One day in 1946, he said, Garagiola pulled up in front of his house with the Dodgers’ Pee Wee Reese and gave him tickets to a World Series game.

“Me and my brother and uncle and cousin all sat right behind the plate. To us, Joe was always just part of the gang,” Garavaglia said.

He said Garagiola was generous to the Sick and Elderly Program of the Hill, which provided free medical equipment to residents. “He was always a compassionate guy,” Garavaglia said.

Vince Diraimondo, 89, who played sandlot baseball with Garagiola and Berra, said the two “put this neighborhood on the map.

“We knew they would go far,” said Diraimondo, who still lives on the Hill. “Those guys, they were just bigger and stronger, great ballplayers. I was in the service in the Philippines (during World War II) and picked up a paper in Manila. There was Joe on the front page, catching a foul ball.”

Garavaglia said the block was quiet Wednesday except for visitors driving by to take another look and TV reporters broadcasting live.

It has been a difficult time for the neighborhood in the last year. Berra died in 2015, as did former Hill resident Frank Borghi, the goaltender in 1950 for the U.S. soccer team that stunned England in the World Cup.