"When you have a partner for as long as Harry and I were partners, you really don't want to have someone attack him or say bad things about him," Stone said. "I feel such an indebtedness for what Harry did to make me the broadcaster that I became. It's only natural that when you respect your partner, you don't want to see anybody denigrate him in any way. In the end of the day, both of these guys got what they were looking for. They both made the Hall of Fame. Harry is loved in Chicago and world-wide and Milo is loved in Houston."
Ouch!
As of 2/28/05: 101 pounds since December 7, 2004 OFFICIAL THREE-MONTH COUNT: 112 pounds on March 9, 2005 OFFICIAL SIX-MONTH COUNT: 142 pounds on June 8, 2005 OFFICIAL ONE YEAR COUNT: 187 pounds on December 7, 2005 As of February 2, 2006: 197 pounds "I've lost a cruiserweight"
I really wish I understood why Milo needed to say the things he said about Harry. I believe everything he said to be true, as I've heard those stories about Harry already. But he's dead and gone, let him be. Better to stay bitter and be quiet about it than to open your mouth and let everyone know you're not big enough to get over it.
Notice how Stone doesn't directly refute what Hamilton was saying about Harry Caray, which is the diplomatic way to say that maybe Harry wasn't the best person in the world, but I'm not going to trash him in public.
The likely reasons for Caray taking Milo's spot in the WGN-TV booth had to do with the timing that left Harry's contract with the White Sox up, combined with the retirement of Jack Brickhouse, and WGN gearing up to compete with WTBS as a national "superstation" in the infancy of cable television. Milo had been around (I believe) a year in what was to be a transition/passing the torch from Brickhouse, but was nowhere near as popular in Chicago as Harry was at the time he became a free agent broadcaster.
Sour grapes that things didn't work out as Milo planned, but I never thought he was anything special. Capable to be sure, but my memories of Hamilton are about like those of Skip Caray - pleasant enough, nothing so bad I want to turn it off, but nothing I'd go out of my way to tune in.
Why these comments made it into his book, I'm guessing (hoping?) that it was as much an overzealous editor wanting something that would get some buzz, than it is Milo being a small, petty old man with a grudge. Incidentally, I've heard that Jack Brickhouse was just as big of a sonofabitch in real life than Hamilton makes out Harry to be. Only I guess Brick didn't screw Milo out of a job. Me? I never met any of them, so I don't much care.
Harry deserves the Frick award, as do Brickhouse, Barber, Mel Allen, Harwell, Jack Buck, Kalas, Uecker, Scully, and others. (I trust that Stone himself just isn't eligible for this yet?) What Hamilton did to deserve it other than call Aaron's 715th homer, and manage to breathe into a microphone for 50 years I couldn't tell you. But then again there are a few players in the Hall that made it only by lasting long enough to get that 3,000th hit, 500th HR, or 300th win.
(And Milo Hamilton criticizing Harry Caray is like Michael Cole criticizing Joey Styles.)
Originally posted by Sec19Row53I really wish I understood why Milo needed to say the things he said about Harry.
This answer is simple: To sell books.
Would Hamilton's book have gotten any publicity without this attack on Caray? Of course not. This is Hamilton's last grab at the spotlight, at money, so he is swinging for the fences, and he has to latch onto the biggest story he conceivably could, and that is to bash a beloved announcer that has passed on.
I hope Milo enjoys this week of publicity, because I suspect a lot of people within the one fraternity he did belong to, the baseball fraternity, won't nearly have as much time for him after this. And Milo's publicity is "cheap heat," and will dissipate after the Sunday sports columns come out.
I just find it funny that people are shocked and appalled at stories of Harry Caray being a not nice guy. I know for the world at large the remembrance is of him being this doddering old guy with huge glasses telling Stoney that Dawson backwards is Noswad. But Caray and Jimmy Piersall when they announced for the Sox were one of the most incisive and brutally honest announce teams ever assembled. Harry would rip anything that caught his eye. A few years ago I was watching a game on ESPN classic with the White Sox vs. Red Sox and Caray/Piersall on commentary. It was at Fenway and at one point the camera was doing a crowd shot and fell upon a rather large unattractive woman. Harry immediately says "Hey look! Miss Boston was able to make the game today!" and he and Piersall spent the next 2 minutes ripping on her and the female populace of Boston in general.
For me Milo Hamilton telling stories about Harry being a prick is about as surprising as the news that wrestling matches have predetermined finishes.
It's more where the stories come from. Hamilton is considered quite the joke in broadcasting.
As of 2/28/05: 101 pounds since December 7, 2004 OFFICIAL THREE-MONTH COUNT: 112 pounds on March 9, 2005 OFFICIAL SIX-MONTH COUNT: 142 pounds on June 8, 2005 OFFICIAL ONE YEAR COUNT: 187 pounds on December 7, 2005 As of February 2, 2006: 197 pounds "I've lost a cruiserweight"