Blue Wahoos' Garagiola Fulfilling Dream In Joining Diamondbacks Radio Team

Chris Garagiola was 9-years-old and sitting a few rows behind home plate on that October 2001 night when his hometown Arizona Diamondbacks won the World Series.

One boyhood dream has just been realized with another.

Garagiola, 29, the Pensacola Blue Wahoos’ main radio voice since 2019 and grandson of one of baseball’s all-time greatest broadcasters, is joining the Diamondbacks radio network. He will be part of the pregame and postgame broadcasts for flagship station KTAR and KMVP in Phoenix, working the games he once frequently attended as a kid.

“I think any person who pursues this type of career, knowing how small the odds are, you just want to try and get to the big leagues,” said Garagiola, who began with the Blue Wahoos in 2017 as an intern and trainee, working with Tommy Thrall, who is now the lead radio voice of the Cincinnati Reds.

“I consider myself almost indescribably fortunate. Not only to be able to call some big league games, but to actually go to Chase Field as an employee, wow. I am so fortunate, so blessed, so lucky and honestly so happy to return to this team. This is the team I grew up rooting for and for obvious reasons.”

In his own way, with his own style and delivery, Garagiola earned the opportunity by building his own name, apart from grandfather and broadcast legend Joe Garagiola Sr., who become one of America’s most iconic television personalities, both in baseball working with Tony Kubek and Bob Costas on the NBC Game of the Week and later with the NBC Today Show.

His memory is honored at Arizona’s Chase Field with the Joe Garagiola Press Wing where Chris will now work. Before he passed away in 2016, Joe Garagiola was aware his grandson was pursuing a broadcasting path and expressed his pride.

“It is a mixed bag of emotions for me right now -- only in the sense that you have to remember how elite he was,” said Chris Garagiola. “In the color commentary position, especially in television, he is on Mount Rushmore. You’re talking about just a handful of broadcasters that were so good, such a cut above.”

“Hey, you talk about a tough guy to compare yourself to,” said Chris Garagiola. “But I what I think is important, if somehow I could have a five minute phone call with him, I just think the thing he would say is… ‘I am so proud.’

“Because whether it is parents or grandparents, all they want is for their children is to enjoy what they do and be successful. This is what I wanted to do. I wanted to broadcast baseball.”

COLLEGE LED HIM TO BROADCASTING

He came to that realization a decade ago while attending Trinity University in San Antonio, where Garagiola earned a baseball scholarship as a right-handed pitcher. During his collegiate career, he opted to pursue sports broadcasting and worked with the school to establish the Trinity Sports Network and develop the school’s own broadcasting studio.

That effort and success landed him an internship with the Reds, then later with the Blue Wahoos working under Tommy Thrall during the Blue Wahoos 2017 and 2018 seasons. When Thrall was named successor to Reds broadcasting legend Marty Brennaman, Garagiola took over in the booth as the solo voice of the team.

“I am super proud of him and really, really happy for him,” said Thrall, who was the Blue Wahoos radio voice from the team’s inaugural season in 2012 and became a fan favorite in Pensacola. “It is such a cool opportunity for him. He has worked really hard. He is always trying to get better and I know he will continue to improve his craft at the big-league level.

“It is well deserved. He has worked hard for it. This is something he set out to do. It’s such a great opportunity, because he knows everything there is to know about that organization, because he was at the first-ever game they had. He’s been around the Diamondbacks organization his whole life so that is a really, special thing for him.”

Garagiola’s father, Joe Garagiola Jr., was the Arizona Diamondbacks general manager when the franchise made its debut in 1998 as an expansion franchise, along with the Tampa Bay Rays. The Diamondbacks first manager was Buck Showalter, the Century High grad and former Pensacola resident, who left the New York Yankees to join Arizona.

When Chris Garagiola watched the Diamondbacks win their lone World Series title in 2001, it was Pensacola’s Jay Bell, a Tate High grad, who scored the winning run.

“I think what’s so cool is that I am pretty much able to remember the entire history of the Diamondbacks,” Garagiola said. “I still remember guys from their first team in 1998. Back then I was a pure, unwavering fan. I didn’t even understand the context or the pressure that was on my dad.

“I go back there (to Phoenix) now as someone who has been on this journey to try and prove himself as a broadcaster. I feel a great sense of validation that someone thinks I am worthy of any broadcasting position, let alone the team in my own backyard.”

QUINT STUDER'S HELP

During his time in Pensacola, Garagiola was mentored by Blue Wahoos owner Quint Studer, whose love of baseball radio broadcasts began when he was a kid growing up in the Chicago area and listening to the Cubs and the White Sox.

For the team’s entire history, Studer has ensured the Blue Wahoos kept a commitment to have their radio announcer work all games, both home and away. It is something that many Minor League Baseball teams do not do.

In 2019, Studer was able to get John Appleyard, founder of the Appleyard Agency and a Pensacola historian until he passed away in 2020 at age 97, to join Garagiola on Sunday home game broadcasts. It was a carry-over from late in the 2018 season when Studer awarded Mr. Appleyard “a lifetime broadcast contract.”

Those broadcasts became special moments for both men, generations apart, but each with love for broadcasting.

“Chris was such a kind of person to Mr. Appleyard,” Studer said. “You’re a young play-by-play guy, and all of a sudden the owner drops a (then) 95-year-old guy with you on Sundays. What I loved is that Chris truly loved John Appleyard. When John passed away, Chris was very emotional. He went and saw John before he died.”

That relationship is part of what Studer says made Chris Garagiola a special part of the Blue Wahoos family.

“Since our affiliation, we’ve only had two radio broadcasters and both of them will be in the Major Leagues (in 2022). That is unheard of,” Studer said. “A couple things impressed me about Chris. Number one, he never name-dropped. This is a guy whose grandfather was so famous, but the whole time of knowing Chris, he’s never, ever, name dropped. He wanted to make it on his own, which I thought was really impressive.”

“Chris was instrumental in helping get a lot of the broadcasting network started at Trinity University. The school also has a great masters (degree) program in health care administration and I have spoken there, so I know about the university.

“And the last year or so, Chris’ ability to come and ask for feedback. He wanted to be better. I think Chris got very comfortable that it was okay to miss a ball or strike and he became more of a storyteller.”

That will be Garagiola’s role with the Diamondbacks.

“I can’t wait to get there and do the best job possible,” he said.