He's doggin' it (and that's good); Joe Garagiola's workload includes being host of Westminster dog show on USA

At 72, Joe Garagiola has done it all: He's played major league
baseball, been emcee of three TV game shows, written two best-sellers
and endeared himself to a generation of NBC "Today" show viewers.
Tonight he begins the fourth year of one of his unlikeliest
assignments: host of the USA Network's coverage of the 1998
Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show from Madison Square Garden.
Garagiola brings his TV-ready enthusiasm to the program, which
begins at 7 p.m. and continues at 7 p.m. Tuesday. His sidekick will
be dog breeder David Frei.
In a recent phone interview from his home in Paradise Valley,
Ariz., Garagiola expounded on the dog show and his more serious
off-camera pursuits.
Q. The Westminster Dog Show doesn't feature any stupid pet tricks
- it's a beauty pageant - and yet millions of people tune in to watch
it on TV year after year. Why?
A. First of all, let me shoot down the beauty-pageant myth.
That's what I thought it was. I thought they were brought here in
swaddling clothes and felt-lined cages.
But the dog people are the hardiest people I know. Two years ago
there was a snowstorm in New York City. You can hardly get a cab in
New York during rush hour. It's impossible to get one during a snow
storm.
But to hail a cab during a snowstorm with a dog cage under one
arm
Having said that, yes, these dogs are groomed and they are combed
- all of that stuff. But see, I always thought they went out against
another dog. But they don't. When they go out there, the judge has in
mind the perfect one.
Say it's a schnauzer. He knows what a perfect schnauzer looks
like and he judges this dog against that one, the standard. That's
what really tickles me.
But some of these dogs, they walk out there as if to say, "Hey,
look at me, I'm a champion, get those other dogs out of there."
Q. What got you interested in doing a dog show?
A. To be honest, they called me and asked if I would be
interested in hosting a dog show. And I said, "Man, I don't know
anything about dogs. " They said, "Do you have dogs? " And at the
time, I did. And they said, "We saw you do the Rose Bowl Parade and
you're really good at that."
David Frei, he sits right next to me, breeds Afghans. He knows
all the dog people, calls them by name. And yes, I put the show on,
but I just sit there and watch. All I say on the air is what I would
say if I were up in the stands. Like, "Why would a guy spend $ 800 on
a suit and then put Alpo in his pocket to feed a dog?"
Q. What are you doing the 363 other days of the year?
A. Oh, I've got all kinds of projects. I'm still doing stuff for
the "Today" show. I'm president of Baseball Assistance Team
(B.A.T.), which is a group of former players that help others who
have come up against some hard times. It used to be just former
players, but now we take care of their families, umpires, Negro
Leagues players and the widows - and those are the two groups most
often overlooked, the Negro Leagues and the widows.
I have been doing anti-chewing tobacco and spit tobacco campaigns
for 20 years on my own, but now we have an organization, NSTEP
(National Spit Tobacco Education Program), and we finally got
baseball to join with us on a cessation program that we hope to
launch this spring.
All the publicity has gone to cigarettes, but I believe we've got
this silent epidemic of chewing tobacco in this country. One of the
things that has gotten me so hot and heavy on this is that in 1993
here in Arizona, the department of health and human services put out
a sheet and one of the statistics on it was just appalling - 9.8
percent of third- to sixth-graders were reported spit tobacco users.
Third- to sixth-graders. And it's just hidden. But we're making
inroads now.