Remembering Joe Garagiola

Yankee fans like me got to know Joe Garagiola in 1965, when he replaced Mel Allen in the broadcast booth. Actually, we got a preview of his work the year before, when he teamed with Phil Rizzuto to call the World Series on NBC (rotating with Harry Caray and Curt Gowdy).


But it was a stunner to learn that Mel was being replaced -- he was The Voice for baby boomers (and our parents) -- by the funny guy from St. Louis. Ironically, Joe arrived just months after his lifelong pal Yogi Berra was replaced as Yankee manager by Johnny Keane, who'd just led the Cardinals to the World Series championship.

Superstitious folks wonder if there might be a connection between Yogi's departure and the Yankees' descent to mediocrity. (Especially since they never made it back to the World Series until 1976 when Berra returned to the Yanks as a coach.) Hey, firing Mel likely didn't unleash any good vibrations, either.

Joe joined a broadcast booth where everyone would eventually be enshrined in Cooperstown -- The Scooter as a player, and Hall of Fame broadcasters Red Barber and Jerry Coleman. All had deep New York roots. Joe was the newcomer, the outsider. Calling the action for a team which fell to 6th place in his first season (and finished last the next) didn't make it any easier. After three seasons with the club, Garagiola left for full-time work at NBC, co-hosting the Today Show along with working on the network's baseball coverage and game shows.

Joe's time with the Yankees wasn't all that memorable. The team fell apart as the stars from the recent dynasty such as Ford, Mantle, Howard and Maris, were diminished by age and injury. What do I remember of his broadcasts? Solid, with good chemistry whenever he shared the booth with Rizzuto and Coleman, who came from his generation in baseball. Compared to the era when Allen and Barber were the primary voices, they became chattier and more personable, with Joe, Phil and Jerry leaning more on their experience as players. Still, it's not the same vibe as calling the action for a contender.

For Joe, it was a steppingstone in his career, as settling in New York (he became a resident of suburban Scarsdale) led to more high-profile work with national exposure. But it never became the "home run" Yankee management dreamed of.
The broadcasters page and cover are scanned from my copy of the 1965 Yankee Scorecard and Program.

Comments

Your bloviating TennisTitan said…
Mike... I thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts having admired your work on WCBS and WFAN. I will be a regular visitor. It saddens me as a 70 yr.old life long Yankee fan that I cannot listen to my favorite team's radio broadcasts because of the nature of the Sterling/Waldman blather. I had enjoyed all the greats from Allen/Barber to Messer/White/Rizzuto.
March 25, 2016 at 11:08 PM
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