Chris Caray joins father in booth as fourth-generation MLB broadcaster (2024)

The call came on the evening of Jan. 9, as the Caray family gathered in the living room in St. Augustine, Fla.

Sitting on pins and needles, St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Chip Caray, his wife, Susan, and three of their children Summerlyn, Stefan, and Tristan, waited with bated breath as a fourth child, Chris Caray, answered the phone. His agent, Lou Oppenheim, was on the line, and he had a couple of pertinent questions.

NBC Sports California, the regional cable network of the Oakland A’s, had spent the offseason conducting a search for a new play-by-play voice. Chris was a finalist, and the network had circled Jan. 10 as their internal deadline. Oppenheim began the call with some logistic inquiries. If Chris was hired, a cross-country move would need to take place. Where would he live? What would the transportation situation be like? Would he get an apartment?

“I said, ‘Dude, I can’t even answer these right now,'” Chris recalled with a laugh.

The response from Oppenheim?

“Well, you better come up with answers pretty fast, because you got the job.”

Chaos erupted in the Caray household. A fourth generation of the family had made it to the major leagues. At 24 years old, Chris was officially a big-league broadcaster, the same age as his father when he landed his first professional gig.

Back at the Coliseum for @ChrisCaray's A's play-by-play debut 🙌

📺: NBC Sports California
📲: https://t.co/UNpcnG1dVE pic.twitter.com/zBKOKPnqEO

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A new generation is uncovering the tiny doodles left by engineers on old microchipsDas Kartenspiel Skip-Bo - alle geheimen Tipps und Tricks!Meet Chris and Stefan Caray, twin broadcasters looking to extend a legacyThe Caray legacy revisited, 30 years later

— A's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) April 13, 2024

Chris joins Jenny Cavnar, who made history as the first female primary play-by-play voice in MLB, with the two splitting time calling A’s games in 2024. Chris described the sharing of duties as a roughly 60/40 split — Cavnar will call a slew of A’s home games and all of the team’s road games this season. Chris will take the rest.

In doing so, Chris will continue a long lineage of the family business, dating nearly eight decades to when great-grandfather Harry Caray first manned the broadcast booth for the Cardinals, kickstarting a major-league broadcasting career that would span 53 years. Skip Caray came next, spending over three decades broadcasting for the Atlanta Braves. Chip followed accordingly, and is now in his second year as the voice of the Cardinals after spending the prior 20 seasons with the Atlanta Braves.

There has been at least one Caray calling at least one major-league game every season since 1945. But on Monday, two Carays will call the same game.

The Cardinals will visit Oakland for the final time 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 booth next to him, Chris will do the same for the home team.

It will be a surreal experience that neither Chip nor Chris can put into words.

“I’m not super emotional, but I guess I’ll probably have a few tears,” Chip said. “You know, I miss my dad terribly. Wish he was still here. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about him.”

“It’s kind of symbolic in a way,” he added. “I’m not getting any younger and the symbolic passing of the torch, at least for our family business, has begun. To see your kids have a dream, to see your kids pursue that dream and then to see that dream fulfilled is incredibly rewarding and exciting, and I can’t wait to see where he takes that torch.”

For Chris, the scheduling lines up almost as fate. 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 sibling of four).

“I had been asked a couple of times what I am looking more forward to, whether it’s my debut or (calling 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 just happens to be my lucky number, so it weirdly cosmically lands at that number, my fourth-ever 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 past two seasons working alongside twin brother Stefan, where the two called minor-league games for the Amarillo Sod Poodles, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Double-A affiliate. He references Stefan as one of his strongest supporters and is quick to sing Stefan’s praises as another up-and-coming broadcaster. While the Caray name obviously holds significant weight in the broadcasting world, Chris has worked tirelessly to find his voice, while still picking up traits from his father.

“I think it’s a little bit different finding my own voice when I have somebody that looks exactly like me and sounds exactly like me on the air, so much so that the people that hired me said they couldn’t tell a difference between us on the air,” Chris said. “In terms of my dad, in my opinion, I think he is the best big-play caller in Major League Baseball, and I don’t think it’s particularly close. That’s something that I model after and that my brother models after, because we understand the highlights and the big plays are the ones that people remember.”

“But it’s not hard to find my own voice because my dad never had that type of influence on me or my brother 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’re not. And I think my dad has done a great job of doing that in his career.”

Chris has already called a signature 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 a single to the opposite field to score Max Schuemann, a walk-off 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's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) April 13, 2024

Like father (and grandfather, and great-grandfather) like son.

It’s been a whirlwind year for Chris. He credits Cavnar and analyst Dallas Braden for being 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 broadcasting partner. “He sets a standard in that broadcast booth and he has done so for years and years, in multiple mediums on the air and on the field.”

But the family element is what makes this 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 in his childhood who ultimately made his goal feasible, is his biggest fan and will be at all three games of the series. And of course, there’s Chip, the most instrumental mentor of them all.

He couldn’t be more proud of his son.

“I never tried to push him into it, I never tried to discourage him,” Chip said. “I told him, if this is what you want to do, great. I’ll help you any way I can, as long as you understand there are only 30 of these (jobs). It’s a really, really hard job to get, and once you get it, you have to work even harder to keep it, regardless of your last name. And then he just took off on his own.”

Chris has spent his lifetime inspired by his father. Monday’s game will serve as a dream come true. But for Chip, following the journeys of both Chris and Stefan has infused new life into his nearly 35-year career. His sons have inspired him. It’s all in the family, after all.

“Baseball has given my family and me everything, but it’s a tiny part of who I am,” Chip said. “I think what I’ve taken from his adventure and Stefan’s adventure is to look at it again with a wide-eyed wonder.

“I’m on the back nine, and I’m OK with that. Because I think the family business has been left in really good and capable hands. I’m really proud and love them both. I can’t wait to see where their drive and their passion will carry 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 any kind of legacy that I have that I’m really proud to pass on, I think that would be the one.”

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(Top photo of Chip Caray, left, and son Chris: Courtesy of the Caray family)