Harry Caray Feature

you're not following his leave are you I think so more and there's a sense of integrity and honesty there in telling the people what you actually see and feel and I think if there's any difference at all I'm number one I don't think there's a damn announcer in the game they're all outstanding be good but some may be more interesting than others because of their style and style is personality with whatever your personality might be I'm a people guy and I said to everywhere I go I look for people to talk to big fans of yours Hama Hama all the way to Washington not only do I go to bars because I like to drink and I do like to drink but I go to bars because who do you see there baseball fan you find our first first fan what they like and what they don't like you can't learn that any other way unless you have an occasion to talk to the true fan [Music] - no today's Harry Caray you have to go back to st. Louis and a boy born Harry karabiner his father left the family his mother died soon after and Harry grew up with his aunt although he had a happy childhood understandably the realization of being an orphan always stayed with him you've talked before about growing up as an orphan well yeah I I don't like to talk about it too much there were things about it that were naturally sad whenever you can't even remember your mother your father uh was this a rough neighborhood you're getting your share of fights no I don't recall that at all in those things really I can't remember any kind of fights the kids played ball and had fun at home I guess the closeness between the kids or neighbors was far superior than this today so you see progress and it doesn't necessarily make things better there was more friendship in those days more pal a guy knock on door let's go out play ball you know I don't think you you see that anymore I used some cloud sports when sports and uh bleachers during the week and whatever it was I came to conclusion even I was just lucky and only went to the ballpark but it was so exciting or that the announcers and feel the game the way I did the nuances under positions and the way the picture was working and the way the reality was moved around the captures set it up all these things made an impression on me Harry took off with a new career and a new name to go with it the station manager Bob Holt at WC LS and Joe Leon it was his idea the karabiner would be too awkward on the air and he says well you know I says why don't we take your four first four letters and Anna why and that became my legal name and even though and in those days I was a camera guy the one out mix with the people to with the bars what the restaurants always talking to the people for a couple of reasons number one I liked to talk with the people about sports and number two they were teaching me what they really wanted to hear in a sports announcer which i think is so important punch Damaris hey it's okay parrot Harry with legendary Cardinal Gabby street and as a dynasty developed on the field Harry developed his own on the air there are millions of people around America who only know you as the voice of the Cubs if I was to say give me the prime chunk of Harry Caray's broadcast career in my judgment I take something from the 60s in st. Louis generations of Cardinal fans were entertained by Harry as he was joined in the booth by Jack buck I don't think I'll ever I'd ever be as good an announcer as Jack buck if anything I think he's far superior but I think I can make a game more exciting Harry's love affair with st. Louis and with the Cardinals was to end earlier than anyone wanted after his contract wasn't renewed he went west for a year with the Oakland A's but then he returned to his native Midwest and the south side of Chicago White Sox [Applause] [Music] Oh goodbye and all this to do about me singing me take me out to the ballgame at the middle of seventh inning I always did that it's the only song I know the words to only people hear me would be Jimmy Piersall and my torch er a TV producer and let bill Veck pluck the ballclub and the first game he owned the club he looks over the press box and he he sees me through lip-reading he figures out what I'm doing but he see something I never knew right below the booth about eight or nine people got through lip-reading he could see they were singing with me so the next night well am i knowing it he hear the public address microphone Wow all of a sudden I hear my voice coming booming back at me along with buddy thousand others Oh [Music] [Music] what the game is over I go up to Becca's the bill I said well the fentanyl world was that all about he said Harry forty five years I've been looking for the right man he says as soon as I heard you I do you the right guy but you have to puff up to the flattery book he said yes I don't care what you sitting in the bleachers sitting in the grand fantasy sitting in a luxury box wherever you're sitting he says as soon as you start singing that man sitting wherever he sitting knows he can sing better than you and so he joins him in 1981 a group of investors headed by Jerry Reinsdorf bought the White Sox and Harry moved his act nine miles north to Wrigley Field line drive there's no anyone snap there's a long whoa be times where holy is that I haven't seen the cuts of one six in a row all right Harry let's bring the story home here to Wrigley Field in 12 years