Tony Giuliani, 91, Former MLB Catcher
Bill Schenley
By Trudi Hahn, obituary writer
http://www.startribune.com/stories/466/5023893.html (w/photo)
Angelo (Tony) Giuliani, a longtime Minnesota Twins talent scout who
started the team's free baseball clinics for youth, died Friday. He
was 91.
Born in St. Paul, he was a lifelong resident except for an unexpected
stay in Italy as a child. Giuliani was 13 months old when he and his
mother traveled to Italy to see her dying father. When the outbreak of
World War Istranded them for five years, Giuliani's father, stranded
alone in St. Paul, discovered baseball.
Angelo, home again in St. Paul, was 12 when his father took him to his
first game, the St. Paul Saints vs. the Baltimore Orioles in the 1924
Little World Series at Lexington Park. He was 19 when the Saints
signed him.
He also wore the uniform of the Minneapolis Millers before breaking
into the big leagues in 1936 with the St. Louis Browns, where manager
Rogers Hornsby nicknamed him "Tony" because, he claimed, no one named
Angelo had ever become famous. Over the next seven years, Giuliani
also played for the Washington Senators, twice, and the Brooklyn
Dodgers.
His lifetime statistics are unimpressive -- batting average of .233,
69 runs batted in and no home runs -- but the second-string catcher
was involved in many notable games with Washington. He caught Early
Wynn's first game in 1939 and Lefty Gomez's last one in 1943, and got
a hit in 1936 against Bob Feller in the future Hall of Famer's first
game.
On July 4, 1939, Giuliani was lined up on the field with the Senators
when the New York Yankees bid goodbye to Lou Gehrig. The Iron Man was
dying of a disease later named for him, and when his "luckiest man on
the face of the earth" speech echoed around Yankee Stadium, "there was
literally not a dry eye in the house, including mine," Giuliani said.
A back injury in 1943 ended his playing career, but as a catcher he
had watched many of the game's greatest players and put his knowledge
to use as a scout for the Washington Senators, the team that became
the Minnesota Twins late in 1960.
"He had an eye for talent, the ability to close a deal," said Terry
Ryan, the Twins' general manager, who was signed by Giuliani as a
player.
The clinics Giuliani started in 1961 showed baseball basics only to
boys at first, but now include girls, too. The clinics have taught
more than 800,000 kids in nine states and Canada.
In 1966, a man at a clinic in Wadena, Minn., suggested that Giuliani
check out a high-school pitcher in Rothsay. The kid, Dave Goltz,
pitched eight seasons for the Twins in the 1970s.
Opening Day of the 1984 season was one of Giuliani's high points as a
scout. In the starting lineup were four Twins he had scouted and
signed -- John Castino, Jim Eisenreich, Kent Hrbek and Tim Laudner. In
1987, Hrbek and Laudner were key players when the Twins won their
first World Series.
"Kent Hrbek was the type of player who Angelo took a lot of pride in,"
Ryan said. The homegrown hitter from Bloomington Kennedy High School
"reminded me of Babe Ruth, Jimmy Foxx, Mickey Mantle, those guys,"
said Giuliani when Hrbek retired in 1994.
Giuliani, who as a catcher would talk to batters in Italian to get
them confused, was generally acknowledged as "the storyteller king of
all time," said Jim Rantz, Twins director of minor leagues and a
Giuliani signee in 1960. "Five minutes wouldn't get it done. It had to
be 20."
As a sportsman, Giuliani was an excellent marksman who enjoyed hunting
pheasants, an avid bowler well into his 70s, and a fanatic about his
racing pigeons, whose dung, he said, was the fertilizer that helped
him grow big tomatoes for the annual Great Tomato Contest in the
Twins' clubhouse at Met Stadium.
Giuliani's wife, Genevieve, died in 1995. Survivors include sons John,
Michael and Timothy; daughter Mary Josephine Prather; seven
grandchildren; five great-grandchildren, and sisters Mary Louise
Chandler and Gloria Rumsey.
Services will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Therese Catholic
Church, Norfolk and Prior Avs., St. Paul. Visitation will be held from
4 to 8 p.m. Monday at the O'Halloran & Murphy Funeral Home, 575 S.
Snelling Av., St. Paul, and at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the church.
