PHOENIX — Joe Garagiola's nine-year baseball career was a modest one. His 57 years in broadcasting that followed made him one of the most popular figures in the sports world and beyond.
The man Arizona Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall called "one of the biggest personalities this game has ever seen" died Wednesday. He was 90.
The Diamondbacks announced Garagiola's death before their exhibition game against San Francisco, and there were murmurs of shock and sadness at the ballpark. He had been in ill health in recent years.
Growing up in the Hill neighborhood of St.