Harry Caray

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Harry Caray (b. Harry Christopher Carabina, March 1, 1914, St. Louis, Missouri; d. February 18, 1998, Chicago, Illinois), was a radio and TV broadcaster for four Major League Baseball teams, beginning with a long tenure doing the games of the St. Louis Cardinals and ending as the iconic announcer for the Chicago Cubs, both of the National League, in between which he also served time as the announcer for the Oakland Athletics (for one year) and the Chicago White Sox (for eleven years).

Contents 1 Career 2 Personality and Style 3 The Seventh-Inning Stretch 4 Legacy and Trivia 5 External links

[edit] Career

The St. Louis-born Caray caught his break when he landed the job with the Cardinals in 1945 and, according to several histories of the storied franchise, proved as expert at selling the sponsor's beer as he'd been in selling the Cardinals on KMOX. Caray was also seen as influential enough that he could affect team personnel moves; Cardinals historian Peter Golenbock (in The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns) has suggested Caray may have had a partial hand in the maneuvering that led to the exit of general manager Bing Devine, the man who'd built what proved the team's 1964 World Series winner, and of field manager Johnny Keane, whose rumoured successor, Leo Durocher (the succession didn't pan out), was believed to have been supported by Caray for the job.

In 1969, however, after the Cardinals had won back-to-back National League pennants and the 1967 World Series against the Boston Red Sox, Caray was unexpectedly fired as the Cardinals' lead broadcaster. Golenbock and other Cardinal historians have suggested the cause was a purported affair Caray had with the daughter-in-law of Cardinals owner August Busch, Jr. (who also owned Anheuser-Busch brewery, the club's broadcast sponsor); Caray first called it a business grudge while never necessarily denying or affirming the rumours.

He spent one season broadcasting for the Athletics before, he often told interviewers, tiring of owner Charles O. Finley's interference and accepting the job with the White Sox. As had happened in St. Louis, Caray became popular with Chicago listeners and enjoyed a reputation for joviality and public carousing (sometimes doing home game broadcasts bare-topped from the bleachers). He wasn't always popular with players, however; Caray had an equivalent reputation of being excessively critical of home team blunders and for continuing criticism of certain players after even one on-field mistake.

He was considered a fan's broadcaster above all, along the lines of such announcers as New York/San Francisco Giants legend Russ Hodges or Pittsburgh Pirates legend Bob Prince, and that didn't always earn him respect to equal his popularity. But Caray never pretended to be the kind of objective announcer that such broadcasters as Red Barber and Vin Scully prided themselves on being regardless of their team attachments.

Caray went from local favourite to national phenomenon, however, after he joined the Cubs in 1981, when he learned the Cubs were looking for a new lead announcer at the time he became frustrated with White Sox ownership and management. The Cubs' television outlet, WGN, had become among the first of the cable television superstations, offering their programming to providers all around the United States, and Caray became as famous around the country as he'd long been in Chicago and, previously, St. Louis.

The timing was fortuitous especially when the Cubs ended up winning the National League East division title in 1984, led by pitcher Rick Sutcliffe and future Hall of Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg, and playing thanks to WGN to a nationwide audience. Millions came to love the microphone-swinging Caray, continuing his White Sox practise of leading the home crowd in singing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch, mimicking his mannerisms, his gravelly voice, his habit of mispronouncing some players' names (which some of the players themselves mimicked in turn), and even his trademark barrel-shaped wide-rimmed glasses.

Caray's national popularity never really flagged after that, although time eventually took a toll on him. Nicknamed "The Mayor of Rush Street", a reference to Chicago's famous tavern-dominated neighbourhood and Caray's well-known taste for spirits, illness and age began to drain some of Caray's skills, even in spite of a remarkable recovery from a 1987 stroke. There were occasional calls for him to retire, but he was kept aboard past WGN's normal mandatory retirement age, an indication of just how popular he really was.

Though best known and honoured for baseball work, Caray had also called University of Missouri football and St. Louis Hawks basketball in the 1950s and '60s. Nationally, he broadcast three World Series (all involving the Cardinals) and three Cotton Bowl games.

[edit] Personality and Style

Caray's style became fodder for pop culture parody as well, including a memorable Saturday Night Live recurring sketch featuring Caray (played by Will Ferrell) as a host of a space and astronomy TV talk show, in which his questions to scientists and professors included whether or not they would eat the moon if it were made of ribs. The sketch continued after Caray's death. When asked by Joan Allen (impersonating NASA flight director Linda Ham) about his death, Will Ferrell as Caray replied, "What's your point?" The Bob and Tom Show also had a Harry Caray parody show called "After Hours Sports" which eventually became "Afterlife Sports" after Caray's death. In 2005, the cartoon Codename: Kids Next Door had two announcers reporting a baseball game. One was a parody of Caray, the other, Howard Cosell. The most widely-accepted impersonation of Caray in Chicago was done by Jim Volkman, heard most often on the Loop and AM1000.

