A classic Garagiola exchange; well, he set himself up for a classic Vin Scully punch line, 1986 World Series, Game Seven. Mets batting, men on first and second, the Red Sox
putting the rotation (wheel) play on to foil a bunt, relief pitcher Jesse Orosco at bat:
Garagiola: I'd bet the house, he's gotta bunt!
Then, as the Red Sox put the wheel play on (first and third basemen charging the line, shortstop going to cover third, second baseman going to cover first, runners in motion):
Scully: Swinging! And a ground ball into left center field, in comes Knight, it is 8-5, Mets, and Joe, you just lost your house!
Garagiola's BFF growing up on The Hill, the Italian section of St. Louis was Yogi Berra. Their fathers worked in the same brickyard. Both
kids grew up worshipping the Cardinals. They both eventually tried out for the Cardinals, then run by Branch Rickey. The Cardinals signed
Garagiola with a $500 bonus (which meant the final payment on his parents' house) and didn't even look at Berra after the tryout.
Berra was heartbroken. He also said no when the rival (if that's the word for it) St. Louis Browns offered him a contract without a
bonus. The kid held out for a $500 bonus so he could prove to his skeptical parents there really was money in baseball. (Because of
his age, his father had to sign for him---and it took a lot of persuading including from the family priest to convince the old man to
let the kid play ball in the first place, after the old man had refused to let two of his older sons sign baseball contracts.)
Only later did both Berra and anyone else learn the real reason: Rickey was on his way out of St. Louis with the Brooklyn
Dodgers waiting to hire him, and Yogi looked so good to Rickey that he thought he could keep the kid on ice until he could sign him
for the Dodgers. Berra eventually confirmed that he got a telegram from Rickey inviting him to report to Bear Mountain, in upstate
New York, where the Dodgers had spring training for part of World War II.
The problem was that, in the interim, the Yankees got Berra. "He only wants $500?" Johnny Schulte, the Yankee scout who signed
him, asked the bird dog who'd referred the kid to him. "He's worth ten times that much. He's better than Garagiola, that kid the
Cardinals signed." Schulte had no idea Berra would develop into a Hall of Fame catcher; he merely thought Berra would be more
likely to stick as a regular player in due course than Garagiola was.
RIP Joe. Baseball certainly is a funny game.
