Joe Garagiola, the Hall of Fame broadcaster and everyman TV personality, died Wednesday at 90, and somewhere up in heaven Yogi Berra and him are together again on The Hill.

Back down on earth, the two grew up in the Hill section of St. Louis — Berra on 5447 Elizabeth Ave., Garagiola directly across the street. The two men made it all the way to the major leagues. And they both had a sense of humor and a way with words. Berra with his Yogisms, Garagiola with his stories and quips.

When Berra died last September, also at 90, Garagiola told his son Joe Jr. “I just lost my best friend.”

Garagiola was a baseball scrub, a catcher who journeyed through nine Major League seasons (1946 to 1954) for four teams — the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs and New York Giants. He hit 42 career home runs with 255 RBIs and had a .257 batting average. Not quite Yogi numbers.

But Garagiola’s unspectacular playing career contrasted sharply with his years behind a microphone, where he became one of the most recognizable TV personalities in America. He was an all-purpose Everyman with his gleaming bald head, broad smile, and self-deprecating humor.

It was a book after his playing days, “Baseball is a Funny Game,” that started him on his road to the top, sharing stories from a baseball life long-lived. His stories about the game revealed a homespun wit. Garagiola, who received the Baseball’s Hall of Fame Ford Frick Award in 1991, was a featured baseball voice — he did play-by-play and analyst work — on NBC’s “Game of the Week” for nearly three decades, working with a variety of voices including Curt Gowdy, Tony Kubek, and Bob Costas.

Garagiola transcended baseball as a member of NBC’s “The Today Show” cast for seven years and also filled in for Johnny Carson as a guest host on “The Tonight Show.” He also hosted a variety of game shows in the late 1960’s and early ‘70’s, including Memory Game and To Tell the Truth.

In one of his final, but memorable TV stints, Garagiola hosted coverage of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on USA Network from 1994-2002.

In 2013, he received the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award by the Hall of Fame for his contributions to the game.

Garagiola is survived by his wife Audrie, three children and eight grandchildren.

 

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