Tuesday, May 20, 2003 | 9:11 a.m.
At the end of the top of the ninth inning, just before the Arizona television crew cut to a commercial, Joe Garagiola fairly fumed about what he had just witnessed.
Marcus Giles, Atlanta's No. 2 hitter, had just flied out on a 3-0 pitch with Rafael Furcal on first base, Chipper Jones on deck and two out in a 4-4 game against the Diamondbacks.
Fade out. When the cameras faded back to the action from the commercial break, Garagiola's steam had not subsided.
"I wasn't so much incensed," Garagiola said by phone from his Scottsdale home one morning last week. "Yeah, if you want to use that word. I mean, 3-0, you were really in rarefied air (given a green light to hit in that situation) in my day.
"You had to be a better-than-average hitter. You also had to have the discipline to hit 3-0. A lot of guys can't hit 3-0 pitches ... I just couldn 't believe that he would swing at it. I'm glad I got your attention."
That Giles didn't even glance toward third-base coach Fredi Gonzalez for instructions further incensed Garagiola.
"No, he was hitting all the way," Garagiola said. "I felt that, (but) you never know. You're in the broadcast booth and all you're doing is giving your opinion."
For the Braves, that Sunday, May 4, was a get-away day from Phoenix. Otherwise, Garagiola would have made it a priority to ask Atlanta manager Bobby Cox about the aforementioned incident either after the game or before the next one.
Instead, Garagiola, who will work about 30 Diamondbacks home games this season as a color commentator, might not see Cox until next year. Arizona plays the Braves only once more this season, in Atlanta in mid-August.
"I wish I had the opportunity," Garagiola said of inquiring with Cox. "But that's one of those things that, if I'd have had the chance, yes, I would have sat down with the manager to get his feel for it.
"I see a lot of that in every game I do, but it's only odd by my standards -- not by (any) manager's standards. I don't cringe. I'm surprised at some things I see. Then again, it's just changed. Bring it up to some people, and you sound like a dinosaur. So be it."
With the passing of Jack Buck in St. Louis and the retirement of longtime Detroit radio announcer Ernie Harwell, after last season, the game has lost some of its broadcasting legends.
Fortunately, figures such as Vin Scully (Dodgers), Jerry Coleman (Padres) and Garagiola, who was inducted into the broadcasters wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, are still offering their insights and perspective.
They are relevant voices of history and perspective in an increasingly shallow, giddy or ESPN-look-at-me industry.
Garagiola and Hall of Famer Phil Rizzuto called Yankees games on New York radio from 1965-67. Garagiola now owns Diamondbacks season tickets for him and his wife, and just the other night a foul ball sailed toward him.
It missed, but he leaned two seats over to ask about the welfare of a girl. Her father said she was fine, then he quickly noticed Garagiola and declared New York City as his hometown.
"And I used to listen to you and Phil Rizzuto all the time," the man said. "I learned baseball from you and about restaurants from Rizzuto."
Garagiola, 77, played from 1946-54 for the Cardinals, Pirates, Cubs and New York Giants. He regularly speaks with Yogi Berra, Hank Bauer and Moose Skowron.
Conversations with Tony Kubek, with whom Garagiola teamed through the '60s on NBC's "Game of the Week" telecasts and who lives in Wisconsin, are less frequent. He is often told how much he is missed on Saturdays.
"I miss them, too," said Garagiola, who has prominent positions in one program that assists former pro baseball players, and their families, who have fallen on hard times and in another that warns many about the dangers of smokeless tobacco.
Joe Garagiola Jr. is the Diamondbacks' senior vice president and general manager. A former agent and Yankees legal counsel, he played a critical role in landing the franchise in Phoenix and luring Jerry Colangelo as its owner.
Senior gets a kick out of those who believe he had a lot, if anything, to do with Junior's involvement with the Diamondbacks.
"Ridiculous," Senior said. "I don't pay attention to that. I told Colangelo that no one would outwork him or out-telephone him, and no one would do more reading. When he was 6, he'd read the ketchup bottle waiting for our order to come."
