Sometimes all it takes is one game. Without that game, Joe Girardi would have had his storybook career at the University of Illinois. Or Iowa. Or New Orleans.

And maybe he wouldn’t have fulfilled his childhood dream of being drafted by the Chicago Cubs.

“I had never heard of Joe Girardi before that game,” said then-Northwestern baseball coach Ron Wellman, referring to the state tournament game in Springfield, Ill., where he first saw Girardi play.

After the contest, Wellman lined up behind six other recruiters to talk to the catcher. That encounter eventually led to a scholarship offer.

“When Ron Wellman offered me a full ride to Northwestern, my mother’s eyes lit up,” Girardi said. “In our household, education was No. 1 and my mother knew the strong academic background Northwestern had.”

And academics were important for more than college – they’ll come in handy if Girardi goes into managing at the end of his major-league career, now 13 seasons old.

Girardi received the Ben Epstein “Good Guy” award in 1997 from the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. He is generally considered to be one of the best managerial prospects playing today.

“He’d be a fantastic manager and a fantastic general manager with his knowledge of the game and his leadership ability,” Wellman said.

But Girardi isn’t ready to take up managing quite yet, no matter how much he fits the part.

Girardi has never been worshiped for his playing skills – his major-league career average is a modest .270. But his hard-nosed, aggressive style of play has kept him in demand at age 36.

Currently on his second tour with the Cubs, Girardi has also been a member of the Colorado Rockies and the New York Yankees during his career in the big leagues.

In that time he’s caught his fair share of big games: Doc Gooden’s 1996 no-hitter, David Cone’s 1999 perfect game and the sixth and final game of the 1996 World Series.

The last gave Girardi his first of three championship rings he won with the Yankees – and a spot on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

But his most memorable day was his first major league start, which occurred on Opening Day of the 1989 season against the Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field.

Because of an injury to starting catcher Damon Berryhill, Girardi got the call in that game, which the Cubs won 5-4.

“If you have any history of the Cubs and Phillies, you understand that Mike Schmidt was just an absolute Cub killer,” Girardi said. “When I saw him walking up to the plate, I couldn’t believe I was on the same field as he was.

“And to top off the win, my wife and I got engaged that night. So it was quite a day for me.”

Girardi met his wife, Serena, while attending NU, where she was also a student.

But college wasn’t all fun and baseball games for Girardi.

To keep up with his industrial engineering major, Girardi spent three hours a day at the library six days a week.

“Education came first and the baseball experience came second,” Girardi said. “If you needed a day off to study, (Wellman) gave you the day off. But that didn’t mean he didn’t expect the best out of us on the field.”

And Girardi did still manage to make time for baseball, being named All-Big Ten twice, Academic All-Big Ten twice and Academic All-America once.

Girardi is tied for eighth place all-time with his .351 career batting average at NU. He is second in RBIs with 156.

When it came to draft time for Girardi, he had a different experience than most college players.

The major-league baseball draft takes place in June, when many seniors have graduated and are left to wonder where they’ll be playing the next year.

But Girardi wasn’t able to sit by the phone and wait for the call – he still had to study for one last final.

When the phone finally rang, it was with the exact news he had hoped for – he had been taken by the Cubs in the fifth round.

“That was my boyhood dream,” said Girardi, a Peoria native. “That’s who I wanted to play for and as a kid, it was the only team that I knew existed. Every other team was secondary.”

The 1986 draft was full of former Cats, as four players were signed that year to major league teams, including Girardi’s close friend, pitcher Grady Hall.

Girardi was the only one of the four to reach the major leagues.

“You understand how difficult it is to make it, so I prepared myself in life so that if I didn’t make it I would have something to fall back on,” Girardi said. “But I always believed that I would make it.”

Girardi’s ability to handle pitchers has been the key to much of his success, both in college and in the pros.

Hall said the on-field connection he had with Girardi in college was the best he ever had at any level in baseball, including the minor leagues.

“The biggest indication of a game’s rhythm is how many times the pitcher shakes off the catcher,” Hall said. “I shook him off maybe six times in college.”

Hall recalled an incident that occurred in the first game of their senior season in 1986. The Cats were being routed 10-1 by South Carolina.

And neither Hall nor Girardi had been happy with the umpiring during the game. Girardi decided to call a curveball, assuming Hall would get the message.

“I don’t throw a curve,” Hall said. “So I threw a fastball, just hoping it would go over (Girardi’s) shoulder and hit the umpire.

“Luckily the batter swung and foul-tipped it right into the umpire.”

Girardi has had his share of laughs in his career, both at NU and in the majors. But for all the naysayers in his career who have focused on marginal physical skills, he has managed his own abilities – and the game of baseball – as well as anyone.

“All your life, as a player, people tell you what you can’t do,” Girardi said. “I love to prove them wrong.”