This Day In Sox History 2/18...

[Lip Man 1]

February 18, 1998 – Former White Sox broadcaster Harry Caray (born Harry Carabina), died in Rancho Mirage, California at age 83. It was four days after he suffered a stroke during his Valentine’s Day dinner, and two weeks short of his birthday and the beginning of his 54th season in the majors.

Caray was born in St. Louis, was a terrific prep ballplayer, and while playing semipro baseball in the city he wrote to KMOX radio, insisting he could do a better job broadcasting than the current analysts. After brief stops in Peoria and Kalamazoo covering sports, he hooked on broadcasting the Cardinals and Browns in 1945.

A hallmark of Harry’s style was his sprightly rapport with fans, as he often was broadcasting solo, with no color man. And often to his detriment with ownership, Caray was willing to criticize the play on the field, including that of his own team.

After his long tenure in St. Louis and one year in Oakland, the White Sox hired Caray for TV and radio. He worked for the team from 1971-81 before skipping the South Side for the Cubs, with whom he’d finish his career.

The Sox offered Caray more money to stay for the 1982 season than the Cubs but Caray had an acrimonious relationship with new owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn and wanted no part of the ill-fated SportsVision experiment.

In addition to his many years broadcasting baseball, Caray also broadcast St. Louis Flyers hockey, University of Missouri football, St. Louis University and Western Michigan University college basketball, the Boston Celtics and St. Louis Hawks of the NBA and eight Cotton Bowl games (1958–64, 1966) on network radio.

Edited Wednesday at 05:59 PM by Lip Man 1

[Melton1972]

Harry learned that his St Louis contract was not being renewed while he was broadcasting the last game of the season. He was told by the sportwriters, not by any member of the Cardinals management. You can hear it all on you tube. Supposedly he was fired for sleeping with Gussie Busch's daughter in law. I loved the fact that Harry attended the subsequent news conference with a 6 pack of a Budweiser rival. 

[nrockway]

Thanks, Lip Man. Love these posts, glad you're doing them. Get a little wiser every day reading them.

[Lip Man 1]

8 hours ago, nrockway said:

Thanks, Lip Man. Love these posts, glad you're doing them. Get a little wiser every day reading them.

You are welcome. 

[WhiteSox2023]

10 hours ago, nrockway said:

Thanks, Lip Man. Love these posts, glad you're doing them. Get a little wiser every day reading them.

I’m sure Lip already knows this but the rumor is that Harry Caray was fired by the Cardinals because he was having an affair with the Cardinals owner’s daughter-in-law.  😳

[Lip Man 1]

1 hour ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

I’m sure Lip already knows this but the rumor is that Harry Caray was fired by the Cardinals because he was having an affair with the Cardinals owner’s daughter-in-law.  😳

Correct I did know this although as you point out that was never confirmed and was a rumor. 

[WhiteSox2023]

2 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Correct I did know this although as you point out that was never confirmed and was a rumor. 

Here’s the excerpt from Harry Caray’s Wikipedia page:

“Following the 1969 season, the Cardinals declined to renew Caray's contract after he had called their games for 25 seasons, his longest tenure with any sports team. The team stated that the action had been taken on the recommendation of Anheuser-Busch's marketing department, but declined to offer specifics. At a news conference afterward, during which he drank conspicuously from a can of Schlitz(then a major competitor to Anheuser-Busch), Caray dismissed that claim, saying no one was better at selling beer than he had been. Instead, he suggested, he had been the victim of rumors that he'd had an affair with Gussie Busch's daughter-in-law.”