Harry Caray springs to life, thanks to Don Zminda’s meticulous research. Caray’s artistry and his personal flaws are under Zminda’s microscope, and the reader benefits from this rare analysis of one of broadcasting’s most controversial characters.
- Bill Brown, veteran MLB broadcaster,
Zminda’s book on Harry Caray fully captures the bluster, color, and brilliance of baseball’s raspy-throated clown prince.
- Chris Erskine, columnist, Los Angeles Times,
Don Zminda’s deep dive into Harry Caray’s amazing life and broadcasting career is a must-read for baseball fans of every generation. Caray was intimately linked to no less than three big league franchises—the St. Louis Cardinals and both Chicago franchises, most notably the Cubs, with whom he became a national TV treasure. It’s a wild and riotous ride with tons of laughs, iconic moments, and yes, beer.
- Len Kasper, play-by-play announcer, Chicago Cubs,
If I were asked what all-time baseball announcer most loved the pastime, I would almost surely answer Harry Caray, its irrepressible, incorrigible, unforgettable Falstaff behind the microphone. Don Zminda shows why, as was once said of Bill Veeck, Harry made of baseball a Carnival, “every day a Mardi Gras, and every fan a King."
- Curt Smith, author, Voices of The Game: The Acclaimed Chronicle of Baseball Radio and Television Broadcasting,
Harry Carabina, as he revealed on my nationally syndicated Talking Baseball television show (I had never met him before he walked into the studio), sure worked his way up from selling newspapers on the streets of St. Louis as a boy. You gotta love a guy who says, “I sing ‘Take Me Out To the Ballgame’ because it’s the only song I know the words to.”
- Ed Randall, host of “Ed Randall’s Talking Baseball” on WFAN Sports Radio and “Remember When” on SiriusXM,
Harry Caray’s life could be and should be the basis for a major motion picture. And when that happens, this is the book that should be used for the source material. It’s an insightful, well-researched, at times hilarious and frank look at the man, the myth, the mistakes, the madness and the magnificence of this one-of-a-kind legend.
- Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times and WGN radio,
There was no one in baseball quite like Harry Caray. And now, through Don’s words, we get to know the storyteller, character, and brutally honest force of nature behind the seventh-inning stretch and Will Ferrell impression. It might be … it could be … it is a joy to read.
- Joe Posnanski, national columnist, The Athletic,