Caray Loved for His Everyman Qualities

Harry Caray, who died Wednesday, was not an icon and a legend because of broadcasting skills, good looks or a smooth delivery.

It was because his love for people, the game of baseball, and life in general came through loud and clear.

He’s was your every-day Joe, just out to have a good time. He was devoid of ego and nice to everyone.

One quick Harry Caray story, well, maybe two. There are millions of ‘em.

In August 1992, I went into the visitors’ broadcast booth at Dodger Stadium to ask if, after the game, he would have time to meet a lifelong, die-hard Chicago Cub fan--is there any other kind?--who was at that day’s Dodger-Cub game to celebrate his 40th birthday.

“Why of course, and what’s his name?” Caray wanted to know. “I’ll wish him happy birthday on the air.”

And he did, on radio and TV.

Maybe mentioning someone’s birthday on the air isn’t the most professional thing to do, but Caray didn’t care about that. He did things like that all the time.

If it made someone happy, in this case Gary McMillan of Studio City, nothing else mattered.

The other story is about Caray’s generosity.

When Caray was announcing for the St. Louis Cardinals after they won the World Series in 1964, a man whom he had never met ended up next to him on an elevator. Caray was carrying a box of baseballs autographed by the Cardinals.

The man asked Caray where he could buy one of those for his son. Caray gave him a ball. Brad Isaacs, a Los Angeles-based writer, still has the ball.

Dick Enberg recently said the difference between a network announcer and a local announcer is that a network announcer is liked, while a local announcer is loved.

Harry Caray was loved.

Well, maybe not by everyone. Caray was a foil for Jim Rome in recent years. Rome didn’t miss too many opportunities to make fun of Caray.

But to Rome’s credit, he cut off a listener earlier this week who wanted to go down that path as Caray was barely clinging to life. And Thursday, along with so many others, Rome paid tribute to Caray.

Rome said the problem was more with Skip Caray, the Atlanta Braves’ broadcaster and Harry’s son. Rome said Skip Caray had threatened to sue him at one time for something he had said on the air.

WINTER OLYMPICS UPDATE

CBS’ big night in Nagano will be tonight when it will show Michele Kwan and Tara Lipinski going for the gold medal. But again the problem will be that the event will be 20 hours old by the time it is shown here and most people will know the result.

The time difference, coupled with bad weather, has killed CBS. But the problems can’t all be blamed on outside forces.

The network could have shown live skiing--at least live in the East--on Wednesday night but instead chose to stick with the women’s figure skating short program and hold the skiing for an additional 24 hours.

CBS points to the 20.7 rating and 32 share it got for Wednesday night’s prime-time show--that’s 65 million viewers--to indicate it must be doing something right.

OK, there are two sides to every story, and, yes, CBS is doing some things right. Some of the camera work has been very innovative and some of the features have been very good. One excellent feature told the story of Yelena Bereznaya, the Russian pairs silver medalist who was beaten by her former partner then almost accidentally killed by his skate blade in practice.

Also, the job CBS and Harry Smith did on reporting the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding saga was much more thorough than the contrived, checkbook piece that Fox orchestrated and showed two weeks ago.

Prime time host Jim Nantz, on the phone from Nagano, said: “I think if people took the time to really analyze what we have had to deal with--the time difference and the weather--I think they would see what we have pulled off here every night has been remarkable.

“Our spirits are high over here. Every night, after we go off the air, there has been a good feeling and a lot of congratulations.

“No other Olympics has been this difficult to cover, and we haven’t had one break, not one. Those of us in this business are the hardest creatures to please, but I’m really proud of the people over here.”

ADD WINTER OLYMPICS

The way American television covers an Olympics meant CBS was dead going in. Even if everything went CBS’ way, the network was going to be criticized.

American networks pay so much for rights--$375 million in the case of Nagano--that they are forced to show the big events on tape in prime time. That way they can charge enough for commercial time to make money. Those who have been watching these Games on Canadian television via C-band satellite dishes have loved it because so much is live, as it happens.

Viewers have also been high on TNT because everything is in a nice, neat package. TNT is on the air from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m., Nagano time, so it knows exactly what it has and does not have.

Another plus about TNT’s coverage has been host Jim Lampley, who has been outstanding.

“I thought because of the time we were on, this would be difficult and lonely,” Lampley said. “But that has not been the case.”

Lampley said it wasn’t hard to get the U.S. women’s hockey team to make a live appearance. “They were up celebrating all night anyway,” he said.

SHORT WAVES

Even though everyone will know the result, the Lake Arrowhead Chamber of Commerce is expecting a packed house at the Ice Castle training center in nearby Blue Jay to watch the East Coast feed of tonight’s figure skating, featuring Lake Arrowhead’s Kwan. CBS is providing the East Coast feed and also plans to show the festivities there as part of its coverage.

Roy Firestone will have an “Up Close Special” on Caray tonight at 9 on ESPN. . . . Firestone will receive the John Wooden Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sports Legends dinner at the Beverly Hiton Feb. 28. It’s a benefit for paralysis research. . . . Enberg gets his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. at 6752 Hollywood Blvd.

AM 1150 is scheduled to beef up its power to 50,000 watts today. . . . The USA network got an impressive 4.0 rating for its two-day coverage of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. . . . Channel 9 features junior-featherweight Marco Antonio Barrera facing Angel Rosario from the Tropicana in Las Vegas in another one of its Forum-promoted boxing shows Saturday at 8 p.m. Barrera has averaged a 5.7 rating in three previous Channel 9 appearances.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for Feb. 14-15

SATURDAY

*--*

Event Ch. Rating Share Winter Olympics (prime time) 2 17.5 29 Winter Olympics (daytime) 2 6.7 16 Auto racing: NAPA Auto Parts 300 2 4.1 11 Gymnastics: International Cup 4 3.0 7 Auto racing: Winston Cup Twin 125s 2 2.8 11 College basketball: Cal at UCLA 7 2.2 5 Golf: Hawaiian Open 7 2.0 4 College basketball: West Virginia at Syracuse 4 1.2 3

*--*

SUNDAY

*--*

Event Ch. Rating Share Winter Olympics (prime time) 2 18.1 27 Pro basketball: Houston at Lakers 4 8.9 22 Pro basketball: Detroit at Chicago 4 7.1 16 Winter Olympics (daytime) 2 6.8 16 Auto racing: Daytona 500 2 4.7 13 Golf: Hawaiian Open 7 1.2 3

*--*

Note: Each rating point represents 50,092 L.A. households.