Baseball, broadcasting legend Joe Garagiola retires at 87

[newsbot]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/21/us-baseball-joegaragiola-idUSBRE91K06T20130221

 

[FreddyE1977]

Wow, I had no idea he was still working. If that is a recent photo in the story
he looks pretty damned good for 87!

I remember when he was hosting To Tell The Truth and his son showed up in
makeup as one of the decoy contestants! The same son who went on to become
GM of the Diamondbacks.

 

[KeithE4]

Wow, I had no idea he was still working. If that is a recent photo in the story he looks pretty damned good for 87!

I remember when he was hosting To Tell The Truth and his son showed up in makeup as one of the decoy contestants! The same son who went on to become GM of the Diamondbacks.

Yes, it pays to know the boss. ;D

But AFAIK, his part-time, Sunday home-games only D'backs gig was his only broadcasting job, and had been for years. I don't think he'd been working fulltime since his last stint on The Today Show in 1992.

 

[ihEARDtHAT]

Here is KTVK's story on Joe's retirement with the video from the announcement yesterday.

http://www.azfamily.com/sports/Joe-Garagiola-ends-broadcast-career-after-58-years-192356641.html

 

[formeraa]

Joe's had an amazing ride...just when you thought it was over...he re-invented himself! I hope Joe is able to enjoy life for a few more years!!

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Joe Garagiola also hosted "The Baseball World Of Joe Garagiola", which for many years would be seen as a pre-game show prior to NBC telecasts of the World Series.

If my memory serves me correct, Garagiola also worked St. Louis Cardinals' games for many years, working alongside (depending on the year) Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, or Dan Kelly.

Perhaps the reason he's been in the business as long as he has been is that he has never completely taken himself seriously. He has just that slight touch of wit (like David Brinkley had in hard news) that makes him the entertaining man he is.

 

[BD Sullivan]

Perhaps the reason he's been in the business as long as he has been is that he has never completely taken himself seriously. He has just that slight touch of wit (like David Brinkley had in hard news) that makes him the entertaining man he is.

Maybe on the air he didn't take himself seriously, but he was defiinitely competitive off the air. That fact aggravated many he worked with: Harry Caray accused him of stabbing him in the back when they worked together in the late 50's; Red Barber (in his autobiography) criticized him for being overly ambitious during their time with the Yankees; NBC pushed out Curt Gowdy after 1975 after main sponsor Chrysler wanted Garagiola (who endorsed their products); and color man Tony Kubek got pushed out when Vin Scully came aboard in 1983, giving the Game of the Week two PBP men at the helm.

Joe even found time to piss off Stan Musial after suing him over a business deal in 1986. Twenty years later, with the Cardinals in the World Series, plans were made to have Stan throw out the first pitch at a game, and Joe to catch it. When Stan found out who his receiver would be, he quickly cancelled and Ozzie Smith tossed the pitch instead. I believe they ended up patching things up before Stan died last month.

 

[wrsg915fm]

Wow, I had no idea he was still working. If that is a recent photo in the story
he looks pretty damned good for 87!

Absolutely! Watching him do the "Game of the Week" on NBC was indeed must-see TV. I remember when he worked with Vin Scully, and Scully said something about a child of his getting married that day, and Garagiola basically asked him why he was doing the game.

 

[Charles1]

Corny as they got to be sometimes, I really missed Joe's reminiscing about his days growing up with Yogi Berra and his stories about Branch Rickey after he left NBC. It was a great way for me to connect with the earlier days of baseball.

 

[Ultimajock]

...unfortunately, Garagiola didn't do well at all the night in 1968 that he subbed for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and two of his guests were Paul McCartney and John Lennon, there to announce the founding of Apple Records, The Beatles' own label from there on out. MacLen were actually the second-billed guests that night, brought on after Tallulah Bankhead (?!!?). Joe made the wretched decision to start out with lame jokes about how tough it must have been to get them to NBC that night, as if it was still 1964 and their appearance was comparable to the ones The Beatles made on The Ed Sullivan Show. The conversation went downhill from there; Lennon even got into a bit of an argument with Bankhead before the show was over. On The Beatles Anthology in 1995, Neil Aspinall misrecalled that Joe DiMaggio did the interview; Aspinall may have legitimately confused the two out of ignorance of American baseball in general, but it wouldn't surprise me if he actually made a point of not crediting Garagiola out of disgust for what NBC aired that night...

 

[BD Sullivan]

...unfortunately, Garagiola didn't do well at all the night in 1968 that he subbed for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and two of his guests were Paul McCartney and John Lennon, there to announce the founding of Apple Records, The Beatles' own label from there on out. MacLen were actually the second-billed guests that night, brought on after Tallulah Bankhead (?!!?). Joe made the wretched decision to start out with lame jokes about how tough it must have been to get them to NBC that night, as if it was still 1964 and their appearance was comparable to the ones The Beatles made on The Ed Sullivan Show. The conversation went downhill from there; Lennon even got into a bit of an argument with Bankhead before the show was over. On The Beatles Anthology in 1995, Neil Aspinall misrecalled that Joe DiMaggio did the interview; Aspinall may have legitimately confused the two out of ignorance of American baseball in general, but it wouldn't surprise me if he actually made a point of not crediting Garagiola out of disgust for what NBC aired that night...

Tallulah was dead seven months later, so the Beatle Gods got their revenge.