Kevin Garinger

Robby Incmikoski: All right, so my guy, Kevin Garinger, Canada’s finest. Hey Kevin, tell me—you grew up in Saskatchewan, right? Do I have that correct? You grew up there?

Kevin Garinger: Yeah, I’m born in Flin Flon, actually, which is a border town between, in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. So raised in Creighton, Saskatchewan. So you couldn’t be born in Creighton, so that’s why. Yeah, certainly a Saskatchewan guy through and through—Canadian—and yeah, that’s where I grew up.

Robby Incmikoski: Yeah, Flin Flon, Manitoba, home of arguably the greatest Flyer ever, Bobby Clarke.

Kevin Garinger: Yeah.

Robby Incmikoski: Hey, how did you, a guy growing up in northern Canada, become a baseball fan? How’d you become a fan of major league baseball? How does that happen?

Kevin Garinger: Well, I think baseball is prevalent throughout Canada, and certainly in northern Saskatchewan/Manitoba, it’s no different. My first experience was having a grandfather who was very much, I mean, one of the, could have probably gone on and played in the show or something. I mean, he played against—when there was touring going on—he played against Satchel Paige and got a hit against Satchel, probably in his prime. And then my father was an excellent baseball player. And then, it was just natural that we flowed into that. And we started out with baseball, but then quickly transitioned to fast-pitch softball. And that’s where we kind of found our passion as well, in fast-pitch softball. So we continued on with that and played in an international level in fast-pitch, and that’s kind of, you know, finding my niche with the Pirates was because when I was, back in ’78, ’79, I was ten, eleven years old, and it’s when the Pirates were, all of a sudden, they, “We Are Family.” And Willie Stargell and the Stargell stars and hats, and everything else, the colors, and Kent Tekulve looked a lot like my dad. So as little kids, you see Kent out on the mound, and looked like your dad, and pretty soon you just fell in love with who they were. And it was a love relationship that started then and continues very much and very fondly to this day.

Robby Incmikoski: Do you remember the first time you walked into PNC Park, and what was your reaction?

Kevin Garinger: You know it was, PNC Park is, in my view, the most beautiful park in the entire United States. I’ve only been to nineteen of them, which is quite a few, but I say that it’s the number one park in baseball in terms of, you know, you’ve got the Clemente Bridge, and the Clemente Wall, and all the people that make up PNC. When I walked in, it was like I finally got home. And Pittsburgh, even, the city of Pittsburgh reminds me of home because, I mean, there are only 350,000 people in Pittsburgh proper, and you just feel like everybody is part of your . . . I mean, I went to university and spend a lot of time here in Saskatoon, which is a city of bridges in Canada. Well Pittsburgh is a city of bridges in the US, right? And so that connection, and then just knowing that you’re there with your team and the people around you all share the same common sort of passion for the Pirates—it was just so, I mean, it’s surreal. But like I said, it really felt like you were coming home.

Robby Incmikoski: This question is going to sound a little silly, but I’m going to ask it: How do you Canadians—I know there’s baseball that gets played in Canada—but how do you guys become fans of the game and all, you know what I mean? Like, how do you learn major league baseball up there, despite having to travel all the way to Toronto to even see a game? You know, you guys are hours and hours and hours and hours and hours away; you have to fly. You can’t drive. It’s crazy. So how do you become fans of major league baseball up there?

Kevin Garinger: Yeah, that’s a good question. When you’re a baseball fan, you’re a fan of the greatest pastime, in my view, there is, and you really adopt this idea that—you want to see the sport at the highest level ever. I’ve always believed that about myself, and I think Canadians love that too. I just recently went to a game here in Saskatoon with the Berries, and they play in the league there, but the fact is, when you look at what the highest level is, that’s what you look toward and you try and aspire toward as young people probably. I know that for me and my brother, we were applying for scholarships, getting opportunities to come and play baseball, which we hadn’t even played in college and stuff like that. We never pursued it, bit the fact is, is that I think there’s that piece. And then of course, there is the television—streaming now and everything else—you stay in touch with your team more today than you ever could have in the past. Back in the day, we used to have WGN and WTBS, and we used to have to watch the Braves and the Cubs, so the only time you’d get to see the Pirates was when they were playing them, or maybe playing the Expos, and may you’d even have to watch in French. So you tried to stay in touch with your team as best you could, but as soon as the internet hit and then streaming happened, I watch probably 150 games a year.

Robby Incmikoski: Yeah.

Kevin Garinger: Not all of them, obviously, very few of them live, but this year, as an example, my son and I went to Toronto because the Pirates were there.

Robby Incmikoski: Right.

Kevin Garinger: Bucs.

Robby Incmikoski: It kind of reminds me—I like to follow, although I don’t know the game extremely well, but I watch English soccer, you know what I’m saying. Like I get like a English Premier. EPL, right? I watched the EPL. I went to a game at Manchester United and thought it was the coolest thing ever. So I wondered if that’s kind of a parallel, kinda sorta, except they’re not across a giant pond like we are to Europe, but still, I don’t know.

