The Legendary Harry Caray, Baseball's Greatest Salesman: First Full-Length Biography

CHICAGO, April 10, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Legendary Harry Caray: Baseball's Greatest Salesman delivers the first full-length biography of Caray since his death in 1998. Author Don Zminda 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 exuberantly broadcast for the Chicago Cubs while 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.

Harry Caray is one of the most famous and beloved sports broadcasters of all time, with a career that lasted over half a century. Always a baseball enthusiast, Caray once vowed he would become a broadcaster who was the true voice of the fans. His distinctive style soon resonated across St. Louis, then Chicago, and eventually across America.

Caray was known during his final years as the beloved, often-imitated grandfather figure of 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 details 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.

Zminda has also captures some fascinating facts about Carey:

• Caray, the man who made "Holy Cow!" his signature phrase, was deathly afraid of cows. (Chapter 19)
• Caray, whose raucous renditions of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" made many music purists cringe, was a member of the glee club at Webster Groves High School in St. Louis. (Chapter 2)
• On-key or not, Caray's renditions of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" always found a rabid audience. One example: when the Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago in 1996, Caray was asked to lead the convention delegates in a chorus of his signature song. (Chapter 23)
• In his early days announcing for the Cardinals, an era during in which teams usually broadcast road games from the hometown radio studio via a telegraph hook-up with the road ballpark, Caray—using recorded crowd noises, batting sounds.—became such a master of these re-creations that many fans assumed that he was actually working from the park. (Chapter 3)

From Don Zminda:
"As someone who grew up in Chicago and worked in broadcast support for over two decades, I wanted to tell Harry's whole story: the story of a remarkably skilled broadcaster who became a central figure in growing the popularity of each of the three franchises he became identified with (the Cardinals, White Sox and Cubs). Most surprising to me was learning—through interviews with people like his grandson Chip—about the private Harry, a man who instantly connected with millions of fans but struggled for much of his life to make connections with his own family. The fact that Harry finally succeeded in that quest in his later years is a story of remarkable personal growth for a man who was born in poverty and orphaned at a young age."

About the Author:
Don Zminda spent more than two decades with STATS LLC, where he was Director of Research for STATS-supported sports broadcasts that included the World Series, the Super Bowl, and the NCAA Final Four. Zminda is the author and editor of over a dozen sports books, including the annual STATS Baseball Scoreboard (1990-2000) and Go-Go to Glory: The 1959 Chicago White Sox. A Chicago native, Zminda has been a member of the Society for American Baseball Research since 1979.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 352
978-1-5381-1294-6 • Hardback • April 2019
978-1-5381-1295-3 • eBook • April 2019

SOURCE Don Zminda