Jerry Girardi, the father of New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi has died at age 81, as reported by the Peoria Journal Star and the New York Post.
The Deiters Funeral Home informed The Associated Press that Jerry passed away on Saturday.
Joe told The Alzheimer's Association in 2009 that his father began suffering from alzheimer's disease in the mid 1990s.
Joe gave his father the first World Series ring that he won as manager of the Yankees to his father, according to the Peoria Journal Star.
Despite suffering this loss, Joe will still manage the Yankees on Thursday evening as they face the Orioles in Game 4 of their ALDS in New York, per ESPN News Services and Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.
Although Joe did not to publicly address his father's passing initially, the manager addressed the issue during an emotional pre-game press conference before Game 4.
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NEW YORK (AP) — The father of New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi has died.
The Deiters Funeral Home says Jerry Girardi died Saturday at 81. He had suffered from Alzheimer's disease since the 1990s and died in Metamora, Ill.
The Yankees were set to play Game 4 of the AL division series Thursday night against Baltimore and Girardi was at Yankee Stadium. New York leads 2-1 in the best-of-five matchup, and Girardi has been with the team for every game.
Jerry Girardi served in the U.S. Air Force in the Korean War and worked in construction sales and as a bricklayer, according to an obituary on the funeral home's website.
A funeral is scheduled for Monday in Peoria. His wife, Angela, died in 1984. The couple had four sons and a daughter.