Kevin Garinger: Yeah. People get to Canada—there used to be the Expos, now just the Jays. But there are lots of Canadians, I mean, obviously the Jays are their team, but for us who are fans of the Pirates, we gotta get to Pittsburgh. So I’ve been there half a dozen times, and I will continue to get there. That’s how, you know, that’s where I find, like I said, I find it’s like home in so many ways. PNC is just like being around your people. right? Around everybody who shares this common passion for a team you hold so dear.

Robby Incmikoski: You know, Kev, when you—and the reason, I’m asking this ’cause I want to illustrate how baseball brought you and I together as good friends. You’ve come over to my house, you’ve stayed at my house, you come to games—all that. When you, so, like, I’m trying to explain this. So like we met through Colby Armstrong, right? So you used to be the president of the Humboldt Broncos. They had that bus crash where I believe more than half the team—it was in the, how many people passed? It was in the teens, wasn’t it?

Kevin Garinger: Sixteen. Sixteen people.

Robby Incmikoski: Sixteen people passed away, so obviously very, very tragic. And then Colby Armstrong, who used to play for the Penguins, was a broadcast partner of mine and became a pretty good friend. He goes, “Hey, I got a buddy of mine, Kevin Garinger,” who—Kevin, and Colby’s from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, as well, so they you guys knew each other. I bring you in, turns out you’re a great guy, we become great friends, right? So how much does that show a little bit, Kevin, just how great the game of baseball is, that we met through tragic circumstances, yet we carry on a friendship here now six years later?

Kevin Garinger: I mean, you know it’s one of the things that, obviously, you know, the tragedy was, impacted a lot of people across the globe, and certainly in the US and Canada, it was significant. I mean, your president of the United States tweeted out about it, you know, that sort of thing during that time. The fact is, is that in my role, I had to become very much a public figure.

Robby Incmikoski: Right.

Kevin Garinger: In having to deal with media a lot, and dealing with the, from the New York Times to BBB to Canadian . . .

Robby Incmikoski: Yep.

Kevin Garinger: Sportsnet, and everything else. I mean, it was what you had to do. And you would trade it all for one second, in one second, for one more second to have those people with us, but the fact is . . .

Robby Incmikoski: Right.

Kevin Garinger: You were a leader at the time and had to do what you had to do to manage through what was obviously, became a national and even international tragedy. So through that, sometimes in the past, it felt like I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve opportunities to connect with people like you, Robby, and others, but yet then I realized we can’t go back on this tragedy. All we can do is, we can be grateful for the things that happen and recognize the impacts that were felt by families, by myself—I mean losing a billet son—and losing sixteen people that you knew and obviously people you were extremely close with. Even [inaudible] my own billet son that week. You recognized that, you know, we were all dealing with some significant trauma, dealing with significant grief, and it was wonderful that we were able to find relationships in different places. And in Pittsburgh, I found that relationship with you. Colby was somebody who just, he’s an amazing human being, does great work, and had done extremely great work, obviously to support ourselves, our organization, and the families. And then to be able to connect, you and I, just has turned into this friendship that I’ve relished, been very, very fortunate to have. As I said, I’d turn all the pieces back, but at the same time, you can’t. So I relish the fact that I’m able to hand onto these relationships with people such as yourself.

Robby Incmikoski: Right.

Kevin Garinger: And then being able then to make that connection to, you know, we both share in terms of the passion that we have for the Pirates, and . . .

Robby Incmikoski: Yeah.

Kevin Garinger: So that also ties in that relationship as well, so . . .

Robby Incmikoski: Yeah. Sorry, go ahead.

Kevin Garinger: No, I just . . .

Robby Incmikoski: So how great is it to have baseball, so you have baseball as an outlet for that, right? A very tragic situation.

Kevin Garinger: Yeah. Yeah.

Robby Incmikoski: There are no words to say about what you experienced, but to have the game of baseball as a way to kinda help healing—what is that experience like, using the game of baseball to help heal such a tragic situation?

Kevin Garinger: Yeah, you know what, Rob? It’s always been a passion of mine, so being able to get to Pittsburgh and being able to be around other people that you know you have friendships with and that sort of thing, it really, it allows you to in a place where you’re surrounded by the, not only the environment, but the people in that environment that really kinda bring you the calm and bring you back to that peaceful place, and the place where you’re, you know, you have that passion around that area. And it takes you out of that, out of sometimes some dark places. And I don’t think it heals you ever, but I think it certainly helps you figure out ways in which you deal with the holes that have been left in your heart from the tragic loss of people that we have. And we both experienced that. So I don’t you ever kinda get through it, but I think you figure out ways to survive and continue to move forward, and baseball is one of those places. And in particular, Pittsburgh and being with the Pirates and PNC, you and others—it’s been that place where I’ve been able to really just kinda be in my good place.

