The Chicago Cubs, Joe Girardi’s favorite team growing up in Peoria, Ill., pick the Northwestern University catcher in the fifth round of the MLB draft. His first professional team assignment is in Peoria, a team in the low-A Midwest League that is managed by 34-year-old Pete Mackanin. Girardi lives at home with his father, Jerry, who had lost his wife, Angela, to cancer while Girardi was at Northwestern.

Girardi makes his big-league debut on opening day at Wrigley Field against the Phillies. He gets his first career hit off Floyd Youmans and finishes the game 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored as the Cubs defeat the Phillies, 5-4. The Phillies, with three straight singles, loaded the bases in the top of the ninth inning with nobody out against Mitch Williams but could not score.

After four seasons with the Cubs, including a playoff appearance as their starting catcher during his rookie season, Girardi is selected with the 19th pick by the Colorado Rockies in the expansion draft. He becomes best friends with Dante Bichette, after whom he names his first son, and helps the Rockies make the postseason in the franchise’s third year.

After driving in a career-high 55 runs for the Rockies in 1995, Girardi is traded to the New York Yankees for reliever Mike DeJean. He will be the starting catcher for the team in Joe Torre’s first season as manager.

Girardi is behind the plate for Dwight Gooden’s no-hitter against Seattle. The catcher contributes a hit and scores a run in New York’s 2-0 win at Yankee Stadium. Gooden walked six and struck out five.

Girardi’s RBI triple off former Cubs teammate Greg Maddux scores Paul O’Neill and triggers a three-run third inning that carries New York to a 3-2 World Series-clinching victory over the Atlanta Braves in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium. It is the Yankees’ 23rd World Series title but their first since 1978.

On Torre’s 59th birthday, Girardi is the starting catcher for David Cone’s perfect game in a 6-0 win over the Montreal Expos at Yankee Stadium. Cone strikes out 10 batters and becomes the third pitcher in Yankees history to pitch a perfect game, joining Don Larsen and David Wells. Girardi, the Yankees’ backup catcher to Jorge Posada by that time, contributes a hit and an RBI.

Girardi, a free agent after four seasons with the Yankees, returns to where his career started and is reunited with his Rockies manager Don Baylor after signing a three-year contract with the Cubs worth $6 million. He makes his first and only All-Star team during the 2000 season after batting .302 in the first half.

Girardi plays in his final game, with the St. Louis Cardinals against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Bank One Ballpark, and singles off reliever Edgar Gonzalez in his final at-bat.

After spending a season as an analyst for the Yankees’ YES Network, Girardi is hired to be Torre’s bench coach. He replaces Willie Randolph, who had left to manage the New York Mets.

Girardi, at age 41, is hired by owner Jeffrey Loria as the seventh manager of the Florida Marlins. He also had interviewed for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays job that went to Joe Maddon.

During a game at Dolphins Stadium, Loria and Girardi engage in a shouting match after the Marlins’ owner argues calls by home-plate umpire Larry Vanover from the stands.

Girardi is fired after one season as the Marlins’ manager and replaced by Fredi Gonzalez.

Six weeks after being fired by the Marlins, Girardi is named the National League manager of the year by the Baseball Writers Association of America. He remains the only manager to ever win the award after a losing season (78-84).

While back working as an analyst for the YES Network, Girardi declines an offer from the Baltimore Orioles to replace Sam Perlozzo as the team’s manager.

Girardi is hired as the 32nd manager of the Yankees, replacing Torre, who had led the team to four World Series titles in 12 years. Girardi chooses No. 27 because his goal is to lead the Yankees to their 27th World Series title.

Girardi leads the Yankees to their 27th World Series title when his team beats the Phillies, 7-3, in Game 6 to end the first season at the new Yankee Stadium.

Yankees catcher Jorge Posada, who replaced Girardi as the starter in the late 1990s, refuses to play after Girardi places him ninth in the batting order as the designated hitter in a game against the Boston Red Sox. The following day, Posada apologizes to Girardi and GM Brian Cashman. Posada retires at the end of the season.

Girardi manages his final game with the Yankees, a 4-0 loss to the Houston Astros in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. The Astros since have been severely penalized by commissioner Rob Manfred for using center-field video cameras and dugout trash cans to alert hitters of what kind of pitches were being thrown during the 2017 season.

Cashman fires Girardi after 10 seasons and six playoff appearances with the Yankees, later citing “connectivity” issues with the players.

Girardi is hired by MLB Network as a studio analyst.

After also interviewing Buck Showalter and Dusty Baker, the Phillies hire Girardi as their 55th manager.