But there’s always room for more Harry Caray memories … especially when they involve photos of Harry which are undoubtedly (in my mind, anyway) the last pictures taken of Harry Caray at Wrigley Field. Shannon Blosser-Salisbury sent us the pics and her recollections of the day.
September 21, 1997 was Harry’s last game at Wrigley and it was also Ryne Sandberg’s last game at the friendly confines. The Cubs whomped all over Curt Schilling and the Philadelphia Phillies, posting four Home Runs en route to a final score of 11-3. Sandberg was substituted in the fifth for a pinch runner, garnering a standing ovation from the 29,922 fans who attended the game to say goodbye to the future Hall of Famer. Little did they know they were saying goodbye to Harry Caray as well.
A few of those fans hung around the stadium for a while, and as they were leaving the ballpark, noticed that Harry Caray was leaving as well. Shannon and her friends took the following pictures of Harry getting ready to get in his car.
As always, Harry was jovial and gracious with his time and talked to some fans as he was getting ready to go …
We all know that Hall of Fame broadcaster Harry Caray (the Patron Saint of Home Run Derby) was a famous pitchman for beer, primarily Budweiser and Falstaff.
From 1980, here’s Harry Caray in a television commercial for La Preferida, a Chicago-based manufacturer of fine Mexican Foods like chorizo, salsa, jalapenos, taco shells, and beans.
But did you know that Harry Caray kept a published phone number? He did.
I know this because I called him once … One evening during my freshman year of college in Chicago, some friends and I were looking up someone’s number in the phone book. Near the bottom of the page, the name just stuck out.
Caray, Harry
“Dude … Harry Caray’s in the phone book!”
“No way.”
“I’m calling it.”
“It’s not him. No way. It’s just some guy with the same name.”
“He would be listed under Harold if it was some other guy.”
“I’m calling it …”
Three Rings. I pushed the speaker button as soon as the gravelly voice that I had heard for over ten years on WMAQ and WGN said “Hello”
Baseball lost one of its most beloved voices. Harry Caray, the longtime broadcaster of the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, and Chicago Cubs passed away ten years ago today.
It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since Harry left us. His voice is still everywhere. At both US Cellular Field and Wrigley Field, Harry is remembered in the seventh inning of every game when fans sing “Take me out to the Ballgame.” A tradition he didn’t invent, but he made into an integral part of Chicago Baseball.
There’s a huge statue of Harry outside of Wrigley which will probably have a small brewery’s worth of Budweiser around it by the end of the day today. So long as there’s nogoats.
One of the things that made Harry Caray different from many other broadcasters was that he called the game like a regular guy. He had criticism for players and management when they deserved it and he enjoyed baseball more than anything else. He said things that we would have said if we were in the booth. He danced and sang while the organist played. He kept his number listed in the phone book.
He broadcast games not just for the fans, but as a fan. He truly loved the game of baseball. Too many announcers treat it as a job.
Let’s go back and recall some of Harry’s finest moments behind the mic …
But if you’re legendary baseball announcer Harry Caray, you get scarred for life when you apparently didn’t get a prize in your box of Cracker Jacks as a kid …
Listen as Harry goes on a rant against Cracker Jacks …
Harry Caray is associated most famously with the Chicago Cubs as their longtime play-by-play announcer, beer swiller, and seventh inning stretch conductor. God rest his soul.
But lest we forget (before WGN-TV put Harry in the living rooms across America and not just on UHF in Chicago) he began singing “Take me out to the Ballgame” not at Wrigley Field … but while he was the broadcaster for the Chicago White Sox on the South Side of Chicago.
From 1971-1975, Caray just used to sing the song in the booth for himself - he said it was the only song that he knew all the words. But owner Bill Veeck noticed that the crowd was singing along with Harry … so someone planted a stadium mic in the booth, and the Comiskey Park crowd ate it up.
Everybody has seen lots and lots of video of Harry conducting the crowd at Wrigley … but how about back when he was on the South Side, root root rooting for the White Sox?
Well, here you go … from the summers of 1979 and 1980, here’s nearly twenty times Harry sang at Comiskey Park (sorry about all the bare chested men at the world’s largest outdoor saloon)
We’ve already unveiled our Andre Dawson Awards this week … so let’s go back twenty years to Andre Dawson’s MVP season in 1987 - specifically August 1, 1987.
The Chicago Cubs were 5.5 games back of the Cardinals. The Philadelphia Phillies were at Wrigley Field.
And Andre Dawson smoked the Phillies for Home Runs #29, #30 and #31.
The following video clip is great to see Dawson in his prime and to hear Harry Caray and Steve Stone call the action.
Last Thursday (Oct 4), Home Run Derby pulled a scoop with a grainy video and pic of a skinned goat carcass hanging from the Harry Caray statue outside Wrigley Field that someone had hung in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. The perpetrators were obviously looking to Reverse the Curse of the Billy Goat which has supposedly haunted and doomed the Cubs since 1945.
The traditional media picked up the story over the weekend. The Chicago Sun-Times reported it sometime on Saturday and then Sports Illustrated and MSNBC followed later that night. And the news wires had all picked it up for the Sunday morning papers, conveniently after the Cubs had been swept out of the playoffs.
The Chicago Tribune (stiil the owners of the Cubs) only had a teeny tiny blurb about it in an AP wire report. I wonder why they didn’t trumpet this news?
Well, Home Run Derby has since acquired a high-res pic (sent to us by a reader) of the goat dangling from Harry Caray’s arm. I haven’t seen it anywhere else.
It’s from a different angle and shows a cardboard proclamation behind the goat. The Goat’s name is apparently Leon “Bill” Bartman …
Let’s step back in time about 23 years to September 24, 1984 - the date the Cubs clinched their first postseason appearance in 39 years …
Harry Caray and Steve Stone are doing some on-air celebrating after the Cubs beat the Pirates in Pittsburgh. A huge gathering of fans are going wild outside Wrigley Field back home.
In this clip, Harry tries one of Steve’s cigars and has to get the taste out of his mouth … with Budweiser.
Now that my friends, is great television. Smoking cigars and chugging beer in the wake of a Cubs playoff berth. Good times.
Can you drink beer on television? I think they would probably have let Harry get away with just about anything that night.
Rush Street had to be rockin that night in Chicago. Even though its Mayor was in Pittsburgh.
It’s been over ten years since Harry Caray left us. Home Run Derby did our own little tribute back in February, with some great Harry Caray quotes and a recollection of my 1989 phone conversation with Harry.
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