Along with a scouting staff unafraid "to pull the trigger" on its opinions and suggestions, Junior, according to Senior, has made some foes look ridiculous with some of his acquisitions.
The free-agent signings of infielder Craig Counsell in March 2000 and pitcher Miguel Batista in November 2000 were particularly keen, as was exchanging outfielder Danny Bautista from Florida for infielder Andy Fox in June 2000.
Junior signed outfielder Quinton McCracken as a free agent before last season, then McCracken hit .309 as a spot starter.
"Where did he get him? Did he fall out of a Cracker Jack box?" Senior said. " 'No,' he told me. 'We knew about him.' That's his pat answer, 'We knew about him.' "
Snatching outfielder Luis Gonzalez from Detroit for outfielder Karim Garcia on Dec. 28, 1998, was a coup -- Senior said -- for the ages.
"Best trade," said Garagiola Sr., "since (Ernie) Broglio for (Lou) Brock."
Pitchers Andrew Good, Bret Prinz, Brandon Webb, Oscar Villareal, Chris Capuano and Mike Koplove have helped weather recent injuries by starters Curt Schilling, Randy Johnson and Byung-Hyun Kim.
The development of the younger pitchers will determine how the Diamondbacks fare as they enter a transition. Age is catching up to the team that won the World Series two years ago, and Schilling might be dealt by the All-Star break.
"Koplove is the most under-publicized pitcher ... it's unbelievable what this kid has done, but he could be in the Witness Protection Program," Garagiola said. "He gets as much publicity as The Unknown Soldier.
"I'm proud of (Junior), yes. He's a good baseball man, a helluva lot better at it than his old man."
Senior gets even more of a laugh from fellow fans who believe that Junior feeds him his game tickets. Many ask him what he's doing up in the Bank One Ballpark cheap seats when they discover his identity.
Exorbitant contracts, a main cause of those high ticket prices, are the most distasteful aspect of baseball to Joe Garagiola Sr.
Between the lines, he is irked tremendously when a lead-off batter does not take four, five or six pitches, to give the next batter or two at least a smidgen of an idea of what they're about to face.
Gimme doubles are embarrassing. Too often, a ball is shot down the line, and both the fielder and batter assume the two-base hit. The runner cruises into second as the outfielder casually flips the ball into the infield.
"We were always taught that maybe that runner might stumble, or fall," Garagiola said. "Then there's the guy who hits it and thinks it's gone, thinks the press conference will be waiting for him at first, then it hits the top of the fence and he has to run like the dickens to get to second."
Bunting could be the most egregious offense these days.
"The way we were taught, you put the bat at what you thought was the top of the strike zone. If you have to look up, you knew it was a ball," he said. "The bat was horizontal to the ground, and you imagined the bat was a glove and you 'caught' the pitch to deaden it."
Garagiola cringed when he saw Florida pitcher Mark Redman, a lefty, start to bunt with his bat perpendicular to the ground two weeks ago. It did not surprise Garagiola that Redman sustained a broken left thumb when he was struck by the pitch.
"They stab at the ball," Garagiola said. "I don't know how he could have gotten it down."
He watches spring training as religiously as he watches hitters take batting practice during the season. There are too few Steve Finleys, Garagiola said, who step into the cage three hours before a game and execute a plan.
Finley will concentrate on slicing balls down the left-field line, then work his way, slowly, to the right-field line, then back to the left-field line.
"Unfortunately," Garagiola said, "there are too many times in which they're getting ready for a home-run derby, 'How far and how many can I hit into the seats?' "
Yes, the game is diluted. There are too many teams and too many players who don't deserve to be called Major Leaguers, Garagiola admitted. Then again, that's what makes great conversation in the stands.
And continues to make the game great, too. He still stops at high schools or Little League games, picks a spot beyond foul territory in left field and just watches.
"To paraphrase Will Roger, I've never seen a baseball game I didn't like," Garagiola said. "Red Smith once wrote that baseball is dull only to dull people. It's so true. It' a great line. There's so much going on, and that's what I try to bring to the broadcast."
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