The Garagiola Wagner: Story Behind Broadcaster’s Big Trade for T206 Card

Joe Garagiola claimed it: Baseball is an amusing video game. As well as, Garagiola would possibly claim that baseball cards can be an amusing video game. That’s amusing, as in paradoxical.

That’s due to the fact that not just did Garagiola see “The Catch.” He likewise possessed “The Card.”

That card would certainly be a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner, the Holy Grail of baseball cards.

Garagiola possessed a T206 Sweet Caporal Honus Wagner. It’s the highlighted thing in Heritage Auctions ‘Winter Platinum Night Sports Auction, which will certainly be held Feb. 27-28. The card is rated”A”for Authentic by SGC as a result of sizing problems. The back bears telltale indicators of when being pasted inside a scrapbook yet the front is amongst the much better looking Wagner cards ahead to market in the last few years.

Stories behind the Wagner card are typically legendary, also, and also the”Garagiola Wagner “card is no exemption. According to his kid, Joe Garagiola Jr., the long time baseball commentator and also game-show host made a profession to get the card– one that entailed some

various other preferred cardboard as well as his 1954 New York Giants attire.”Hat, jacket, trousers, socks, also the coat he made use of to use about in winter season,” mentioned Garagiola Jr., that was basic supervisor of the Arizona Diamondbacks from 1997 to 2005.

Garagiola, that passed away in 2016 at the age of 90, just entered into 5 video games with the 1954 Giants, however it was his last attire as a significant leaguer. After a profession that started with the St. Louis Cardinals when he was a 20-year-old in 1946, Garagiola Sr. hung up his catcher’s mask and also various other equipment after the World Series, when New York brushed up the Cleveland Indians in 4 video games. He was not qualified to play in the postseason that year, so he would certainly not have actually been using an attire. Yet on Sept. 29, 1954, he was being in the center-field club at New York’s Polo Grounds as well as obtained the very best sight of one

of the World Series’biggest plays. Garagiola saw Willie Mays make his back-to-the-plate, over-the-shoulder grab of Vic Wertz’s deep fly sphere. Understood merely as “The Catch,” it was struck virtually 460 feet. With 2 joggers on base as well as ball game linked 2-2 in the 8th inning of Game 1, the Indians would certainly have taken the lead if the sphere had actually supported Mays.

Al Rosen, that got on very first base at the time, informed me in a May 19, 1983, meeting with The Stuart (Fla.) News that he never ever believed Mays would certainly capture the round.

“No. Not,” Rosen claimed. “I really felt the round would certainly go down and also we would certainly be 2 runs in advance with a guy on 3rd. “I had among those stunned appearances, I had actually currently rounded 2nd. It surprised me.”

Garagiola stated he had “a heck of a seat in New York” to enjoy the catch. In a wide-angle shot of the image, Garagiola can be seen viewing the play from the club.

Joe Garagiola can be seen viewing Willie Mays make” The Catch”from a home window in the Polo Grounds club throughout the 1954 World Series.” I inform individuals I was the only person to see Willie’s eyes, “Garagiola informed the East Valley Tribune in an October 2007 meeting. “But after that I include that I’m simply drawing their leg. I had not been qualified for the World Series, yet I seemed like a competition champion that obtained it in 25 words or much less with ‘I would certainly such as to take a trip with the Giants for the World Series.”

Garagiola had a lithograph of the play, authorized by Mays, that composed, “To Joe: For this catch, you had the very best seat in your home.”

The Giants took place to win that video game 5-2 when Dusty Rhodes struck a pop-fly, three-run pinch-hit crowning achievement that took a trip 260 feet and also plunked right into the initial row of the right-field seats. New york city would certainly win the following 3 video games to finish an unlikely move versus a Cleveland group that established an American League document with 111 success.

“I not did anything other than remaining in the ideal place,” Garagiola informed the East Valley Tribune. “When I speak with Willie regarding it, he giggles. I inform him if I had actually been capturing, I would certainly have asked for a pitch that would certainly have made him run much more.”

Garagiola Jr., 70, stated his daddy included a collection of Goudey cards from the 1930s to finish the offer for the Wagner card.

“I am additionally extremely certain there was no cash entailed. That was nothing he ever before did.” Garagiola Jr. claimed. “That’s a really vital part of the tale: He had truth enthusiasm of the actual collection agency. Papa would certainly trade points. He would certainly be in touch with various other enthusiasts. He strove his entire life and also might have created look for any one of this. Yet he picked not to.”

Garagiola Sr., that matured in The Hill area of St. Louis, can not pay for baseball cards as a young people.

His dad was a bricklayer, and also although Goudey cards set you back a couple of dimes per pack, it was past the ways of the ambitious baseball follower.”He typically spoke about exactly how he saw various other youngsters with those Goudey cards as well as desired he can obtain them, “Garagiola Jr. claimed.”So, for many years he created this full collection.”

Trading a lot of your individual collection as well as souvenirs for one card could appear high– however except a Wagner card. Garagiola Jr. stated he never ever asked his papa why he crafted the profession. He really did not need to.

“Anybody that is any kind of sort of collection agency in baseball souvenirs– as well as also if you’re not– you understand about the Wagner card,” Garagiola Jr. claimed. “It has an aura to it. It was straightforward if you’re a collection agency, and also he was an enthusiast of cards: That was the card. So, when the possibility developed to possess it, it was simply tempting.”

Tempting is one means to explain Joe Garagiola Sr.’s broadcasting job. While a journeyman catcher with the Cardinals, Pirates, Cubs as well as Giants, Garagiola located his specific niche in broadcasting and also was a component on big league baseball newscasts. He started his introducing occupation in 1955, relaying Cardinals video games on KMOX radio in St. Louis.

He enjoyed to inform tales and also delighted in satirizing his baseball profession.

“Each year I do not play, I improve,” The New York Times priced quote Garagiola Sr. in a May 1960 evaluation of Baseball is a Funny Game. “The initial year on the reception route I was a previous ballplayer, the 2nd year I was excellent, the 3rd year among baseball’s celebrities, and also simply in 2014 I was presented as one of baseball’s immortals. The older I obtain the even more I understand that the most awful break I had was playing.”

Garagiola Sr. also has a link to Tampa, the website of Super Bowl LV. In the springtime of 1945, when Garagiola was an exclusive throughout World War II, he belonged to the 785th Tank Battalion that secured Japanese detainees of battle in the Philippines. He drove a Jeep for the jail’s primary police officer, Tom McEwen. That began a relationship that lasted greater than 6 years. Garagiola Sr. took place to play baseball as well as attain popularity as a commentator, while McEwen came to be the long time editor of The Tampa Tribune. McEwen created a number of columns with the years that referenced his Jeep vehicle driver.

When it comes to the Wagner card, it has actually remained in a safe-deposit box for several years. Garagiola Jr. claimed his mommy as well as brother or sisters lately chose it was time for another person to appreciate the card.

“We’re all short-lived custodians of these things,” Garagiola Jr. claimed. “It brought a great deal of enjoyment to my papa, and also currently it’s time for somebody else to really feel similarly regarding this Wagner. Someone possessed it prior to he did, and also currently it will certainly proceed. Yes, certainly, this card has a worth, a buck quantity. Yet it plainly has worth past that. It definitely provided for my father.”