John Appleyard's Cameos On Radio With Blue Wahoos Part Of Special Life 

The routine was the same with John Appleyard whenever the Blue Wahoos had a Sunday home game.

Less than 20 minutes before the first pitch, sometimes even closer, Mr. Appleyard would arrive in the press box with his son, Dick Appleyard. He would get settled into the radio broadcast booth, after help affixing the headset.

And then, with no preparation, Mr. Appleyard’s passion for baseball flowed on the airwaves.

He was always eager for another game, another memory, precious time regaling baseball stories from yesteryear. The kind only a man in his mid-90’s with encyclopedic knowledge could share.

“Always without fail, there would be that double knock on the door and Dick Appleyard would peak his head in and help his father make his way in,” said Chris Garagiola, who became the voice of the Blue Wahoos in 2019, succeeding Tommy Thrall who is now the main radio broadcaster for the Cincinnati Reds.

“I think if you knew John Appleyard beyond the lore that was draped around him by others, he had just had this very genuine way of interacting with people,” Garagiola said. “I just remember an unparalleled amount of kindness and humility and gratitude he had for us.”

Those rare traits are part of the memory Mr. Appleyard leaves in his passing. The 97-year-old Pensacola historian, founder of the Appleyard Agency in 1959 -- a man who left a warm impression upon anyone he met -- passed away Tuesday night at the Covenant Care Hospice Unit at Sacred Heart Hospital.

His life will be remembered Monday at Blue Wahoos Stadium in an open-to-the-public celebration of life event from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. It will be a fitting way for Blue Wahoos fans to embrace his life. Many loyalists tuned in on Sunday games to hear his storytelling with Garagiola and Thrall during past seasons.

“When you look back at the history of Pensacola, the best parts have John Appleyard in them,” said Blue Wahoos owner Quint Studer, who has known Mr. Appleyard since moving to Pensacola in 1996 when Studer was president of Baptist Hospital. “He was always raising money for a good cause and always writing to share how great our city is.”

In 2016, Mr. Appleyard made his radio debut during a Blue Wahoos game in a cameo role with Tommy Thrall. It was so well-received, he was asked to rejoin in 2017.

The opportunity was special for Mr. Appleyard who clearly recalled listening to Chicago Cubs games in 1927 when he was 4-years-old on the crystal set radios that were available then.

In 2018, Studer created a way to “sign” Mr. Appleyard to a lifetime contract as broadcaster with the Blue Wahoos. It prompted Mr. Appleyard to say, “When you negotiate a contract at 95 (years old), you biggest concern is parking and I have been assured I will have a good parking spot.”

On Aug. 25, 2019, the Blue Wahoos honored Mr. Appleyard with a bobblehead day and presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. That day became one of the final Blue Wahoos home games before the entire 2020 season was wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Every Sunday, it was pretty clear that John just loved being there and loved being at the ballpark with the headset and the experience,” Garagiola said. “I’m not sure he had that experience until he started doing games with us.

“He just loved the game and loved the city and loved Quint Studer. And so to be abel to do this every Sunday and have that be part of his life was something he loved. That was something we picked up and it was infectious.”

There was a natural bond with Garagiola and Mr. Appleyard. Garagiola’s grandfather, former major league catcher and renown broadcaster Joe Garagiola Sr., was someone Mr. Appleyard watched play and then admire as an NBC Game-of-the-Week broadcaster.

Joe Garagiola was 90 when he passed away in 2016.

Noting his grandfather’s famous wit, Chris Garagiola said his grandad would have enjoyed hearing Mr. Appleyard remember lineups and statistics from players long ago.

On one broadcast last year, Mr. Appleyard not only remembered the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game on July 6, 1933 at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, but he also cited the starting lineup from that game. It was an eye-popping moment last year in the radio booth.

“I think that’s the sort of thing even a guy like my grandfather would have joked, ‘Hey, you need to get out more…. How do you remember all of these things.’ But that is who John Appleyard is,” Chris Garagiola said. “He was a friend first, a teacher second and great storyteller, whether you were talking about World Ward II or baseball in the 1940’s.

“He just knew it all. He was someone you trust. I think people are drawn to stories. John knew a lot of them and he could tell them better than most.”

Many of his non-baseball storytelling appeared in the Pensacola News Journal where Mr. Appleyard was a frequent contributor with historic-themed pieces about Pensacola’s past.

“John Appleyard was the most amazing man I’ve ever known,” said Lisa Nellessen Savage, executive editor of the PNJ. “He wasn’t just a fantastic storyteller, because he could weave a narrative together and make history come alive.

“He was fantastic because he genuinely respected the men and women who built our community, and he used his stories to empower generations behind him to remember the past so they could help change the future for the better.

“For the past six years, up until COVID changed our routine, I spent an hour with John every Tuesday. Like clockwork, he would settle into my office and share stories of people and businesses and historical events and it was like time stopped. I would forget about everything else going on in the world and just listen.”

The community will miss his many gifts.