Caray didn't lack for broadcast companions who played well with and off him. With the White Sox his partner was eccentric and knowledgeable former outfielder Jimmy Piersall; with the Cubs, his partner was the knowledgeable former pitcher Steve Stone. He was well-known for his frequent exclamation of "Holy Cow!" (which he said he trained himself to say, to avoid any chance of cursing on the air), an expression also used by New York Yankees broadcaster Phil Rizzuto. His trademark home run call was the cautious enough phrase, It might be . . . it could be . . . it is!

[edit] The Seventh-Inning Stretch

His famous seventh-inning stretch singing came about almost by accident, during his tenure with the White Sox. Habitually singing the song in the broadcast booth when it played on the ballpark public address system, Caray was doing it one afternoon when WMAQ radio producer/broadcaster Jay Scott decided to open the booth mikes on him without his realising it. (Scott had suggested the idea in a memo some years before, but Caray had rejected the idea. He accepted it once it caught on with the home fans.) For the rest of his career, Caray enthusiastically led the song's singing during the seventh-inning stretch, using a hand-held microphone and holding it out outside the booth window. And, he inserted the home team's name for "the home team" in the song's lyric, a practice that has been copied by fans around the majors singing the same song.

Many of these performances began with Caray speaking directly to the Wrigley faithful, either about the state of the day's game, or the Chicago weather, while the park organ held the opening chord of the song. Then with his trademark opening, "Alright! Lemme hear ya! Ah-One! Ah-Two! Ah-Three!" Harry would launch into his distinctive, down-tempo version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". For the lyrics "One, Two, Three, strikes you're out...." Harry would usually hold the microphone out to the crowd to puncuate the climactic end of the song. And if the visitors were ahead in that game, Harry would typically make a plea to the Cubs offense- "Let's Get Some Runs!"

The seventh-inning stretch routine became Caray's best-remembered trademark; after his death, the Cubs began a practise of inviting guest celebrities, local and national, to lead the singing Caray-style.

The other best-remembered aspect of his broadcasts was his exclamations of "Holy Cow!" and "Cubs win! Cubs win!" after every Cub triumph, which always seemed to represent genuine, unfeigned enthusiasm, carrying on the upbeat tradition of his predecessor Jack Brickhouse. While with the White Sox, of course, he had exclaimed "Sox win! Sox win!" And old-timers who heard his "The Cardinals win!" over a quarter-century would never have dreamed he would become a Chicago icon. If anything, he was an even more shameless "homer" in St. Louis, by his own admission, but he said later that his firing from the Cardinals changed his outlook and made him realize that his passion was for the game itself, and the fans, more than anything else.

Although he was known in later years for his deteriorating skills, Caray originally had a reputation for mastering all aspects of broadcasting - writing his own copy, conducting news interviews, writing and presenting editorials, covering other sports such as University of Missouri football, and hosting a sports talk program.

[edit] Legacy and Trivia

Following his death, during the entire 1998 season the Cubs wore a patch on the sleeves of their uniforms depicting a caricature of Caray. Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa dedicated each of his 66 home runs that season to Caray.

His son Skip Caray and his grandson Chip Caray have followed him into the booth as baseball broadcasters. The younger Caray was actually hired by WGN-TV to work with his grandfather, but Harry died before that pairing could take place. Chip Caray replaced Harry as the Cubs' play-by-play announcer from 1998 to 2004. He was later hired to work with his father Skip on Atlanta Braves broadcasts.

In 1989 the Baseball Hall of Fame presented Caray with the Ford C. Frick Award for "major contributions to baseball." He also has his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

On October 23, 1987 Harry Caray's Restaurant opened on Kinzie Street in Chicago, and there are now three restaurants, a 10-pin bowling alley, and an off-premises catering division which bear the Harry Caray name. The original restaurant has received numerous awards for its food and service, and features many items of memorabilia, even a "Holey Cow" (complete with holes!) wearing the trademark Harry Caray eyeglasses.

During the 1988 season, Caray turned his microphone over to a one-time Cubs announcer---who just so happened to be President Ronald Reagan, whose former show business career began when he created play-by-plays of Cub games for Iowa station WHO via telegraph wire announcements. "You know," Reagan said on the air, "I'm going to be out of work soon and I might need a job, so I thought I'd audition." Reagan went on to call a couple of innings' play by play with credible results, to the delight of viewers and listeners.

Harry Caray narrated the intro theme for Home Run Derby, a 1959-60 television program where major league players participated in 9-inning home run-hitting contests for prize money.

Harry Caray is interred in All Saints Cemetery in Des Plaines, Illinois.

Caray was spoofed by Will Ferrell in a Saturday Night Live sketch that was included on the DVD "The Best Of Will Ferrell". In this sketch, "Caray" reveals that The Sun is his favorite planet, he would eat the moon if it were made of BBQ Spare Ribs, and that he hopes he doesn't contract mad cow disease

[edit] External links

• Harry Caray's Restaurant website. Includes biographical details and pictures.
• Baseball Hall of Fame - Frick Award recipient
• Budweiser commercial starring Caray performing a rap (at You Tube). Budweiser was his favorite product!

Awards
Preceded by Lindsey Nelson	Ford C. Frick Award 1989	Succeeded by By Saam