March 1, 1999
The late Harry Caray was probably the most loved baseball broadcaster in the history of the game. Stone, who announced Chicago Cubs' games alongside Caray for 15 years, fondly recalls his on-air and after-hours misadventures with the irrepressible Harry. With coauthor Rozner, also a good friend of Caray's, Stone offers not so much a biography as a bull session, much like the stories one might hear at an old-fashioned wake. There was the time in 1987 when Caray, in his first game back after a serious stroke, abruptly ended a congratulatory phone call from President Reagan because "Bobby Dernier just got a bunt single." Or how about that way Harry had with the letter "s": he'd leave it off when it belonged and add it when it didn't, John Kruk becoming Kruks and his team from Philadelphia, the Phillie. As the stories pour from the pages, it becomes clearer than ever that we aren't likely to see another Harry Caray in today's cookie-cutter broadcast world. ((Reviewed March 1, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)