Former booth mate recalls master salesman
Harry Caray had a cheat sheet — and yet he still mispronounced the names of Chicago Cubs players.
So says Steve Stone, who for 14 seasons served as the color commentator alongside Caray, the legendary Cubs play-by-play announcer. With the Cubs chasing their first World Series title since 1908, Stone talked about the widespread notion that his fellow broadcaster was as errorprone as the once-forlorn Cubs.
Trying to help out, Stone said he took Caray’s scorebook and phonetically spelled out names of Cubs players such as catcher Hector Villanueva. And in the first inning of Villanueva’s debut, Stone said, he heard Caray pronounce the catcher’s name seven different ways — none properly.
“He knew if he stumbled over the names, it was funny,” Stone told USA TODAY Sports. “Everybody would say, ‘Well, that’s just Harry.’ And they would tune in to see which name he was going to mangle next.”
It was Stone who had the college degree — in history and government from Kent State — but Caray who provided the “local broadcast” education.
“When God decided there should be a baseball broadcaster, he created Vin Scully,” Stone said, referring to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Hall of Fame announcer. “But the greatest salesman of the game of baseball, the city of Chicago, Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs and himself — not necessarily in that order — was Harry Caray.
“One of the things Harry taught me was how to talk to the fans on a daily basis where they believed you were absolutely one of them.”
Stone, who now does color commentary for the Chicago White Sox, said he learned another lesson from his former partner.
“Harry knew it was showbiz,” he said. “He knew from the beginning.”