Gianna Girardi was born just as her uncle Joe\u2019s distinguished MLB playing career was ending.<\/p>\n
But his continued connection to baseball helped foster her love of it \u2014 and she is now starting her career in the sport in one of the cities that the longtime catcher and manager plied his craft. <\/p>\n
Joe Girardi\u2019s 24-year-old niece is now entering her second season as the in-game host of the Rockies, for whom Joe played three seasons after being taken in the 1992 MLB expansion draft.<\/p>\n
Gianna Girardi is entering her second season as an in-game host with the Colorado Rockies. Gianna Girardi<\/p>\n
In an interview with The Post, Gianna, whose dad is brothers with Joe, recalled a moment during her first season with the team when she saw a portrait of her uncle in uniform on the wall at Coors Stadium.<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t hesitate to stop and pose for a photo while flashing the Girardi name on the back of her Rockies jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was [the Rockies\u2019] first original catcher that they ever had when the team started, so there\u2019s plaques of like his name with all the other OG Rockies members all over the stadium and it\u2019s always fun to see,\u201d said Gianna, who was born and raised in Fort Collins, Co., and attended the University of Colorado in Boulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a little customized jersey with my number and name. I\u2019ll take photos around the stadium and my uncle will be on the wall and I\u2019ll stop and be like, \u2018Hey, same last name on my jersey too!\u2019 <\/p>\n
Gianna Girardi posing with a portrait of her uncle, former Colorado Rockies catcher, Joe Girardi. Gianna Girardi<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 I wasn\u2019t born yet when he played for the Rockies, but it was such a full circle moment, which is pretty sweet.\u201d <\/p>\n
Girardi played 15 seasons in the majors and managed for another 14, mostly known for his time with the Yankees.<\/p>\n
As a player, he won three World Series titles in the Bronx and a fourth championship as manager in 2009. He was the NL Manager of the Year in 2006.<\/p>\n
Girardi transitioned to a career in broadcasting and is currently a Yankees analyst for the YES Network.<\/p>\n
Gianna recalled visiting her uncle in New York throughout her childhood, adding she briefly lived with him while she interned for MLB Network in Secaucus, NJ, during her junior year at CU.<\/p>\n
She also did an internship with Altitude Sports, the main regional sports network in Colorado, covering the Rockies, Nuggets and Avalanche. <\/p>\n
Yankees manager Joe Girardi #28 in the dugout during the 6th inning of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series vs. the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas on October 21, 2017. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n
Gianna, who currently covers the Denver Nuggets for Gorilla Sports, caught the sports media bug while supporting her uncle at Yankee Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up with my uncle very involved in Major League Baseball, we were at a ballpark all the time. My dad taught my brother [Nick Girardi] in Little League teams and whatnot. My sister [Angelina Girardi] and I were the little cheerleaders at his games and would match our American Girl dolls with our uniforms\u2026 The whole family just super involved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith my uncle being a part of the MLB, I would sit at games when I was younger and I was very drawn to the reporters and the in-game hosts and kind of just always kept my eye on them, which, in turn, led to a passion for a career in it for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo entering college, I kind of knew that that\u2019s already what I wanted to do. CU doesn\u2019t necessarily o\ufb00er the best like major for it, but I minored it in sports media\u2026 The summer after my sophomore year, I interned at MLB Network and it was my first experience in all of it. It was definitely like a sink or swim situation\u2026 I actually lived at my uncle\u2019s house in New York and drove to New Jersey every day, rented a car at 20 years old, and drove across the GW Bridge. I was like, \u2018Oh my gosh, what am I doing?’\u201d<\/p>\n
Joe Girardi tags Joe Orsulak out at home plate trying to score on a grounder by Dwight \u201cDoc\u201d Gooden on April 5, 1993. New York Post<\/p>\n
Gianna, who feels most passionate about working in baseball, said MLB Network had a tremendous impact on launching her career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such an amazing experience, but there were definitely times where I was way in over my head,\u201d Gianna said. \u201cBut I had amazing mentors like Lauren Gardner, who actually was the in-game host for the Rockies, which is pretty cool because I\u2019m now in that role. <\/p>\n
\u201cHarold Reynolds completely took me under his wing, which was awesome. And we still chat on the phone quite often. He checks in all the time.\u201d <\/p>\n
Gianna didn\u2019t have immediate success in the job market after her internships and college graduation. She earned a degree in strategic communication, with an emphasis on PR and advertising, and a minor in sports media.<\/p>\n
