Harry Caray |
Wiki |
Harry Caray (born Harry Christopher Carabina, (March 1, 1914 – February 18, 1998) was an American baseball broadcaster on radio and television. He covered four Major League Baseball teams, beginning with a long tenure calling the games of the St. Louis Cardinals, then the Oakland Athletics (for one year) and the Chicago White Sox (for eleven years), before ending his career as the announcer for the Chicago Cubs.
Caray caught his break when he landed the job with the Cardinals in 1945 and, according to several histories of the 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 had assembled the team that won the 1964 World Series, and of field manager Johnny Keane, whose rumored successor, Leo Durocher (the succession didn't pan out), was believed to have been supported by Caray for the job. Caray, however, stated in his autobiography that he liked Johnny Keane as a manager, and didn't want to be involved in Keane's dismissal. As the Cardinals' announcer, Caray broadcast three World Series (1964, 1967, and 1968) on NBC.
After the 1969 season, Caray was unexpectedly fired as the Cardinals' lead broadcaster (Jack Buck subsequently replaced him). Golenbock and other Cardinal historians have suggested the cause was a purported affair Caray had with the daughter-in-law of Cardinals owner August A. 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 rumors. He was with the St. Louis Cardinals for 25 years, his longest tenure with any sports team.