Joe Garagiola
How many people, especially famous people, have lived to the age of 90 with no known enemies? It’s not a very long list. Somewhere atop that list is Joe Garagiola, the former baseball player and TV personality who died on Wednesday.
I never got to meet him, but I felt like I knew him. Long before ESPN, TBS, SportSouth and all the others, there was the NBC Game of the Week, which brought major league baseball into homes around the country. It was almost always some combination of Yankees, Red Sox, Giants and Dodgers, but we loved it anyway. After all, the Braves might be playing one of those teams!
The announcers were household names: Curt Gowdy, Pee Wee Reese, Tony Kubek, and Joe Garagiola. Joe was an old catcher who didn’t take himself too seriously. His career was far short of Hall of Fame caliber, but he didn’t care. He felt like he was lucky to be a part of it, and he shared that joy with all of us. He sounded like a regular guy. He smiled a lot and told great stories. He even ventured beyond the baseball broadcast booth, guesting on the Tonight Show, becoming a regular host of the Today Show, and even emceeing a few game shows. Turns out, he was a better broadcaster than he was a baseball player!
My favorite Joe Garagiola moment was on September 26, 1981. I had just bought a video cassette recorder (VCR), which was at the time, the coolest invention ever. Sure, we laugh about it today, but in 1981, it was a big deal. It came in handy for me on this day.
Joe was calling the Game of the Week: Los Angeles Dodgers at Houston Astros. Nolan Ryan was on the mound for the Astros. He was always a must-see with his blazing fastball, and was one of the few pitchers who had a legitimate shot at a no-hitter every time he took the mound. By this time, he was 34, and already had 4 no-no’s under his belt.
I was fortunate enough to catch the game in the 7th inning, and you guessed it, Ryan had a no-hitter going. I hit “record” on the VCR, just in case. What I would see, along with a few million others, was one of the most exciting endings ever.
Yes, Ryan got his fifth no-hitter. That in itself was fun to watch. But Joe Garagiola made it even better. Unlike pretty much every other sportscaster, before or since, Joe had the good judgment to do the exact opposite of what he was getting paid to do: he zipped his lips, and gave fans at home the sensation of being at the game. He let the video (and the crowd) tell the story.
The whole game is captured below on YouTube. If you start watching about 2:12:30, you’ll notice it’s the top of the 9th. Ryan has to get three Dodgers out to complete the no-hitter. Joe sets it up, and then says NOTHING for about 3 minutes. We see batters swing and miss, and we hear the crowd roar. We see a borderline pitch called a “ball” by the plate umpire, and the crowd groans. We see the first baseman make a nice play on a ground ball, and the crowd erupts. During a period of about five minutes, Joe says maybe three brief sentences. That is all. He doesn’t get in the way of the game. He gives fans some credit. We can figure out whether Ryan gets his no-hitter.
Of course, Ryan gets it. Everybody goes crazy. Maybe Joe did too, but he was off microphone. He didn’t scream and shout, and try to hog the spotlight. It was Nolan Ryan’s moment, and ours. We were in the Astrodome, or so it seemed. I still get goosebumps watching it today.
I was so impressed by Joe’s silence, I sent him a letter. A few weeks later, I got this in the mail:
Joe lived in Arizona, so as he writes in the letter, it took a while to get his mail from NBC. Certainly handwritten letters are a rarity today, but even in 1981 I was thrilled that this man took the time to acknowledge my compliment to him.
Like I said, I never met him. But after all those Saturdays we spent together, it sure feels like I’ve lost a friend.
Quite impressive nephew!
David,
My “Joe” moment was in the late 90s when he sat next to me on a flight. I had the opportunity to tell him that I saw (on TV) the game where his daughter sang the national anthem. No one had told him it was coming but the broadcast team made sure the camera was in the booth to capture the moment. It was one for the ages. Like your letter, he thanked me for remembering. During the flight (LAX to O’Hare) he told me several different stories about growing up playing ball in St. Louis and in the big leagues. We laughed about “an imaginary man on 2nd base!” while running in to bat because the “game consisted of you and two other guys. It was a magical time for me since like most kids from our area, I grew up playing baseball from March thru October. A class act a true gentleman.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I think we all felt like we knew him even though most of us didn’t get to meet him. I so enjoy the items you have available to share with all of us.