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Worldwide Toast to Harry!
  Every year on the anniversary of Harry’s passing, the restaurant arranges a worldwide toast to salute his exceptional commitment to baseball and to his fans. Restaurants and bars from 90 countries participate each year including Japan, Guam, Denmark and Poland. In addition to bars and restaurants around the world, Harry has been toasted from a variety of unique places; atop the Statue of Liberty, inside the Budweiser blimp, army tanks in Kosovo, submarines and aircraft carriers. Many celebrities, athletes and politicians also raise their glass to Harry each year. This list has previously included Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, Hall of Fame Football coach Marv Levy, Hall of Fame White Sox Carlton Fisk, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg and most of the Chicago Cubs, actors Jim Belushi, James Denton, Stephen and Billy Baldwin, Bob Costas, and many others. National news from USA Today to CNN covers the event each year.
Infamous Foul Ball Destruction
 On February 26, 2004 at 7:32pm CST Harry Caray’s Restaurant destroyed the infamous foul ball that was deflected by fans during the Cubs’ 2003 playoff loss to the Florida Marlins. The restaurant group paid $113,824.16 for the ball at auction on December 19, 2003 with the intention of destroying it during the 6th Annual Worldwide Toast to Harry Caray, the late Hall of Fame baseball announcer. The event was used as an opportunity to turn bad into good by: Bringing closure to one of the most agonizing losses in baseball history and getting ready for next year’s winning season; Making sure the ball never wound up as a Florida Marlins trophy prize; Raising over a million dollars for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in honor of Cubs legend Ron Santo through sponsorships, online donations and t-shirt sales. Clearing Steve Bartman of responsibility for the Cubs’ loss – it is the consensus of fans that they all would have done the same thing.
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This once-in-a-lifetime event occurred in a tent on Kinzie Street outside of Harry Caray's Restaurant. The event featured music, comedy and celebrity appearances. Hollywood legend Harold Ramis (Ghostbusters, Animal House, Groundhog Day, etc.) was the Master of Ceremonies. Billy Corgan (formally of Smashing Pumpkins) and Rick Nielson (guitarist for Cheap Trick) performed together as did Columbia Recording artist Alice Peacock. The Second City sang two songs they wrote in honor of the ball destruction and Harry Caray impersonators faced off in a contest to see who is the best. Dutchie Caray, Harry’s widow, lead the toast and the destruction of the ball, which was aired live on television internationally.
The following year, at the urging of faithful Cubs fans, Harry Caray’s used the power of the Infamous Foul Ball to generate positive energy for the Cubs. This time, the restaurant combined the forces of two ideas submitted by fans the previous year: drown the remains of the ball in Budweiser and add it to spaghetti sauce for fans to eat. With the help of a team of scientific advisors, Eberhard Zwergel, a senior lecturer in chemistry at Northwestern University, Gretchen Verdoorn, a leading microbiologist, Krista Wennerstrom, a nutritionist from Thorek Hospital (a Wrigley Field neighbor) and cursebuster David Harter from Sports Curse Laboratory, a Boston-based company specializing in the prevention, detection and elimination of sports curses, Harry Caray’s created the curse-ending sauce and let over 700
Cubs fans eat it, hoping but to no avail, that the curse would be eliminated.
45-Cent Buds
 In April of 1997, the Cubs began their season with a losing streak of 0-14. The restaurant offered 45-cent Budweisers until they won their first game of the season. The price commemorated 1945, when Harry began his broadcasting career and the last time the Cubs were in the World Series. By the time the Cubs won their first game, Harry Caray’s had served over 50,000 45-cent Budweisers. Every major newspaper in the country, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and the Washington Post covered this promotion. It was the lead story on ESPN five days in a row, was covered on CNN and was on radio and television stations across America. Las Vegas casinos were betting on how many Budweiser’s Harry’s would serve before the Cubs finally won. The Tonight Show called after the Cubs finally won to congratulate the restaurant on running the greatest restaurant promotion ever!
Japan Home Opener
Baseball history was made at the start of the Cubs 2000 season when they played the New York Mets in Japan. It marked the first time that a regular season baseball game was played outside of North America. In honor of this game, Harry Caray’s in Chicago and Rosemont opened the doors at 3:45 a.m. to over 1,000 patrons. The Cubs deemed the restaurants “The Two Official Broadcast Locations in the Western Hemisphere to watch the Cubs game”. The game was aired nationally on FOX Sports Net and broke away from Japan to broadcast Dutchie Caray leading the 7th Inning Stretch live from Harry Caray’s downtown. The restaurant was featured on national television stations and newspapers around the country and in Japan. Radio stations from all around the country called in to the restaurant to get feedback from fans.
Home Run Race
Another historic event in 1998 was Sammy Sosa’s remarkable 66 home runs in a single season. Sammy and Mark McGwire, during their inconceivable home run race, were credited with bringing many fans back to baseball. The media spent a great deal of time monitoring fan reaction over the race at Harry Caray’s.
Jay Leno
In 1995, Jay Leno broadcasted his late-night talk show via satellite straight from Harry’s bar. The show reached millions of people across America. The video can be viewed on the website at harrycarays.com.
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