the Cubs have been over 500 only three times on two of those times they won the division but 9 out of 12 sub 500 so what's the ball clubs appeal one ball clubs appeal number one day baseball [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I don't know whether mr. Phil Rigby would just a great visionary on whether he was lucky but having day baseball is the appeal of a cuff [Music] [Applause] [Music] generation after generation the kids get off the L they come here they see the ballgame they get back on the elder home by 5:30 6 o'clock can you imagine the young student or enthusiasm telling their parents about the great hit of grace and sosa hit all over a man Oh dad all miles and they grow up to be parents too same thing happened year after year after year generation after generation after generation that's the appeal of a Chicago cop other than that you know the game is great how can you affect the game the base is still 90 feet apart pigeon mount still 60 feet six inches away I don't think that the new ballparks really help the game as much as the the even configure mom about the old ballpark what do you think your greatest moments have been here at Wrigley Field what stands out for you samia's field he got his 3,000th hit one of your most famous coins on radio right here here's the pitch bunty's wait a second with a double to run scored and stand again turn defeat of victory with one swing of his battle and the 84 season here's a team that's gone through a terrible priest spring training down the screen made a couple of deals they got journeyer and they got Matthews played left field they got Sutcliffe winning 16 losing only one and they win the division title to the tiger turn [Applause] and then that team goes on in 89 wins another division title two strikes a pet pink comes with the division comes within division comes with the division to Cyril is out on strike look at that scene on the field a division title is not being in the World Series but the next best thing to it when you haven't been in the World Series for 50 years - division titled JBAB how bittersweet was 1984 for you is a tremendous season Sandberg wins the MVP [Applause] up on the playoffs two days here's a button the playoffs seems to be in the bag against the Padres the whole country is getting ready for it and it slips away you making me want to cry [Applause] even after Garvey's heroics in the fourth game Cubs still have Sutcliffe coming back in Game five they have the lead the ball goes through Durham's legs crazy things start to happen they lose the game independent valve that's baseball that happens every day this is what I save makes us game the great game it really is the impossible is possible the unbelievable is believable but let's click off a few things that are signatures for you the net up in the booth I remember a picture of you I was living in New York but I think it showed up in Sports Illustrated when you were the Cardinal announcer in the 60s you're up there with a fishing net on a hot humid summer night and st. Louis in polkadot boxer shorts that's right well I started out in st. Louis and the ballpark was such that I got a lot of foul balls and then I had Ned at this key part that was pretty difficult we got the ball up once every three years let's clear something up here once and for all there's a line drive deep left field going up [Applause] Oh [Applause] I never took any special distinction for using holy cow I was just the first guy to use it on the air and the reason I use it I told you about the neighborhood I came from a profanity was very common the reason I had to develop something to say without using profanity and I thought of holy cow [Applause] I have to train my something else holy cow instead a some profanity Cubs win good or when you were doing their game Sox win five shot man shot you know I get letters sometimes from young announcers and they say do I need to develop a signature homerun call I don't know when the ball is Syd's you know it might be you see the left fielder moving back you know it could be lands in the bleachers it is [Applause] anything you contrive in our business is bad you know the only thing to do is be your natural self [Applause] what you see is what you get when it's me you may like it you may dislike it you may think it's corny you might might think it's amass he whatever but I say it the way I'm accustomed to saying it what about saying names backwards you know and lose names spelled backwards ooh you all it sounds like your first name you'll love and one thing they really like and it increases the volume of mail in and of itself is greeting people on the air Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall want to congratulate Joan and Terry Stegner we're getting married today the law students from the University of Arkansas in La Mirada we're on hand on a group here's a guy from Timbuktu Joe below I mentioned his name when he gets back to Timbuktu everybody tells and you here Harry care oh this guy feel like a gorilla ten feet tall greetings the cookie Campbell a long time comes and it only takes a second and baseball is a slow game and I've never missed a pitch of the ballgame get while wishes so bomb skiffington the Budweiser man from Decatur anything if I miss it you've seen it on TV I don't have to tell you to strike or a ball they just showed it to you so what's wrong with it here's