Harry Caray

Legendary sportscaster, known for announcing Chicago Cubs baseball games. Famous for his rendition of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame". Also wore big thick goggle-style glasses.

I want to like this guy 'cause I used to listen to him do the St. Louis Cardinals on a transistor radio while I'd go to sleep. By the way, the transistor radio cost my old man about $80 in 1962 dollars. Then I'd see him doing the Cubs on TV, and I still wanted to like him. But, I was visiting some friends in Chicago when the old White Sox stadium was being "retired." We went to the press bar after the game and Harry was so drunk he couldn't stand up. He could, however, denigrate my buddy who happened to have long hair. So, no matter how much I want to like this old bastard, I cannot. God help me be more generous as I grow old.

Most spot-on impersonation ever was Will Ferrell's version of Mr. Caray on SNL.

Caray (DOB: 3/1/1914; St. Louis, Missouri; birth name: Harry Carabina; some websites say he was born in 1917 or 1920, but findagrave.com has a picture of his tombstone, which says 1914. The 1914 date is confirmed by several other reputable sites) broadcast for a number of baseball teams during his long career, which started in St. Louis in 1945. He broadcast for the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns (until they moved to Baltimore), and then for the Oakland A's (for a year), Chicago White Sox, and since 1981, the Chicago Cubs.

He had a reputation for often enjoying alcohol a bit too much and his talents as a baseball broadcaster eroded as a result of that, combined with age. He apparently often mispronounced player names and got confused easily. However, he was loved by many Chicagoans, and as such was kept on the air. This is similar to a number of other aging sportscasters, whose eye and mind might not be as sharp as they once were, but who have been on the air for so long that they can't be replaced without possibly causing a public uproar. (Phil Rizzuto (in the '90s) and Ralph Kiner in my native New York spring to mind right away).

In 1989, Caray was inducted into the broadcaster's wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He's also a member of the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame and has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame at 6321 Delmar (among other honors).

Caray is the namesake of Harry Caray's Restaurant, a steakhouse which has 2 locations, one in Chicago, the other in suburban Rosemont.

For those who know nothing about baseball, Caray might be more recognizable due to Will Ferrell's impersonations of him on Saturday Night Live in the late '90s ("If you were a hot dog, and you were starving, would you eat yourself?!").

As a 20-something New Yorker, I never heard Caray broadcast a game, so I can't personally comment on him other than he evokes strong reactions from people, both positive and negative. From most accounts though, he could have cut down on the alcohol.