JOE GIRARDI

'Joseph Elliot Girardi' (born October 14, 1964 in Peoria, Illinois) is the co-host of ''Behind The Plate'' and color commentator on the YES Network and a former catcher in Major League Baseball, for the Chicago Cubs, the Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees, and St. Louis Cardinals. He is a former manager of the Florida Marlins and was the National League Manager of the Year in 2006.
He attended Spalding High School in Peoria, Illinois, where he played quarterback for head football Coach Tommy Kahn and was the catcher for Coach David Lang's baseball teams. He went on to play baseball at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering, and was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity.

Contents

Playing career

Broadcasting career

Coaching career

Managerial career

Managerial record

References

External links

Playing career

He began his playing career in 1989 with the Chicago Cubs, staying with them through 1992. He was taken by the Colorado Rockies in the expansion draft before the 1993 season, serving them through 1995. He was traded in 1995 to the New York Yankees for pitcher Mike DeJean. Girardi is best known as the Yankees' regular catcher during that period, earning three World Series rings in 1996, 1998, and 1999. In 1999, Girardi also caught David Cone's perfect game.
In 2000, Girardi left the Yankees and returned to the Chicago Cubs, where he was named to that year's All-Star team, his only All-Star appearance. He played with the Cubs again in 2001 and 2002. In 2003, Girardi played for the St. Louis Cardinals.
As a Cub, Girardi announced to the fans at Wrigley Field that the game on June 22, 2002 versus the Cardinals had been canceled, though he did not announce that the cancellation was prompted by Darryl Kile's passing. Girardi tearfully gave the news at 2:37 p.m. CDT, broadcast nationally on FOX: "I thank you for your patience. We regret to inform you because of a tragedy in the Cardinal family, the commissioner has canceled the game today. Please be respectful. You will find out eventually what has happened, and I ask that you say a prayer for the St. Louis Cardinals' family".
During his tenure with the Cubs, Girardi had a minor feud with teammate Sammy Sosa started when he asked Sosa to turn down his trademark boombox in the Cubs locker room due to a migrane headache. Sosa angrily declined and turned it up, only to follow by dancing to the salsa music in an angry taunt. This was prior to allegations of a similar incident involving teammate Kerry Wood destroying the boombox.
Girardi was a member of the inaugural Colorado Rockies team that began play in Major League Baseball in 1993.

Broadcasting career

After a spring training stint with the Yankees in 2004, Girardi retired and became a commentator for the YES Network, and hosted the kids-oriented ''Kids on Deck''. He received positive reviews for his abilities as a broadcaster, and was offered an expanded role on 2005 Yankee broadcasts. Girardi, however, decided to become a coach instead.
Girardi worked games 3-5 of the 2006 World Series for MLB on Fox as part of the network's pregame and postgame team, along with host Jeanne Zelasko and regular analyst Kevin Kennedy.
After fielding managerial offers for the 2007 season, Joe Girardi instead came to terms with the YES network to return to the broadcast booth for 60 plus games as a Yankees analyst, and co-host a new show on the network, ''Behind The Plate'', with John Flaherty, also a former Yankee catcher. ^[1]
Girardi has also agreed to a contract to be a color commentator for the No.2 booth (Usually with Thom Brennaman) on MLB on Fox. He will also make a few studio appearances as needed.

Coaching career

In 2005, after rejecting an offer to become the bench coach of the Florida Marlins with a guarantee to become the team's manager in 2006 (although he would eventually get that job anyway), he became the Yankees' bench coach. He even managed a game during a Joe Torre suspension, which the Yankees lost against the last place Kansas City Royals. Girardi remained the host of Kids on Deck in 2005, having shot his shows before Spring Training. YES promoted Kids on Deck during games by showing Girardi on camera sitting in the dugout during breaks in the game.

Managerial career

After the 2005 regular season, Girardi was named the manager of the Florida Marlins, replacing departed manager Jack McKeon. His first notable action as manager was to prohibit facial hair, which is a policy similar to that of George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees.
As a first-time manager for the Marlins, Girardi guided the team into a surprising wild card contention (finishing with a 78-84 record) even though the team had the lowest payroll in Major League Baseball ^[2], at approximately $14 million for 2006. Despite the success Girardi achieved in his first year as manager, he was nearly fired in early August when he got into a vocal (and visible) argument with Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria. ^[3]
On October 3 2006, the Marlins announced that they had fired Girardi, presumably because of his rift with Loria. At first, Girardi was thought to be among the leading candidates to replace Yankee manager Joe Torre after a bitter postseason loss, but Torre remained with the Yankees. He was also a candidate for the Chicago Cubs manager position, interviewing for the position just days after leaving the Marlins. With his playing experience in Chicago, he was considered a front-runner for the position even before the season was over. However, the Cubs chose to go with veteran manager Lou Piniella. Girardi took himself out of the running for the Washington Nationals managerial job shortly thereafter and returned to the broadcast booth for the YES network in 2007. Doing this he said because it would have meant a third move in as many years for his family. Despite Girardi's firing, he was rewarded for his relative success with the Marlins in 2006 with the National League Manager of the Year Award.
In February 2007, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jon Lieber disclosed that Joe Girardi had called him during the 2006 season to tell him that the Marlins hitters had said all of Lieber's pitches "looked flat." Lieber began pitching better soon after that conversation, and later that season twice led the Phillies to victory over Girardi's Marlins. Girardi maintains that he merely gave encouragement to Lieber, not specific pitching advice. Girardi and Lieber played together for the Chicago Cubs in the early 2000s. (''The Michael Kay Show,'' WEPN-AM, March 12, 2007.)
In June 2007, Girardi was interviewed for the Orioles vacant managerial position (left vacant by the firing of Sam Perlozzo). On June 21, Girardi's agent informed news outlets that Girardi would be passing on the Orioles offer to become their next manager. Many opine that Girardi will be the next Yankees manager.

Managerial record

Team	Year	Regular Season					Post Season
		Games	Won	Lost	Win %	Finish	Won	Lost	Win %	Result
FLA	2006	162	78	84	.481	'4th in NL East	-	-	-	-
Total		162	78	84	.481		-	-	-	-

References

1. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2660849
2. http://russells.freeshell.org/ddollars/team.php?team=marlins&name=Marlins
3. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/15220846.htm

External links

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