Chicago Cubs: What would Harry Caray think of the Marquee Network?

Harry Caray is a Chicago Cubs broadcasting world legend.  He was a fan of the game through and through – but would he be a fan of the Marquee Network?

Legendary Chicago Cubs broadcast Hall of Famer Harry Caray unexpectedly passed away February 18, 1998. Caray will have been gone 22 years in February 2020, oddly the same month that the new Marquee Sports Network makes its much-hyped debut.

It seems like yesterday that Caray was singing the seventh inning stretch at Wrigley Field or signing off from a WGN broadcast. The truth is there has been a ton of history that has happened in those 22 years since Caray left us. How the events of the last two decades might have affected Caray is extremely difficult to predict. I mean, who knows if he’d even still be with us – Caray would’ve turned 105 this past February. Never say never, I suppose, but still…

One of the things every fan wishes is that Caray would have lived to see the Cubs win the World Series.  But how would that have affected the legendary broadcaster and his career? What would Caray’s reaction have been to the many great events that have taken place in Cubs history since his death?  If he were still here, how would he have reacted to the Cubs being bought by the Ricketts family and what would his relationship with Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein be?

How would Caray have reacted to the news that WGN, the station that brought him into homes around the nation and globe, would no longer host Cubs games? Could he even consider leaving WGN or would he have followed the Cubs anywhere?

Only Ms. Dutchie Caray might know for sure and all of these things would certainly affect Caray’s decision whether to leave WGN and go on with the Cubs and Marquee or work out some other deal to stay with WGN.

Chicago Cubs: Would Caray join Marquee?

The Hall of Fame broadcaster called games for the St. Louis Cardinals for 25 years. Then Caray spent a year with the Oakland Athletics before calling games for 10 years with our South Side neighbors the Chicago White Sox. When Caray arrived to the Chicago Cubs WGN broadcast booth in 1982, he had no idea he was about to start a 16-year journey toward immortality.

It’s easy to look at Caray’s career and see that he had no issue with jumping from one organization to another for pay or better work climate and all the usual reasons someone would leave or take a new job with an organization.

The difference is WGN brought Caray to families around the nation. WGN was offering its content to cable companies across the United States for free, so subscribers in Arizona were watching Caray and the Cubs a couple times a week.

Caray had a sense of this and felt overwhelmed but humbly always brought his answers back to the broadcast booth by justifying he just wanted to call the games and not get in the center of controversies or love fests.

Although Caray had scored fans across the nation with WGN, he wanted to call games and so would most likely have taken a job with Marquee calling Cubs games had it been offered to him.  If not, the longtime broadcaster would most likely have had little trouble catching on somewhere like with the Los Angeles Dodgers after Vin Scully departed.

Although Marquee moves away from the national brands of NBC and WGN with which Caray was very familiar, he would most likely have followed the Cubs and joined the Marquee team.  Could the Harry Caray, one-man branding machine make it on Marquee?

Chicago Cubs: Could Caray cut the mustard on Marquee?

We’re talking about a man who knew how to promote himself on and off the field. From ‘Holy Cow’ to Cub-fan and Bud-man, Caray kept fans’ attention focused on the fun of baseball, especially during losing seasons.

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While we all love the current broadcast team of Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies, who will move on to the Chicago Cubs Marquee Sports Network, they don’t have a real marketing brand between them. There is no Kasper/Deshaies marketing gimmick like, “Holy cow!” or “Bud-men”; basically they are just excellent, entertaining and ‘normal’ broadcast celebrities.

I wouldn’t say they need or have any gimmick and maybe that’s exactly what Marquee wants for its play callers. Or in a Seinfeldian world is their gimmick that they have no gimmick? Drive on Len and Jim!

Caray was heading toward superstar status before his death and if he had lived through the 2016 World Series Championship, I would assume it would be a pretty big deal if he were going on to Marquee. There would have to be negotiations for Caray’s endorsements with Budweiser beer and other of his mainstays.

We haven’t see Marquee sign a celebrity of Caray’s status for its channel like former Chicago Cubs catcher David Ross or recent Hall of Fame inductee Lee Smith who already have endorsements which would be similar to a Caray signing.

In the end, Caray would surely go where he could call the plays of one of his favorite ball clubs, the Chicago Cubs. If it meant joining the Marquee team and leaving WGN, Harry was not shy in changing things up which is evident throughout his career. The real question is: would Harry have liked the Chicago Cubs Marquee Sports Network channel?

Of course we hope it’s the shining beacon of Cubs pride that we want it to be, but we can’t even consider it until the new Cubs channel is unveiled in February.  Hopefully Harry Caray and Jack Brickhouse and even Kasper/Deshaies will live on through the historical Cubs broadcasts on the Marquee channel.