Robby Incmikoski: All right, so let’s pick up the mood a little bit here. Let me ask you this: What is it like for a northern Canadian guy touring nineteen baseball stadiums? Is the concept, I don’t want to say it’s foreign, because I’m not making a joke, but there are not a lot of people from Saskatchewan touring major league baseball stadiums. Let’s just be honest. You know what I mean? There can’t be many of them.

Kevin Garinger: No.

Robby Incmikoski: So, what is that experience like for you, seeing nineteen stadiums?

Kevin Garinger: It’s about baseball, right? So most of the time I go, I’m going to see the Pirates because that’s my passion—

Robby Incmikoski: Right, okay.

Kevin Garinger: [Inaudible.] Right? So I hadn’t been to Philadelphia and I hadn’t been to Baltimore, so you go because I want to see the, I want to see baseball. I want to see the parks, because the baseball stadiums are these amazing places, and they’re all, they all have these nuances and uniquenesses that are just amazing. And so going to Oriole Stadium, at Camden Yards, or going to . . .

Robby Incmikoski: Right.

Kevin Garinger: . . . to Philadelphia to, or pardon me, I was going to say Veteran’s

Robby Incmikoski: [Inaudible] Park, yeah.

Kevin Garinger: No, what is it again, Robby?

Robby Incmikoski: [Inaudible] Park in [inaudible].

Kevin Garinger: Yeah. I mean, these are, it’s great to have those experiences. Some of it, like I said, a lot of it is about following my Pirates, but the other pieces that tie to it are just being able to see the amazing stadiums that are in major league baseball parks, and it’s one of my passions. So yeah, it’s not something a lot of people do, but obviously from Saskatchewan, I wouldn’t think, but at the same time, it’s something that, because of my passion for the Pirates and my passion for baseball in general, I’ve had that opportunity. And I fully plan to get to all thirty of them.

Robby Incmikoski: Yeah.

Kevin Garinger: And will do that, but probably when the Pirates are playing.

Robby Incmikoski: That’s great. A lot of people do. I know people do that with the Twins. I just saw somebody complete—a friend of mine, like a fan kinda person who’s on my Facebook, I think he just saw the Twins play in all thirty ballparks—seen the Twins play everywhere. So it’s was kinda cool. If there are fellow Canadians out there that are debating seeing a baseball game, wondering about major league baseball, what it’s like, what would you say to them?

Kevin Garinger: Major league baseball and watching major league baseball is probably one—there’s a reason why it’s the greatest pastime in so many ways. It’s like you can be in this place where you’re watching these incredible athletes, but it’s not like you have to be gripped for twenty minutes at a time or fifteen minutes at a time because there’s so much going on. You have that opportunity to just be relaxed, go and have conversation and do all those things, and yet [inaudible] amazing sport with amazing people who play it at the highest level in the world. happen. Some people who I’ve taken to baseball stadiums and that sort of thing and on trips, they haven’t really understood it until they get there, just how amazing it is to fall into that, right? To find this beautiful place in baseball.

And I remember, it was one of the first times I had taken a friend to Pittsburgh. It was her first time, so I’m—she’s sitting in the front row, and all of a sudden, it starts raining, and she has to get out of the rain, right? And it’s like, the game’s still going on. We don’t leave the game, right? So I was, we were right in the front row, and I remember these other ladies, they were from Pittsburgh, right? They were yinzers. I was gonna take a selfie, a quick selfie. So I turned my back to the game, and “I’ll take it for you” this one lady says. And lo and behold, she’s taking this picture, and all of a sudden I feel this tick on my ear. It was a line-drive foul ball, and it literally ticked my ear, went up and hit the one lady in the leg, came down and landed at my feet. And I pick up this baseball, and I got this baseball, right? And course we stream all the Pirates stuff, and so it was on that game. But you know, I leave it for a second, and you get this baseball piece. But it’s those types of things too, those types of experiences where all of a sudden  you’re connected to the mascot, or you’re connected to a player, or you know, those things happen. Or you get a baseball, right?

Robby Incmikoski: Yeah.

Kevin Garinger: Not the only one, but at the same time, those are the other experiences that come with being at a baseball game that you just kinda go, “Yeah, like people don’t get it until you’re there, right?”

Robby Incmikoski: Yeah.

Kevin Garinger: They bring gloves to the game all the time and those types of things because they’re open for that kind of experience. And so you don’t understand that until you get there and you see the vastness of the stadium. You see the uniqueness of it, and then you get to watch these amazing athletes, but at the same time, you’re able to engage and relax in conversation—and yet, all of a sudden, be highly intensified because of something that’s gone on. when a big play happens. So it’s an incredible experience. Lots haven’t had the opportunity, but when they do, it changes their opinion on perspective on things that way. On the game.