New York Yankees Manager Joe Girardi accomplished a lot during his MLB career with the Chicago Cubs, St Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies. He’s been an All-Star, 4× World Series champion (1996, 1998, 1999, 2009) and 2006 NL Manager of the Year.
Before all that, he was a star in the Northwestern Wildcats baseball program. Girardi returns to Evanston to serve as honorary captain as the Wildcats take on the Michigan State Spartans in their Big Ten finale.
Yep baseball meets college football on Saturday.
NU Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald spoke about his relationship with Girardi:
“I’m excited to have Joe come back. What I think about Joe, is number one, he’s a tremendous leader. He was a great student here, an engineering student. The professional career that he had was incredible. You Google him and you read all the quotes about his work ethic, his demeanor, the way that he approaches the game of baseball and the way that he leads his players by example.
Stacy and I went out to the Hall of Fame in New York, and I just sent a message to their PR guy, that I would love to have a chance to come watch the game. Joe calls me and says `Hey, I want to see you.’ This is his first year managing the Yankees, and so Stacy and I are sitting in the dugout, shooting the breeze with him for 20 minutes before the game. I’m talking to Joe and she’s watching [Derek] Jeter walking by, and I’m like, you know I’m your husband. The last two years we go down to spring break, Joe’s invited us to spring training.
The boys have been on the field, the batting cages and behind the scenes. It’s going to be great, we’re excited, the players are excited to meet Joe. It’s great to have one of the greatest Wildcats in our athletic program’s history come back to be part of this weekend.”
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, a Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports.
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