William Garoni (b. July 28, 1877 in Fort Lee, NJ – d. September 9, 1914 in Fort Lee, NJ) was a professional baseball player. He had a 3 game cup-of-coffee for the NY Giants in 1899. He was signed by the New York Giants from the Bridgeport Warriors where he had a 9-13 record with 5 shutouts for the 1899 season. For his Major League Career, Willi Garoni, accrued an 0-1 record with a 4.50 ERA. He struck out 2, walked 2 and pitched 1 complete game.

He debuted on September 7th, 1899. against the Baltimore Orioles. Coming into the game in relief of Giants starting pitcher Charlie Gettig, he walked opposing pitcher Frank Kitson and later threw a wild pitch. All this did not matter in the outcome as New York was blown out by Baltimore 10-0.

Another appearance of note for him was on September 23rd, when he started in the second game of a double header with Pittsburgh. Trailing 4-0 in the 5th inning, Umpire Al Manassau made the strange decision to call the game because of darkness. This would have been fine with both teams, except for the fact that the sun was still shining! Apparently Manassau was the only person in the park who could not see the progress of the game, and thus made the strange decision, making Garoni the loser and Pittsburgh's Bill Hoffer a winner. Of note, 1899 was the only season that Al Manassau umpired in professional baseball.

Going back to pitch with the hometown Fort Lee's in 1900, Garoni continued to pitch in the minors for a few more years before marrying and starting up a successful contracting business installing sewers for the City of Fort Lee. Working within the close confines of underground tunneling, Garoni contracted Chronic Pulmonary Tuberculosis, which eventually ended his life on September 9th, 1914 at age 37. He is buried at Fairview Cemetery (Fairview, New Jersey).

(excerpted from FindAGrave, Baseball Almanac, BR Bullpen & Wikipedia)