CHICAGO — Joe Girardi’s connection to the Chicago Cubs traces to his childhood.
While growing up in Peoria, Ill., his father, Jerry, brought Girardi and his siblings to Wrigley Field about five times each year. He would snack on Ron Santo’s Pro’s Pizza at the ballpark and watch the Hall of Fame third baseman and outfielder José Cardenal, his two favorite players. Decades later, those memories still resonate. The annual trips instilled Cubs generational fandom that further deepened when the organization drafted him out of Northwestern in 1986.
This weekend Girardi returns to the organization with whom he began his professional baseball career and spent seven seasons on the North Side.
