Harry Caray is one of the most famous and beloved sports broadcasters of all time, with a career that lasted over 50 years. Always a baseball enthusiast, Caray once vowed to become a broadcaster who was the true voice of the fans. Caray's distinctive style soon resonated across St. Louis, then Chicago, and eventually across the nation. In The Legendary Harry Caray: Baseball's Greatest Salesman, Don Zminda delivers the first full-length biography of Caray since his death in 1998. It includes details of Caray's orphaned childhood, his 25 years as the voice of the St. Louis Cardinals, his tempestuous 11 years broadcasting games for the Chicago White Sox, and the 16 years he broadcast for the Chicago Cubs while also becoming a nationally-known celebrity. Interviews with significant figures from Caray's life are woven throughout, from his widow Dutchie and grandson Chip to broadcasters Bob Costas, Thom Brennaman, Dewayne Staats, Pat Hughes, and more. Caray was known during his final years as a beloved, often-imitated grandfather figure with the Cubs, but the story of his entire career is much more nuanced and often controversial. Featuring new information on Caray's life-including little-known information about his firing by the Cardinals and his feuds with players, executives, and fellow broadcasters-this book provides an intimate and in-depth look at a broadcasting legend.
Don Zminda spent more than two decades with STATS LLC, first as director of publications and then director of research for STATS-supported sports broadcasts. He has written or edited over a dozen sports books, including Double Plays and Double Crosses: The Black Sox and Baseball in 1920 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) and the SABR publication Go-Go to Glory: The 1959 Chicago White Sox. He has been a member of the Society for Baseball Research since 1979. A Chicago native, Zminda now resides in Los Angeles.
Acknowledgments Introduction 1: The Man Who Wasn't There 2: Early Days 3: Voice of the Cardinals 4: Changing Times 5: New Partners 6: KMOX 7: Up and Downs 8: Glory Days 9: End of an Era 10: Siberia 11: New Man in Town 12: South Side Blues 13: A Tumultuous Year 14: Harry, Jimmy, and Bill 15: Demolition 16: Eddie and Jerry and Harry and Jimmy 17: Harry Heads North 18: Superstar of the Superstation 19: Stroke and Recovery 20: The Mayor of Rush Street 21: North Side versus South Side 22: Slips, Strikes, and Controversies 23: Last Call 24: A Long Goodbye 25: Epilogue: Harry Caray's Lasting Impact Notes Bibliography Index About the Author
A noteworthy reexamination of the life and career of a beloved sports broadcaster.
Don Zminda has given us a biography worthy of the subject.... His fans will love this book. * Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine * Harry Caray was a larger-than-life personality in the broadcast booth and in his personal life. He made his early reputation as the St. Louis Cardinals' radio announcer but is most remembered for his years in Chicago, first with the White Sox and later with the Cubs, where he cemented his national profile through the WGN cable network. Zminda, veteran sports journalist and a Chicago native, is perfectly situated to track Caray's tumultuous tenure in the Windy City. As the voice of the White Sox, Caray could be hypercritical of players and management. He and his partner, Jimmy Piersall, while adored by listeners, burned more bridges than a retreating army. Once Caray moved to the Cubs, he became more of a "homer," building up the team rather than tearing it down, though the frustration in his voice was evident whenever he intoned his signature phrase, describing yet another Cub who "popped it up." Zminda draws on personal interviews and press accounts to vividly capture Caray's misadventures, both professionally and personally. Expect significant demand, especially in the Midwest, where Caray is still the standard by which all other baseball announcers are measured. * Booklist * Exhaustively researched and wonderfully written. . . . Some biographers hate their subjects; some adore them. Don Zminda does neither. He is not an advocate. Instead, to use a sports phrase, he is an umpire, calling Harry Caray's life as he saw it. But better than an umpire, Zminda is a fan, re-creating for readers baseball in the second half of the 20th century when the game changed substantially. The Legendary Harry Caray: Baseball's Greatest Salesman is a great baseball book. This fan is happy to include it in his baseball collection. * Illinois Times * The Legendary Harry. . . portrays Caray as shrewd enough to recognize that broadcasting as a fan meant occasionally expressing a fan's frustrations. "I started ripping everybody in sight," he said of his early career. "It was a calculated thing to make people know you're there. And it worked." * Literary Review Of Canada * Zminda's book is not only a fine biography of a "larger than life" man, it's also a fascinating history of baseball and broadcasting in Chicago in the 1970s and 1980s. If you lived through those years like I did, the book will bring back many fond memories. If you didn't, the book is worth reading to understand how a man born in St. Louis and once tightly identified with the Cardinals wound up with a statue outside Wrigley Field. * Bleed Cubbie Blue * The work Zminda puts into this is impressive and far exceeds anything done in a journalistic fashion on Caray's career - this isn't something meant to make readers feel warm and fuzzy. * Tom Hoffarth's "The Drill" * Harry Caray springs to life, thanks to Don Zminda's meticulous research. Caray's artistry and his personal flaws are under Zminda's microscope, and the reader benefits from this rare analysis of one of broadcasting's most controversial characters. -- Bill Brown, veteran MLB broadcaster Zminda's book on Harry Caray fully captures the bluster, color, and brilliance of baseball's raspy-throated clown prince. -- Chris Erskine, columnist, Los Angeles Times Don Zminda's deep dive into Harry Caray's amazing life and broadcasting career is a must-read for baseball fans of every generation. Caray was intimately linked to no less than three big league franchises-the St. Louis Cardinals and both Chicago franchises, most notably the Cubs, with whom he became a national TV treasure. It's a wild and riotous ride with tons of laughs, iconic moments, and yes, beer. -- Len Kasper, play-by-play announcer, Chicago Cubs If I were asked what all-time baseball announcer most loved the pastime, I would almost surely answer Harry Caray, its irrepressible, incorrigible, unforgettable Falstaff behind the microphone. Don Zminda shows why, as was once said of Bill Veeck, Harry made of baseball a Carnival, "every day a Mardi Gras, and every fan a King." -- Curt Smith, author, Voices of The Game: The Acclaimed Chronicle of Baseball Radio and Television Broadcasting Harry Carabina, as he revealed on my nationally syndicated Talking Baseball television show (I had never met him before he walked into the studio), sure worked his way up from selling newspapers on the streets of St. Louis as a boy. You gotta love a guy who says, "I sing 'Take Me Out To the Ballgame' because it's the only song I know the words to." -- Ed Randall, host of "Ed Randall's Talking Baseball" on WFAN Sports Radio and "Remember When" on SiriusXM Harry Caray's life could be and should be the basis for a major motion picture. And when that happens, this is the book that should be used for the source material. It's an insightful, well-researched, at times hilarious and frank look at the man, the myth, the mistakes, the madness and the magnificence of this one-of-a-kind legend. -- Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times and WGN radio There was no one in baseball quite like Harry Caray. And now, through Don's words, we get to know the storyteller, character, and brutally honest force of nature behind the seventh-inning stretch and Will Ferrell impression. It might be ... it could be ... it is a joy to read. -- Joe Posnanski, national columnist, The Athletic
