By Christina AmorosoThe Daily Northwestern
While he was catching the perfect game David Cone pitched for the Yankees in 1999, former professional baseball player and Northwestern alum Joe Girardi was worried.
“I didn’t want to be the one that screwed it up,” he said in a phone interview Friday. “To me, that game has the same intensity as a World Series game.”
Girardi, a 1986 McCormick graduate, also talked about his other experiences while playing in New York and how playing for the Yankees was different from playing with other ballclubs.
“Anything short of World Series win is not enough,” he said of his four seasons there. “Some people thrive in that environment … I thought it made me a better player.”
In particular, he recalled a triple he hit in Game 6 of the 1996 World Series against the Atlanta Braves, a hit that would put the Yankees on the board and help the team win the game-and the team’s first championship in 18 years.
“It was my first hit in the World Series,” he said. Girardi would go on to win two more championships while in the Bronx, in 1998 and in 1999.
But Girardi also said playing in that high-pressure environment wasn’t without its challenges.
“(1996) was tough for me,” he said of his first season with the team, saying that initially fans were resistant to him.
Prior to playing with the Bronx Bombers, Girardi played for the Colorado Rockies during their first three seasons as a team, which formed in 1993.
Girardi said the environment in Denver was more relaxed than in other cities.
“I loved it because of the fan support,” he said. “Wins or losses didn’t matter the first few seasons.”
Girardi returned to the Cubs in 2000 and played three seasons in Chicago, making the All-Star team that year. He first started his career with the Cubs in 1989.
“When you come back home, it’s always better,” he said, a Peoria native who “grew up a huge Cubs fan.”
After retiring from the game in 2003, Girardi had a brief stint in broadcasting before returning to the Yankees in 2005 as the team’s bench coach. He said he decided to return to New York because he felt it was a good start toward what he eventually wanted to do, which was managing.
In 2006, he was the manager of the Florida Marlins and won the National League Manager of the Year Award, but he was fired in October. It was reportedly over an argument with owner Jeffrey Loria, but Girardi didn’t go into details about what happened.
“For whatever reason, it didn’t work out,” he said.
Girardi was recently in the running for the Cubs managing job before Lou Piniella was hired in October. For the immediate future, he is going to stick with broadcasting.
“I like to break things down … (I) love to look at numbers,” he said, citing his engineering background as a reason.
Girardi said his experiences at NU, like budgeting his time and the accountability the baseball players had to each other, helped prepare him for his professional career. But he also stressed the importance of the relationships he cultivated while in Evanston.
“Cherish those relationships,” he said.
Reach Christina Amoroso at [email protected].
