Caray hospitalized after collapsing at nightclub
February 17, 1998
Hall of Fame baseball broadcaster Harry Caray collapsed during a Valentine’s Day dinner with his wife at a nightclub and was taken to a hospital.
Caray, 78, was listed in stable but critical condition Sunday at Eisenhower Medical Center. Spokesman Jim Ellis said Caray’s wife Dutchie asked that no further details be made public.
A report of Caray’s collapse Saturday night was first confirmed by the nightclub’s general manager, Peter Marin, and a former baseball scout who knows Caray.
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Everybody was stunned, said Ron Marino of Palm Springs, a former scout for the Kansas City Royals. It took a while for the paramedics to get there. They worked on him for a long time, but there were no signs of life.
There are conflicting reports as to whether Caray, who makes his off-season home in the Palm Springs, Fla., area, suffered a stroke or simply slipped and fell. Caray collapsed about 10 p.m. His stepdaughter said he fell when he leaned on a table, CBS radio and CNN reported.
Paramedics said they had taken a man in full cardiac arrest from the Basin Street West nightclub to Eisenhower Medical Center about 10:10 p.m. However, hospital officials would not confirm Caray was that person.
Caray, the longtime broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs and before that the St. Louis Cardinals, Oakland A’s and Chicago White Sox, suffered a stroke in 1987.
He has cut back his broadcasting on WGN-TV in recent years. Beginning in 1997, Caray cut out road trips with the Cubs altogether, saying:Road trips are a grind for ballplayers, and they can be pretty tough on announcers, too.
After the stroke and especially in recent years, Caray has made more and more mistakes on the air misidentifying players and mispronouncing words. Nevertheless, fans love him and he returns the favor.
Caray is known for his oversized glasses, the exclamation Holy Cow! and hollering Cubs win! Cubs win! Cubs win! after each Chicago victory. Another Caray tradition is singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game during the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field.
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Caray has broadcast baseball games for 53 years, 16 with the Cubs. For 1998, the Cubs broadcast team added his grandson, Chip Caray. Caray’s son Skip is a broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves.
Captain Comeback traded:Harbaugh dealt to Ravens
Jim Harbaugh and Ted Marchibroda, who just missed going to the Super Bowl together, were reunited Saturday when the quarterback was dealt from Indianapolis to Baltimore.
In exchange for Harbaugh, the Colts received Baltimore’s third-round choice in April’s NFL draft. The two teams also exchanged their fourth-round draft picks.
The deal also appeared to end the hopes for a comeback by Jim Kelly, the former Buffalo quarterback who retired after the 1996 season but had been talking with Baltimore. Last season, Harbaugh broke a bone in his hand in an off-field altercation with Kelly, then an NBC commentator, and lost $147,000, one week’s pay, when he had to spend time on the non-football injury list.
The Colts have the first overall pick in April’s draft and can take either Peyton Manning of the University of Tennessee or Ryan Leaf of Washington State University. They also are considering a deal with Carolina to bring them Kerry Collins, whom Indianapolis drafted in 1995, when he was with the Panthers.
That made Harbaugh, 34, expendable, particularly with a high salary, leaving coach Jim Mora with his choice of young quarterbacks with veteran Paul Justin in reserve. The Colts saved $1.25 million under the salary cap with the move.
Harbaugh, who spent four years with the Colts, led the team to the 1996 AFC championship game. The Colts lost in Pittsburgh when Harbaugh’s pass into the end zone on the game’s final play just fell off the fingertips of Aaron Bailey.
Kelly had been talking of making a comeback through the Ravens, but Marchibroda said the retired quarterback decided against it.
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