Harry Caray's Diary of a Drunken Man

If you believe the Internet, he said it about Jorge Orta and he did say Mexico. It wouldn't surprise me if he said it more than once...

I'm just glad it's not an urban legend.

 

My enduring memory of Harry is his seemingly endless struggle to pronounce "Jose Vizcaino."

 

Remember watching a Cubs home game when the Sea World blimp, called the "SkyShip Shamu" or something was cruising over Wrigley and Harry said "There's the Spaceship Schmooey...."

 

I have no idea why, but more than anything else on this thread, that made me break down laughing until it physically hurt.

My God, I can hear him saying that now.

 

Good one. Mickey Morandini used to give him fits, too.

I remember one game in the early 90s when Jim Riggleman came out of the dugout to make a pitching change. Harry stammered "Here comes Jim .... the manager."

 

It was fun for a NorCal kid in college to watch Carey on WGN in the early days of cable TV and see how much fun there was in the afternoon in the Windy City.

 

I remember one time the WGN cameras started showing a fire in a building close to Wrigley Field. Harry starts commenting on it, and how he was surprised that the fire department that was right across from Wrigley hadn't been called. Keeps going on and on about it.

Cameras keep cutting back to fire, then all of the sudden you hear the sirens from across the street. Harry's in the middle of saying something, and he just yells, "THERE THEY GO!!!!!"

 

I grew up on 1990s Harry, so the first time I heard some "in-his-prime" Harry highlights, I was stunned to find out that there was a point where he was actually a good broadcaster. It had never occurred to me.

 

Every now and then Gibson's 17-strikeout effort vs. the Tigers in the World Series will pop up. In those days, NBC would allow one of the local broadcasters in the booth along with its crew and for this game, it was Caray. Amazing to hear him on top of the action, including the count.