Lest we forget: Joe Garagiola

March 24, 2016 · 1 comment

It strikes me that Baseball Is a Funny Game, originally published in 1960, was that generation’s Moneyball. It was reissued several times and was a perennial favorite, so look for it to kick up a notch on the sales charts along with It’s Anybody’s Ballgame and Just Play Ball, published in 1988 and 2007 respectively. Both of these were overviews of the game, but the latter struck me as one of those screeds issued by older guys ranting against the problems of the “modern game.” Get off my lawn!

By the way, Baseball is a Funny Game is included in the biography, autobiography, and memoir chapter in 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die.
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Garagiola was a pioneer in the Bob Uecker mold, making fun of his mediocre skills on the field (although he was actually a fair backup catcher in his nine Major League seasons. Richard Sandomir, the NY Times‘ media columnist, described him as “a regular guy, a not-so-great ballplayer with a terrific sense of humor that revolutionized sportscasting.”He was a popular guest on talk shows and parlayed that easy-going, self-deprecating persona into hosts gigs for game shows and a hosting slot on The Today Show.

Here’s the Times obit by Richard Goldstein and Sandomir’s article.

 

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