News | My Sports

Giordano scouted for the Braves in 2018, his 71st in pro baseball, and planned to come back this year before falling ill in December.

MLB's oldest scout, Tommy 'T-Bone' Giordano, dies at 93

He was a baseball lifer and, his daughter says, it was a life well-lived.

Tommy Giordano, baseball's oldest active scout, died Thursday. He was 93.

His daughter, Gail Przeclawski, confirmed his death on her Facebook page:

"Valentines day is THE day to celebrate love. What a perfect day for Thomas 'T-Bone' Giordano to pass into the loving arms of our Savior Jesus Christ. Dad transitioned from this life to eternal life with grace and dignity surrounded by his loving family. Such a peaceful, perfect end to an amazing journey. And now the best is yet to come. I love you Dad."

He died at her home in Orlando, Florida, after a brief illness. He scouted for the Braves in 2018, his 71st in professional baseball as a player and scout, and before falling ill in December with a blood infection, according to The Associated Press, he intended to come back for another season.

"I can't wait to get up in the morning and go to the ballpark," he said in a 2016 interview with The AP. "I'm still in baseball, so I must have been doing a pretty good job."

Despite playing only 11 games in the majors with the 1953 Philadelphia Athletics — a brief stint punctuated in his second game with a homer off White Sox 20-game winner Virgil Trucks — Giordano would go on to a decades-long career in scouting.

Two of his biggest prizes: Cal Ripken Jr. and Manny Ramirez.

During his long career, Giordano also worked in various capacities with the Orioles, Indians and Rangers. With the latter two, he became particularly close to GM John Hart, who said Giordano was "like a father to me."

That nickname, T-Bone? It came from a pregame ritual his father, who ran a grocery store, had for his son, though Giorgano's parents initially weren't happy with his baseball life.

Giordano lied to them about why he was coming home late from school. He was playing baseball, instead of focusing on his schoolwork and after that helping with the family business.

"I used to hide my spikes," Giordano told The AP. "Well, my dad got hold of them and put them on the butcher block. He cut them up. He cut everything up. My bat, my glove, everything."

Things, it seems, turned out just fine.

Top Headlines