Kurt Miller Miller bounced out is only previous time oh thank you come here Thank You Maggie only only you only you and you who's as good you care well when I start broadcast see I don't even know who's gonna be listening there's a high pop flies sand shed he never dropped one of those in his life well that's dead you're dead Holly Gus how about that and therefore Sanchez only his second of the year I just finished saying he never dropped one like that in his life and he did whether they listened in the millions or whether listened on the hundreds I don't think an announcer thinks about those kind of things you know that the game is started and your job is to make it as a interesting and exciting as you know how to make it but what is it with you India number one I like beer mental health number two everywhere I've ever been I've had a beer sponsor me I've worked for about five or six different beers naturally Budweiser my favorite besides the fact that I think it tastes better than any other beer so does that answer your question the carries have given us a baseball first something of a dynasty in the booth three generations of broadcasters from Harry to son skip and now grandson ship the fact that I'm one of three generations all of whom are broadcasting Major League Baseball had one in the same time it's never been done before and may never be done again and that's where we are very proud of that and of all the things that have happened to me in 50 years of broadcasting this is the thing I've promised out because this is my family have you finally met your match and dutchy no doubt about it no doubt about she's a wonderful person a wonderful mother a wonderful wife and duchies had to share Harry with every baseball fan in a sense we're his extended family the fans always reaching out to your calling your name wanting an autograph have their picture taken with you of course that's gratifying but isn't it also draining yes there's a small price to pay for something you you like I I like the fact the people like me they make it very clear I'm not being about us and I'm proud of my relationship with these fans who I think the world of that there's no fan more loyal of the Chicago Cubs fans believe it when you went into the Hall of Fame one of the remarks you made in your speech was that the unsung heroes of baseball are the fans we are fans of the world's greatest game baseball and I know that it is the fans are responsible for my being here I've always tried in each and every broadcast to serve the fans to the best of my ability in my mind they are the unsung heroes of our great game and I'm very very proud of being some part of this important piece of Americana coming from you that didn't surprise anybody absolutely the fan is a guy that the only should cater to the players should cater to the players ought to look around to and encourage the fan to ask for an autograph these people make it all possible I don't care what the contract is I don't care how much they hipped I don't care how much money they pay if that fan isn't a sitting in that seat the game won't be around their law any significant regrets regrets significant regrets we all have small ones got any big ones not really now really I even the finding out I wasn't to spend the rest of my time doing the same those Cardinal games that disappeared long ago I'm tickle of death better things happen for me I got to see the American League I got this I see the great city of Chicago where I've made worlds of friends 50 years from now how do you hope people remember you I have no idea I I have a feeling that somewhere along lines somebody will remember me and say gee that comes just one the world's championship boy is the déjame Harry's not here to see it time to wrap things up there been a lot of changes in baseball's some of them for the better not all of them and things are less stable in the game Toronto Blue Jays win back-to-back World Championships and more than half of their roster is changed from one year to the next and I've begun to believe that to the local fan at least the veteran announcer whose voice is part of the soundtrack of their summer each with a different style but you and Chicago's Scully and LA Saint Louis Ernie Harwell all the years in Detroit Phil Rizzuto in New York that there's an emotional attachment on the part of the fan to the announcer that's that's sort of the last remaining thread to baseball as it has been through all years and I remember how you called Stan Musial last at-bat in 1963 remember the Stan's and the swing we're not likely to see his likes again however long it lasts take a good look and a good long listen because you won't see Harry's like again either it's been a pleasure ELISA Bob such a pleasure for me gonna pull me off the chair and across the plate the man still has plenty of strength so it is fiftieth year thank you very much thank you Harry go to time for us to say so long we're gone who knows why were really leaving bye-bye thank you Bob [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: TheNighthawkIC

Views: 99,578

Rating: 4.8914728 out of 5

Keywords: +Harry, Caray, +Bob, Costas, +Chicago, Cubs

Id: Vn9xXHe346Q

Length: 23min 57sec (1437 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 01 2012

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[u/YorjYefferson]

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