Career
He started announcing Twins games when the franchise moved to Minnesota from Washington, District of Columbia, in 1961. Casey worked 44 seasons and more than 3,000 games for the Twins. He was inducted into the Twins" Hall of Fame in 2003.
Prior to working for the Twins, Casey served as the announcer of the Minneapolis Millers, a Triple-A team in the old American Association, for 10 years.
He also worked for the Minneapolis Lakers and the Minnesota Vikings during his career. Casey"s voice was a trademark of the Minnesota ballpark experience.
His style and signature player introductions made him a favorite of fans, players, umpires, the media and team staff Casey, who missed only a handful of Twins games during his tenure with the team, was well known for his nasally voice and distinctive delivery.
He would introduce star Kirby Puckett as "Kirbee (prolonged "e") puck-it!", remind fans there was "Number smoking" (with a prolonged "o") at the Metrodome, than he"d add "if you must smoke, go back to (whatever city the team they were playing was from)", and not to "throw anything or anybody onto the field".
Casey was also known for his occasional butchering of player names and calls on the field Many viewed him as the master of mispronunciations. Dustan Mohr? Dustin Hoffman.
Otis Nixon? Amos Otis.
Nomar Garciaparra? Garcia Parra. Omar Vizquel? Ozzie Virgil.
A great Casey moment was at a 1963 NFL game between the Vikings and Giants. Casey announced that
In the early 1970s, during a stadium bomb-scare, he announced that fans should
On March 27, 2005, Casey died in Minneapolis at age of 79, fifteen days before what would have been his 80th birthday.
He had been battling liver cancer and pneumonia.
Before he died, baseball great Alex Rodriguez took time to contact him. "He"s an icon in our game," Rodriguez said at the time. "His voice will live on forever." Casey said Kirby Puckett and Alex Rodriguez were his favorite players, and had even asked Alex to help him take a ceremonial first pitch that June.
The April 8 home opener versus the White Sox was an all-game tribute to Casey.
