Bob Casey dies

From the Seats, March 28, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS - The Twins only PA announcer died Sunday morning from liver cancer. Bob Casey is the voice of the Twins and will not be replaced. The best will only come in second to Casey, who’s voice was the Twins, you knew who it was and where it was when you heard it. My personal favorite was Kirby Puckett. Thanks Bob, for the memories and 44 years as our PA announcer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Longtime Minnesota Twins PA announcer Bob Casey dies

La Velle E. Neal III,  Star Tribune March 28, 2005

Bob Casey, the only stadium voice the Twins have known in their 44 years and whose signature style and verbal stumblings endeared him to baseball fans throughout the Upper Midwest, died early today from complications from liver cancer. He was 79.

 

Casey died at around 12:30 a.m. at the Minneapolis Veterans Medical Center with sons, Tom, Joe and Mike, by his side. He had been hospitalized for just more than two weeks with pneumonia, which he caught while in Fort Myers, Fla., to watch spring training.

 

He also was a public address announcer for the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBA, the Minneapolis Millers minor league baseball team, the Vikings, a couple of NHL North Stars games and the Twins in a career that began in 1947. He also worked NCAA men's basketball tournament games in 1965, '89 and '91.

 

But for all of the moments Casey had a voice in, he is perhaps best known for declaring before every Twins home game, "There is "n-o-o-o-o-o smoking in the Metrodome," for his occasional shredding of various players' names as they came to the plate, and for years stretching out "Kirbeeeeeeee Puckett!"

 

"A lot of guys cannot say that they loved their jobs like my dad did," Mike Casey said Sunday.

 

Bob Casey had hoped to announce this season, even if it meant part-time. He envisioned announcing his retirement during the season, preferably when the New York Yankees came to the Dome in June.

 

"Nobody will ever be compared to Bob Casey," said John Gordon, who dedicated his radio broadcast of Sunday's Twins-Orioles games to Casey. "If they are, they will only finish second. ... He'll live in the memory of many, many Twins fans from the start until now."

 

Casey was hospitalized during the offseason after doctors found a large tumor in his liver. He had lost 37 pounds at one point, but his condition improved, and he was released in mid-January with the OK to travel to spring training. Casey appeared during TwinsFest in late January, where he was surprised to see a large get-well card signed by fans. "That was neat," he said then.

 

Casey was forced to leave spring training March 10 after he caught pneumonia, and he had been hospitalized for over the past two weeks. On Saturday, Gordon and WCCO sidekick Dan Gladden asked Yankees star Alex Rodriguez to phone Casey with words of encouragement.

 

"Ever since I came up in '94 I always have a lot of respect for people who've been around the game," Rodriguez said. "As a kid from Miami, I'd always come [to Fort Myers] to watch the Twins. And I just loved listening to his voice, the way he would say Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek, and I made it a point when I made it to the big leagues that I wanted to go meet one of the men that I looked up to.

 

"We became very close. We spoke on the phone, and whenever I went to Minnesota, I'd go give him his respect."

 

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said: "There's only one of the great ones left now, Bob Sheppard (at Yankee Stadium) . There were six or seven of them, whom you associated with their teams ... and Bob Casey was one of those guys. When you heard that voice in the background, you knew you were watching the Twins."

 

Casey had a definitive style - what that style was, well, that was up for interpretation. Many viewed him as the master of mispronounciations. Dustan Mohr? Dustin Hoffman. Otis Nixon? Amos Otis. Nomar Garciaparra? Garcia Parra.

 

"That was part of Bob's charm and style," Twins president Dave St. Peter said. "I used to kid him that some of those he did on purpose."

 

Casey was born in Minneapolis on April 11, 1925. He attended St. Stevens Catholic Grade School, St. Thomas Academy and then the University of Minnesota. He served in World War II as a B-17 aircraft turret gunner.

 

"He didn't talk much about that," Mike Casey said.

 

His announcing career began in 1947, when the Lakers hired him. Casey did Lakers games from 1947-59 and Millers games from 1951-61, when he switched to the newly christened Twins. It would be his last job.

 

Not every gig was successful. Casey did Vikings games from 1961-63, and has claimed over the years that he was fired soon after one incident:

 

A referee threw a penalty flag on the New York Giants. Casey asked Halsey Hall, whom he had hired to help him follow the game, to ask what the flag was for. Hall didn't know, so Casey winged it.

 

"The old man said, `The Giants have been penalized 15 yards for an illegitimate man on the field,' " Mike Casey said. "He just made it up."

 

Casey was most comfortable with baseball, and developed friendships with Puckett, Hrbek, Rodriguez and other players through the years.

 

"Every time we went to Minnesota, it was a honor to talk to him," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "... When you go to Minnesota, it's going to be weird to not hear him."

 

Twins players, especially in the late 1980s and early 1990s, played jokes on him, most notably, during Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.

 

Casey was locked in the dugout bathroom by players during a TV break. Casey, thinking he was late, rushed back to his microphone when a well-timed phone call was placed there.

 

Casey put the phone to his ear and discovered it had shaving cream on it. He put the phone down to grab a towel to wipe his face and found it, too, filled with shaving cream. Twins slugger Tom Brunansky organized the prank.

 

"All I heard was laughter," Casey said in a 1998 interview. "Those dummies didn't know they were in the seventh game of the World Series."

 

Hrbek, who grew up in Bloomington, remembered how going to a Twins game as a kid included listening to Casey.

 

"I remember those old (Met Stadium) speakers hanging down from the stands and listening to Case," he said,. " ... like when he said `ROD CAREW.' Everyone remembers him for Kirby Puckett, but I remember him for Rod Carew."

 

Mike Casey, speaking for his mother, Rosemary, said she wants her husband remembered for being a family man and for his passion for baseball.

 

"If you wanted to spend any time with Bob Casey, my dad, you did at the (ball) yard. And that ain't bad," Mike Casey said. "We were privileged. ... What a great way to grow up."

 

The Twins have dedicated this season to Casey.

 

He is survived by his wife, Rosemary, sons Tom, Mike and Joe and eight grandchildren. Visitation will be held from 4-8 p.m. Tuesday at Washburn-McReavy Funeral Chapel in Edina. The funeral service is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.

 

Wednesday at St. Olaf Catholic Church in Minneapolis. He will be buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.