma Mater.
College sports will miss his Voice.
And even though I’m the biggest Alabama fan you’ll ever meet, I will miss his Voice.
These Voices don’t come along every day. Cherish them. For they are the soundtrack of your lives.
Rest easy, Rod. I think my old pal Doug Layton would like to shake your hand.
