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…
