Las Vegas friend recalls life of Caray

Friday, Feb. 20, 1998 | 1:52 a.m.

Las Vegan Bill "Sully" Sullivan says his longtime friend Harry Caray was a baseball fan first and always.

He recalled that during the 1972 season, Caray, then the broadcast voice of the Chicago White Sox, on his day off came into his Chicago bar "Sully's" for a couple of drinks.

"I used to drive Harry around everywhere, so I asked him what he wanted to do that day," Sullivan said Wednesday two hours after Caray died at a Southern California hospital of complications from a Valentine's Day heart attack.

"We wound up going to watch a Chicago Cubs game. That's how he spent his days off from baseball -- going to a ballgame."

In 1982, Caray brought his trademark wide and thick eyeglasses and catch phrase "Hooo-ly Cow!" to the Cubs and remained the broadcast voice there for 16 seasons.

He led fans at Wrigley Field in a rousing though raspy rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during seventh inning stretches and, in 1989, was elected to the broadcasters wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Former Chicagoans-turned-Las Vegans on Wednesday remembered Caray for not only those sparkling contributions to baseball but also for his warmth and generosity.

"He absolutely was a legend," said longtime entertainment television and radio host Sig Sakowicz, a Las Vegan from 1972-85 and a Chicagoan from 1985-96, who moved back to Las Vegas last year.

"It seemed that everybody knew Harry and he was fond of everybody. I never heard him say a bad word about anybody."

Sakowicz will remember Caray Saturday during his weekly Las Vegas-based broadcast on Chicago's WPNA Radio.

Sullivan said that while Caray was viewed by many as a big celebrity in Chicago and elsewhere, he never lost the common touch.

"Harry was as comfortable walking with presidents as he was talking with a poor child who could not afford a ticket to get into the ballpark," said Sullivan, the senior credit executive at Bally's hotel-casino.

"He was very concerned that baseball ticket prices had gotten so high in recent years, making it difficult for parents to take their kids to see the games. He was a true baseball fan."

On Nov. 19, 1988, a Las Vegas dinner honoring Caray drew 5,000 people to Bally's. On that night, $200,000 was raised for Caray's favorite charity, the Maryville Academy, a Chicago orphanage.

"What Harry didn't know was that Nissan, one of the Cubs' sponsors, was going to give him a car that night," Sullivan said. "Of course, Harry didn't drive. He wound up giving that car to the Maryville Academy."

Caray, whose given name was Harry Christopher Carabina, was born in St. Louis sometime between 1914 and 1920. He celebrated his birthday on March 1 but brushed off questions about his true age.

Caray grew up at 1909 LaSalle Street in St. Louis and graduated from that city's Webster Groves High School. He played for two semi-pro baseball teams before trying his hand at broadcasting his favorite sport.

He announced away games for the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns in the mid-1940s then landed a job as the play-by-play voice of the Cards in 1947. He held that position until 1969, before joining the Oakland A's for one season in 1970.

Caray was the voice of the White Sox from 1971-81 before joining the Cubs organization. He gained a huge following because Cubs games are broadcast over WGN-TV, a nationwide cable station (Prime Cable Channel 11 in Las Vegas).

During the games, Caray would mention the names of hundreds of folks who were tuning in from all over the country. He mentioned his good friend "Sully from Las Vegas" several times during the course of a season.

"Harry would tell me, 'Sully, I made you a national hero,'" Sullivan said. "It was amazing the calls that I would get from all over the country every time he mentioned my name on the air. I heard from people I went to grammar school with."

Sakowicz recalled that Caray had quite a sense of humor.

"About three or four years ago, he came on my show to talk about the opening of his second restaurant in suburban Wheeling, Ill., said Sakowicz, whose recording of "Polish Baseball Power" also is in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y.

"He said he had a great interest in the restaurant business only because he always wanted to be guaranteed that he would have a meal. This new place would provide him meal No. 2."

Meal No. 1, of course, was at Harry Caray's Restaurant, which in the last decade has become a popular Chicago eatery.

Sullivan, who operated his Chicago bar for many years, said he never gave Caray any advice about running his establishment because Harry never got too involved in the day-to-day management of the place that featured his name.

"Harry liked being on the other side of the counter (as a customer) -- he was real good at that," Sullivan mused. "But his restaurant served some great food."

Sully last talked with Caray three weeks ago in Palm Springs, where Caray resided in the off-season with his third wife, Dutchie, and where he had suffered a stroke in 1987.

"As always, Harry was optimistic about the upcoming season," Sullivan said. "We talked about going to spring training. He said he enjoyed being around his grandkids. And we talked about the recent death of a mutual friend, Ben Stein."

Caray was slated to work alongside his grandson, Fox Sports broadcaster Chip Caray, during the upcoming season. His son, Skip Caray, is the longtime play-by-play man for the Atlanta Braves on TBS-TV.