The words were familiar, but this time, they were wrapped in home-white uniforms with hints of green and gold and a slight alteration.
“It might be … it could be … it will be!”
It was a walk-off home run at the hands of A’s centerfielder JJ Bleday on a cool Oakland night in June. On the mic on the A’s TV broadcast was Chris Caray, who uttered the call his late great-grandfather, Harry, made famous.
Harry’s usual call: “It might be… it could be… it is!”
Caray said it was a moment that he had been thinking about. A tall task for a first year in the major leagues.
“First walk-off home run, I wanted to make it memorable for me. And I thought no better way than to pay homage to Harry, who worked for the A’s in 1970 for a single season,” Caray told AA.
The day couldn’t have gone better, either.
It was Caray’s mom Susan’s birthday, and obviously a close game, and the fans showed up for a reverse boycott, which created a bolstered crowd.
“The call became my favorite and the most popular one I’ve done up to date … ever,” he said. “So it was a very special moment for me.
Caray never went back and listened to the iconic call, but was aware it was something Harry did consistently during his career that lasted over five decades. He became a legend in Chicago calling games for the White Sox and Cubs.
“It was my way of just making a little bit of a change to it while also honoring the fact that it’s a big part of our family, being a fourth generation and broadcasting family,” Caray said.
It’s certainly a family affair.
Caray’s dad, Chip is the television play-by-play announcer for the St. Louis Cardinals, and has had a long local and national career. Chip’s father, Skip, was the longtime radio and TV announcer for the Atlanta Braves. Caray’s brother, Stefan, is the play-by-play announcer for the Amarillo Sod Poodles, the Double-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
But that doesn’t mean anything was handed to Chris.
“What people fail to understand about being in the position I’m in is, yes, it brings a lot of perks, a lot of opportunities, a lot of stuff like that. But if you come from a family of really good people outside the game, which I’ve been fortunate enough to, they want you to figure it out on your own.”
Caray said Chip would always tell him, “I’m not going to tell you what to do.”
The two shared a series together this season when the A’s hosted the St. Louis Cardinals in April.
Both were on the call for their respective teams.
“It’s so funny because in baseball — and life — we have a weird, cosmic relationship,” Caray said. “Especially when you start looking deeper at the numbers. For me, my lucky number has always been four. I’m Harry IV, there are four children in my family. So when the Cardinals were in town, it was my fourth ever career big-league game, which was also really cool. It was a big, emotional day for us.”
That was the perfect beginning to Caray’s big-league career. And he hopes Stefan can join the family on the big-league stage soon.
“He has a natural ability with his words that I don’t think any broadcaster in our age group can figure out,” Caray said. “He’s so smart with how he utilizes his language and he can relate the game of baseball to a fable by Esau … I think he’s made for TV.”
The A’s fans took to Caray quickly after watching and hearing his calls during the final season for the organization in Oakland.
“If I didn’t have you, I didn’t have Johnny [Doskow], Dallas [Braden] when we got closer, I would have never known what the proper way to get over with the fans was,” Caray said.
Caray mentioned the genuine staff and talented broadcasters the A’s possess. (I didn’t pay him to say any of this, by the way.)
“When you have a fanbase that’s so passionate about their club, you know the Oakland fanbase is nothing if not resilient,” he said.
It was the perfect start to his career.
As far as Caray’s own personal home run call, well, that’s to be determined.
“I haven’t found mine yet,” he said.
The post Chris Caray on paying homage to great-grandfather Harry on home run call appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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