Gianna Girardi was born just as her uncle Joe’s distinguished MLB playing career was ending.
But his continued connection to baseball helped foster her love of it — and she is now starting her career in the sport in one of the cities that the longtime catcher and manager plied his craft.
Joe Girardi’s 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.
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.
She didn’t hesitate to stop and pose for a photo while flashing the Girardi name on the back of her Rockies jersey.
“He was [the Rockies’] first original catcher that they ever had when the team started, so there’s plaques of like his name with all the other OG Rockies members all over the stadium and it’s always fun to see,” said Gianna, who was born and raised in Fort Collins, Co., and attended the University of Colorado in Boulder.
“I have a little customized jersey with my number and name. I’ll take photos around the stadium and my uncle will be on the wall and I’ll stop and be like, ‘Hey, same last name on my jersey too!’
“… I wasn’t born yet when he played for the Rockies, but it was such a full circle moment, which is pretty sweet.”
Girardi played 15 seasons in the majors and managed for another 14, mostly known for his time with the Yankees.
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.
Girardi transitioned to a career in broadcasting and is currently a Yankees analyst for the YES Network.
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.
She also did an internship with Altitude Sports, the main regional sports network in Colorado, covering the Rockies, Nuggets and Avalanche.
Gianna, who currently covers the Denver Nuggets for Gorilla Sports, caught the sports media bug while supporting her uncle at Yankee Stadium.
“Growing 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… The whole family just super involved,” she said.
“With 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.
“So entering college, I kind of knew that that’s already what I wanted to do. CU doesn’t necessarily offer the best like major for it, but I minored it in sports media… 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… I actually lived at my uncle’s 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, ‘Oh my gosh, what am I doing?’”
Gianna, who feels most passionate about working in baseball, said MLB Network had a tremendous impact on launching her career.
“It was such an amazing experience, but there were definitely times where I was way in over my head,” Gianna said. “But I had amazing mentors like Lauren Gardner, who actually was the in-game host for the Rockies, which is pretty cool because I’m now in that role.
“Harold 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.”
Gianna didn’t 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.
“I moved to Los Angeles and worked at an interior design company because getting a job in sports is just so difficult,” she said. “I got lucky enough that that [job] didn’t even last a year before I got the Rockies job [and] moved back to Colorado.”
Gianna confided in her uncle before landing her first on-camera gig with the Rockies.
“I had called him a lot during the interview process because he’s announcing for YES right now, and he’s very knowledgeable about the space and everything baseball… I was calling him a lot to ask for advice for my interviews, as well as Harold Reynolds,” Gianna said.
“But 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 off 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.
“He said to keep climbing the ladder and be myself. My family kind of operates in a way of, ‘Congrats, but now what’s going to be your next thing — sort of situation.’”
Girardi also shared a piece of advice with his niece about feeling nervous on-camera.
“He told me a little funny story about how the first time he ever did radio or something, he was like, ‘I’ve 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, ‘Holy cow! I’m calm,’” Gianna said of her uncle.
“I think his biggest point and piece of advice was to be yourself, and there’s no need to get like overly nervous, because when you do that, you obviously don’t perform as well as you should. He also said to your personality, don’t read a script and it’s okay to giggle and say silly words sometimes.”
Gianna’s 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.
“Our team is called Rockies Vision and I absolutely adore them. We’ll kind of just like go through the motions of the game and block out our inning breaks — which are obviously going to be different depending on how your fanbase responds… I’m done with my last hit midway through the eighth inning. I’ll typically stay and sit and watch the rest of the game when my work is done.”
Gianna isn’t required to host all 81 home games. She and her co-host rotate the schedule.
When she’s not hosting, Gianna added she’s usually in the control room at Coors Field and doing other tasks with the team.
Gianna, who currently has 111,000 Instagram followers, said her social media following surged after her first season with the Rockies.
“I want to say I had about 8,000 followers when I first started the job… and then randomly on my TikTok, I had been posting like every day — clips from games, hosting and behind the scenes,” Gianna said. “I 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, ‘Let’s get a fifth.’
“I can’t 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.
“I woke up one day and one of my [Rockies] co-workers was like, ‘You’re trending on Twitter.’ I didn’t have Twitter at the time. I was like, ‘What?’ And I probably gained like 60,000 followers in a day. It was pretty crazy.”
Gianna’s goal is to become a rising personality in sports media, with her sights set on a sideline job.
“I love being a part of the action.”
