The call came on the evening of January 9, as the Caray family was gathering in the living room in St. Augustine, Florida.
Sitting on pins and needles, St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Chip Caray, his wife, Susan, and three of their children Summerlyn, Stefan and Tristan, waited impatiently for a fourth child, Chris Caray, to answer the phone . His agent, Lou Oppenheim, was on the line and he had some pertinent questions.
NBC Sports California, the regional cable network for the Oakland A’s, had spent the offseason searching for a new play-by-play voice. Chris was a finalist and the network had circled January 10 as an internal deadline. Oppenheim began the call with a few logistical inquiries. If Chris was hired, we’d have to move halfway across the country. Where would he live? What would be the transport situation? Would he have an apartment?
“I said, ‘Man, I can’t even answer these questions right now,’” Chris recalled with a laugh.
Oppenheim’s response?
“Well, you better find some answers pretty quickly, because you got the job.”
Chaos broke out in the Caray household. A fourth generation of the family had reached the major leagues. At 24, Chris was officially a big league broadcaster, the same age his father was when he landed his first professional job.
Returning to the Colosseum for @ChrisCarayThis is A’s first play-by-play 🙌
📺: NBC Sports California
📲: pic.twitter.com/zBKOKPnqEO– A on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) April 13, 2024
Chris joins Jenny Cavnar, who made history as the first female lead play-by-play voice in MLB, with the two splitting time calling A’s games in 2024. Chris described sharing duties as a roughly 60/40 split – Cavnar will call a multitude of A’s home games and all of the team’s away games this season. Chris will take the rest.
In doing so, Chris will continue a long line of family business, stretching back nearly eight decades to when his great-grandfather Harry Caray first occupied the Cardinals broadcast booth, launching a major league broadcasting career that would span 53 years. Skip Caray came next, spending more than three decades broadcasting for the Atlanta Braves. Chip followed suit and is now in his second year as the voice of the Cardinals after spending the previous 20 seasons with the Atlanta Braves.
There has been at least one Caray who has called at least one championship game every season since 1945. But on Monday, two Carays will call the same game.
The Cardinals will travel to Oakland for the final time on Monday, kicking off a three-game interleague series against the A’s. When they do, Chip will continue his usual duties as the Cardinals’ play-by-play voice from the visiting broadcast booth. In the cabin next to him, Chris will do the same for the home team.
It will be a surreal experience that neither Chip nor Chris can express in words.
“I’m not very emotional, but I guess I’ll probably have a few tears,” Chip said. “You know, I miss my father terribly. I wish he was still there. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of him.
“It’s sort of symbolic,” he added. “I’m not getting any younger and the symbolic passing of the torch, at least for our family business, has begun. Seeing your children have a dream, seeing your children pursue that dream, and then seeing that dream come true is incredibly rewarding and exciting, and I can’t wait to see where he takes this torch.
For Chris, the timeline aligns almost like destiny. Monday will be his fourth game in the big leagues, and four is his favorite number (his legal name is Harry Christopher Caray IV and he is a brother of four children).
“I’ve been asked many times what I’m most looking forward to, whether it’s my debut or (hosting a game) with my dad,” Chris said. “It’s really hard to say anything other than my dad, the fourth game of my career. Four happens to be my lucky number, so it strangely lands cosmically at that number, my fourth game and my dad is there. It’s going to be really special.
Chris has known since high school that baseball broadcasting was the path he wanted to take. After graduating from the University of Georgia, Chris spent the last two seasons working alongside his twin brother Stefan, where the two called minor league games for the Amarillo Sod Poodles, the Double-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He refers to Stefan as one of his strongest supporters and is quick to sing Stefan’s praises as another up-and-coming broadcaster. Although the Caray name obviously carries significant weight in the broadcasting world, Chris has worked tirelessly to find his voice, while retaining his father’s traits.
“I think it’s a little different finding my own voice when I have someone who looks exactly like me and sounds exactly like me on the air, so much so that the people who hired me have said that “They couldn’t tell the difference between us on the air,” Chris said. “As far as my dad goes, in my opinion, I think he’s the best player in Major League Baseball, and I don’t. don’t think it’s particularly close. It’s something that I model after and that my brother models, because we understand that the highlights and the great plays are the ones that people remember.
“But it’s not difficult to find my own voice because my father never had that type of influence on me or my brother when it came to broadcasting. He said to be the best Chris Caray you can be,” he added. “You have to be aware of what you are and what you are not. And I think my dad did a great job of that over his career.
Chris has already called his signing a big moment. His major league debut came last Friday and it was a thriller. With the A’s tied with the visiting Washington Nationals in the bottom of the 10th inning, Lawrence Butler drilled an opposite-field single to score Max Schuemann, an RBI single that resulted in a 2–1 Oakland victory. As the play unfolded in real time, Chris’ call followed like that of a seasoned pro.
LAWRENCE BUTLER CALLED GAME pic.twitter.com/6qJ3osdCB2
– A on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) April 13, 2024
Like father (and grandfather and great-grandfather), like son.
It’s been an eventful year for Chris. He credits Cavnar and analyst Dallas Braden as two of his most helpful allies. Cavnar is “a true professional, a beautiful person inside and out,” while Braden is “the wild card, but one of the smartest minds in baseball.”
“He sets a precedent,” Chris said of his new broadcast partner. “He sets a standard in that broadcast booth and he’s done it for years and years, across multiple mediums, on-air and on the field.”
But it’s the family element that makes this place truly special. Chris will miss Stefan, who is back with the Sod Poodles this season but remains one of his closest confidants. His mother Susan, the driving force from his childhood who finally made his goal achievable, is his biggest fan and will be in attendance for all three games of the series. And of course, there’s Chip, the most influential mentor of all.
He couldn’t be more proud of his son.
“I never tried to push him, I never tried to discourage him,” Chip said. “I told him, if that’s what you want to do, great. I will help you in any way I can, as long as you understand that there are only 30 (jobs). It’s a really, really hard job to get, and once you get it, you have to work even harder to keep it, no matter what your last name is. And then he left alone.
Chris spent his life inspired by his father. Monday’s game will be a dream come true. But for Chip, following Chris and Stefan’s travels has breathed new life into his nearly 35-year career. His sons inspired him. After all, it’s all in the family.
“Baseball has given my family and me everything, but it’s only a small part of who I am,” Chip said. “I think what I took away from her and Stefan’s adventure was looking at her with wide eyes again.
“I’m on the back nine and I’m OK with that. Because I think the family business has been left in very good hands. I’m really proud and I love them both. I can’t wait to see where their drive and passion takes them – pardon the pun – because it’s the same for them as it was for me at 24, my dad at 24 and probably Harry at 24. If there’s one kind of legacy that I have that I’m really proud to pass on, I think that would be it.
(Top photo of Chip Caray, left, and his son Chris: Courtesy of the Caray family)