Joe Girardi

Joseph Elliot Girardi (born October 14, 1964 in Peoria, Illinois) is a former catcher in Major League Baseball and is the former manager of the Florida Marlins.

He attended Spalding High School in Peoria, 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.

Playing career

He began his playing career in 1989 with the Chicago Cubs, staying with them through 1992. He played with the Colorado Rockies next, 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 Chicago, where he was named to that year's All-Star team, his only All-Star appearance. He played with the Cubs again in 2001. 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 3:37 p.m. EST, 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".

Girardi once had a feud against teammate Sammy Sosa. On one occasion, he stood and politely asked Sosa to turn down his trademark boombox in the Cubs locker room. Sosa angrily declined and turned it up, only to follow by dancing to the salsa music in an angry taunt. Girardi had a migraine, so he was not pleased by such actions. This was of course before teammate Kerry Wood would allegedly beat the boombox to shreds.

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 broadcast regional Fox Saturday Baseball telecasts beginning in the 2007 season.

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 surprising wild card contention (finishing with a 78-84 record) even though the team had the lowest payroll in Major League Baseball, 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.

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 will return to the broadcast booth for the YES network in 2007. 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.

It was later found out that he gave pitcher Jon Lieber advice on how to pitch better after a bad game he had. That really helped out Jon and after that game he started pitching better and won two games against Girardi's Marlins towards the end of the season. Girardi maintains that he merely gave encouragement to Lieber, not specific pitching advice. (The Michael Kay Show, WEPN-AM, March 12, 2007.)

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		-	-	-	-

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference
• Player Page at The Baseball Cube