Vin Scully Pays Tribute to Joe Garagiola

Vin Scully, from today's telecast:

Today they are celebrating the retirement of the popular Joe Garagiola. We have him on screen with Bob Brenly.

Joe, a Hall of Fame broadcaster, played for years with the Cardinals and the Pirates. St. Louis boy, he grew up in the area in St. Louis called The Hill, and his buddy growing up with him, another catcher by the name of Lawrence "Yogi" Berra.

And Joe is beloved here, not just for his broadcasting, I should say not. He has done some marvelous charitable work.

The pitch at the plate to Cahill in for a strike, and the count oh and one.

I had the pleasure of working with Joe, we did the Game of the Week for about eight years. Used to have so much fun with him.

Joe would sit in the booth, and he would have to leave — in nine innings he would go to the bathroom three times, at least.

And he would always come in and get on me. "Don't you ever go to the bathroom?"

And I used to say, [sotto voce]"Joe, I'm on television, I don't go to the bathroom."

Well, we had a lot of fun.

Strike-one pitch is bunted foul, and the count oh and two.

Those were happy days. One of the things that surprised me: I had known him as a player and of course he has a tremendous sense of humor, and I thought when I was going to work with him that I was going to be the straight man and he was the gag man, and that's how we'd do the game.

No.

Joe was remarkably prepared for every single broadcast. He was professional from head to toe. And fun to work with, as you can well imagine.

Oh and two the count to Trevor Cahill, he looks at ball one, one and two.

So as Joe calls it a career today, we certainly send our love to Joe and his wife Audrey. He'll never lose his love for the game, he's just going to take it a little easier now.

For those watching on television, it looks like he has a little dent on the top of his head. He does, he had serious surgery and he was out of here, not around at all, for about a year.

The one-two pitch is bunted foul. So Cahill strikes out and we have the second out....

photo via It's a Long Season