Joe Girardi

Template:Mlbretired Joseph Elliot Girardi (born October 14, 1964 in Peoria, Illinois) is the current manager of the New York Yankees. During his playing career, he was a catcher for the Chicago Cubs, the Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees, and St. Louis Cardinals. He was also manager of the Florida Marlins in 2006, where he was awarded National League Manager of the Year.

A native of East Peoria, Illinois, he attended Spalding Institute (now merged into Peoria Notre Dame 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 he was initiated into the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity.

Playing career

He began his major league 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 1996, Girardi caught Dwight Gooden's no-hitter and in 1999, he 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 St. Louis Cardinals.

As a Cub, Joe 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 death. 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. It started when he asked Sosa to turn down his trademark boombox in the Cubs locker room due to a migraine 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.

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 youth-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. Girardi also served as color commentator for the No.2 booth (Usually with Thom Brennaman) on MLB on Fox.

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

Florida Marlins

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, a policy similar to that of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, except for mustaches which Girardi prohibited as well.

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, approximately $14 million for 2006. Despite the success Girardi achieved in his first year as manager, he was nearly fired in early August in St. Louis when he got into a vocal (and visible) argument with Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria. According to eyewitnesses and footage captured, the Marlins owner began heckling the homeplate umpire during a game. When the umpire warned Girardi about the harassment, Girardi and his bench coach Gary Tuck then turned to Loria and told him to "shut the freak up." The owner stopped heckling the umpire but rumors swirled that Loria would fire Girardi due to this incident. Loria had to be talked out of firing Girardi immediately after the game.

On October 3, 2006, the Marlins announced that they had fired Girardi. Girardi said only that he appreciated the opportunity to manage the club, a move that was seen as classy across the Major Leagues and kept him at the top of many teams' list of manager candidates. Girardi was thought to be among the leading candidates to replace Yankee manager Joe Torre after the Yankees' loss in the 2006 American League Division Series, but Torre remained with the Yankees. He was also a candidate for the Chicago Cubs manager position to succeed Dusty Baker and interviewed for the job 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 otherwise would have meant a third move in as many years for his family. Despite Girardi's firing, he was rewarded for his achievements with the Marlins in 2006 with the National League Manager of the Year Award and The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award for the National League.

New York Yankees

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 opined that Girardi would be the next Yankee manager. On October 22, Girardi was the first to interview for the Yankees manager job. Girardi was reported to be the Yankee's managerial choice on October 29, 2007, and he officially accepted the deal on October 30. The contract is a 3-year deal, reputedly worth around $7.5 million.

Since number 25 (the number he wore during most of his Yankees playing career) is currently being worn by Jason Giambi, Girardi instead chose to wear number 27 as the new manager of the New York Yankees. He also selected the number to signify that he wants to lead the Yankees to their 27th world championship.

On March 17, 2008, Joe Girardi agreed to coach an intramural softball team at Virginia Tech for one game. The team consisted of Industrial and Systems Engineering majors, which is the same major Girardi had in college.

On April 1, Girardi won his first game as manager of the New York Yankees, defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 3–2.

Managerial record

Team	Year	Regular Season					Post Season
		Games	Won	Lost	Win %	Finish	Won	Lost	Win %	Result
Florida Marlins	2006	162	78	84	.481	4th in NL East	-	-	-	-
FLA Total		162	78	84	.481		-	-	-	-
New York Yankees*	2008	22	13	13	.500		-	-	-	-
NYY Total*		22	12	11	.522		-	-	-	-
Total*		180	87	93	.483		-	-	-	-

*Current as of 4:43 Central, April 28, 2008

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs
• Joe Girardi managerial career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com