Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Joe Garagiola, Baseball Player Turned Hall of Fame Broadcaster, Dies at 90

Joe Garagiola, Baseball Player Turned Hall of Fame Broadcaster, Dies at 90
Joe Garagiola, who turned a stint as a light-hitting catcher in the late 1940s and mid 50s into a bounteous television career as a baseball announcer and TV host, has died, the Arizona Diamondbacks announced Wednesday. He was 90.
Garagiola called games at NBC for a quarter-century and served as a host on the Today show from 1967-73 and 1991-92. The likable St. Louis native sat in at times for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and hosted a number of game shows, including Joe Garagiola’s Memory Game, Sale of the Century, To Tell the Truth and Strike It Rich.
His book Baseball Is a Funny Game, a collection of humorous anecdotes told in his neighborly fashion, was first published in 1960 and was perhaps the first New York Times best-seller with baseball as its subject. He said sales took off after he made an appearance on The Jack Paar Show, and the book gave him a huge career boost and put him on the national stage.
Garagiola did games for NBC starting in 1961 and worked on New York Yankees telecasts from 1965-68 before returning to the Peacock network. In 1976, he succeeded Curt Gowdy as NBC’s No. 1 play-by-play announcer.


Yogi Berra with Childhood friend, Joe Garagiola