Baseball Broadcaster Joe Garagiola Dies

Joe Garagiola died today at the age of 90 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

While growing up I used to love listening to Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek on the Game of the Week broadcasts on Saturday afternoons. Admittedly, it was usually a rainy day when I took in the game, because if it was sunny I'd probably be down to the church park or in my backyard playing baseball.

Garagiola was a nine-year major leaguer. He was a catcher and played with the Cubs and Cardinals. A dream come true for a guy who grew up in St. Louis, and get this, he and Yogi Berra grew up together. That's right, they were on the same American Legion baseball team that played games in Nebraska.

I remember seeing a picture about the team when I worked in North Platte, Nebraska, in the mid 1980s.

Garagiola could tell a story with the best of them and that's why he's one of my favorite television baseball broadcasters. He didn't have the greatest voice in the world and his folksy style really worked for him because he sounded like a regular Joe.

My first radio job in Desoto, Missouri, at KHAD Radio I used to engineer some of the games back at the station.

Jack Buck was terrific. He did a great job on television too, but I always enjoyed listening to him more on the radio. He had a great voice in addition to his ability to call the game so you could close your eyes and actually see it.

Garagiola had that matter-of-fact delivery but it was more like he was sitting at the dinner table with you calling the game.

Joe and Yogi lived across the street from each other and became best pals. What are the odds they would be in the majors together one day? They grew up in a neighborhood called "The Hill." It was an Italian working-class neighborhood in St. Louis.

Garagiola made a joke of what a lousy player he was, but he really was not that bad. His rookie season with the Cardinals in 1946 he hit .316 in the seven-game World Series against the Boston Red Sox and had four hits in Game 4.

Admittedly, that was the pinnacle of his baseball career because he was a .257 career hitter.

Garagiola also played for Pittsburgh, the Chicago Cubs and a brief stint with the New York Giants before retiring in 1954. He played in 676 games.

After he retired, Garagiola was hired by KMOX radio in St. Louis, the flagship station of the Cardinals, and was teamed with Harry Caray and Jack Buck.

He was then hired in 1961 by NBC TV for their "Game of the Week" and joined Lindsey Nelson for a season. He would later team with Tony Kubek and do play-by-play before doing color for Vin Scully.

Garagiola did do some broadcast work for the Arizona Diamondbacks until retiring from broadcasting in February 2013.

His son, Joe Garagiola Jr., was general manager of the Diamondbacks and now is Major League Baseball's senior vice-president for standards and on-field operations.

Garagiola may also be remembered by many people who are not fans of baseball because he had two stints working on NBC TV's Today show and also filled in once in a while on the Tonight Show.

Longtime sportscaster Bob Wolff said in the Curt Smith book Voices of the Game (1987), "Instead of saying 'A runner almost slid into the shortstop,' Joe would say, 'He almost stapled him to the bag.'"

That's how ballplayers would describe it, so that's who Garagiola was, and I think that's why people liked him. He didn't try to be someone he wasn't.

That's why he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence recipient in 1991 and received the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hall of Fame in 2013.

I can close my eyes and still hear him broadcasting a game.

Vin Scull can paint a picture for you and describe in incredible detail seemingly every blade of grass on the field and Garagiola would talk about the game and strategies of the game and keep it simple.

I guess it's fitting that Garagiola would pass just a few months after Yogi Berra. I can see them both joining other guys from The Hill to play baseball every day like in the film Field of Dreams.

Mike Morrissey's joining Jack Buck and Garagiola broadcasting the games, too.