---
Also:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/giulito01.shtml
Corby Gilmore
"Bill Schenley" (stra...@ma.rr.com) writes:
> FROM: The Minneapolis Star-Tribune ~
> By Trudi Hahn, obituary writer
>
> http://www.startribune.com/stories/466/5023893.html (w/photo)
>
> Angelo (Tony) Giuliani, a longtime Minnesota Twins talent scout who
> started the team's free baseball clinics for youth, died Friday. He
> was 91.
At the time of his death, Tony Giuliani was unofficially number 30 on
the list of oldest living ex major leaguers. Number 1 on the list, Ray
Cunningham, is now 99 days shy of becoming only the 2nd major leaguer to live
to see his 100th brthday (January 17/05).
--
Corby Gilmore
co...@ncf.ca
Corby Gilmore
David Carson (da...@neosoft.com) writes:
> On 10 Oct 2004 17:17:38 GMT, ai...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Corby Gilmore)
> wrote:
>
>> At the time of his death, Tony Giuliani was unofficially number 30 on
>>the list of oldest living ex major leaguers.
>
> between he and Giuliani, I have an extra guy. Do you have Nino
> Bongiovanni at #22?
After Uhalt I have:
Mike Balas; Lonnie Frey; Eldon Auker; Herb Hash; Bill Baker; Jim Bucher;
Connie Marrero; Harry Danning; Nino Bongiovanni; Ace Adams; Jake Wade;
Pete Center; Ace Parker; Dutch Fehring; Don Gutteridge; Milt Bocek;
George Cisar, then I had Giuliani.
My count currently shows Bongiovanni at #21.
--
Corby Gilmore
co...@ncf.ca
David Carson
wrote:
>
>David Carson (da...@neosoft.com) writes:
>> On 10 Oct 2004 17:17:38 GMT, ai...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Corby Gilmore)
>> wrote:
>>
>>> At the time of his death, Tony Giuliani was unofficially number 30 on
>>>the list of oldest living ex major leaguers.
>>
>> I had him at 31. We were square on with Frenchy Uhalt, so somewhere
>> between he and Giuliani, I have an extra guy. Do you have Nino
>> Bongiovanni at #22?
>
> After Uhalt I have:
>
> Mike Balas; Lonnie Frey; Eldon Auker; Herb Hash; Bill Baker; Jim Bucher;
> Connie Marrero; Harry Danning; Nino Bongiovanni; Ace Adams; Jake Wade;
> Pete Center; Ace Parker; Dutch Fehring; Don Gutteridge; Milt Bocek;
> George Cisar, then I had Giuliani.
>
> My count currently shows Bongiovanni at #21.
I have Harry Boyles (LOL) born 11/29/1911, at #21.
David Carson
--
Why do you seek the living among the dead? -- Luke 24:5
Who's Alive and Who's Dead
http://www.whosaliveandwhosdead.com
Corby Gilmore
David Carson (da...@neosoft.com) writes:
> On 11 Oct 2004 16:15:49 GMT, ai...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Corby Gilmore)
> wrote:
>
>>
>>David Carson (da...@neosoft.com) writes:
>>> On 10 Oct 2004 17:17:38 GMT, ai...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Corby Gilmore)
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> At the time of his death, Tony Giuliani was unofficially number 30 on
>>>>the list of oldest living ex major leaguers.
>>>
>>> I had him at 31. We were square on with Frenchy Uhalt, so somewhere
>>> between he and Giuliani, I have an extra guy. Do you have Nino
>>> Bongiovanni at #22?
>>
>> After Uhalt I have:
>>
>> Mike Balas; Lonnie Frey; Eldon Auker; Herb Hash; Bill Baker; Jim Bucher;
>> Connie Marrero; Harry Danning; Nino Bongiovanni; Ace Adams; Jake Wade;
>> Pete Center; Ace Parker; Dutch Fehring; Don Gutteridge; Milt Bocek;
>> George Cisar, then I had Giuliani.
>>
>> My count currently shows Bongiovanni at #21.
>
> I have Harry Boyles (LOL) born 11/29/1911, at #21.
Baseball Almanac and Baseball Reference both show Harry Boyles as having
been born in 1913. The CNNSI player pages and my Neft/Cohen encyclopedia
both show 1911. In case of a disagreement I always take the online date as
being more likely to be accurate, hence I listed Boyles under 1913.
--
Corby Gilmore
co...@ncf.ca