\u201cI moved to Los Angeles and worked at an interior design company because getting a job in sports is just so difficult,\u201d she said. \u201cI got lucky enough that that [job] didn\u2019t even last a year before I got the Rockies job [and] moved back to Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gianna confided in her uncle before landing her first on-camera gig with the Rockies. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had called him a lot during the interview process because he\u2019s announcing for YES right now, and he\u2019s very knowledgeable about the space and everything baseball\u2026 I was calling him a lot to ask for advice for my interviews, as well as Harold Reynolds,\u201d Gianna said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when I told [my uncle] I got the job, my God, I think everyone was a little bit in disbelief just because I am pretty young to get that kind of job right o\ufb00 the bat. I know a lot of my mentors and other people I know in the industry have told me that, typically, many people start somewhere pretty small.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said to keep climbing the ladder and be myself. My family kind of operates in a way of, \u2018Congrats, but now what\u2019s going to be your next thing \u2014 sort of situation.’\u201d <\/p>\n
Girardi also shared a piece of advice with his niece about feeling nervous on-camera.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me a little funny story about how the first time he ever did radio or something, he was like, \u2018I\u2019ve never been more nervous in my entire life. And guess what? The minute the game was over, I finally took a breath and was like, \u2018Holy cow! I\u2019m calm,’\u201d Gianna said of her uncle.<\/p>\n
Gianna Girardi was born and raised in Fort Collins, Co. Gianna Girardi <\/p>\n
\u201cI think his biggest point and piece of advice was to be yourself, and there\u2019s no need to get like overly nervous, because when you do that, you obviously don\u2019t perform as well as you should. He also said to your personality, don\u2019t read a script and it\u2019s okay to giggle and say silly words sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gianna\u2019s day-to-day with the Rockies includes script meetings, interacting with fans and preparing with her co-host for their pre-game camera hit, which is blasted on the scoreboard roughly 40 minutes before the first pitch. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur team is called Rockies Vision and I absolutely adore them. We\u2019ll kind of just like go through the motions of the game and block out our inning breaks \u2014 which are obviously going to be different depending on how your fanbase responds\u2026 I\u2019m done with my last hit midway through the eighth inning. I\u2019ll typically stay and sit and watch the rest of the game when my work is done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gianna isn\u2019t required to host all 81 home games. She and her co-host rotate the schedule. <\/p>\n
When she\u2019s not hosting, Gianna added she\u2019s usually in the control room at Coors Field and doing other tasks with the team.<\/p>\n
Gianna, who currently has 111,000 Instagram followers, said her social media following surged after her first season with the Rockies. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to say I had about 8,000 followers when I first started the job\u2026 and then randomly on my TikTok, I had been posting like every day \u2014 clips from games, hosting and behind the scenes,\u201d Gianna said. \u201cI put a couple clips together, just like with music behind it, because the Rockies had won like four games in a row, and I was so excited and I was like, \u2018Let\u2019s get a fifth.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t remember what the caption was or something on those lines, and somebody had posted that video to Twitter and it just kind of started blowing up from there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI woke up one day and one of my [Rockies] co-workers was like, \u2018You\u2019re trending on Twitter.\u2019 I didn\u2019t have Twitter at the time. I was like, \u2018What?\u2019 And I probably gained like 60,000 followers in a day. It was pretty crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gianna\u2019s goal is to become a rising personality in sports media, with her sights set on a sideline job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love being a part of the action.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gianna Girardi was born just as her uncle Joe\u2019s distinguished MLB playing career was ending. But his continued…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[5,52,4829,4,1690,62,2548,2547,185,4298,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-646571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-colorado-rockies","10":"tag-joe-girardi","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-yankees","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkyankees","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-sports-entertainment","18":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116301351167752300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}