Lawrence Peter “Yogi”
Berra (1925-2015)
I was saddened yesterday morning, as was the
entire baseball world—players and fans alike—when I woke up to the news of the
passing of baseball legend and New York Yankee great Yogi Berra. Besides being
a great baseball player, Yogi was also known for his whimsical and, sometimes,
odd quotes that made him sound like an unintelligent goofball, but in
reality—when you think about it—made him sound like a master of the English
language and a riddler of the human mind.
A lot has been
written about Yogi over the past 24 hours, and while I won’t try to re-hash
most of it, I will just briefly touch on his career, tell my favourite story
I heard about him and end with some of his famous quotations.
He was born in
St. Louis, Missouri to Pietro and Paolina Berra, Italian immigrants who had
arrived at Ellis Island in New York City in 1909. He served in the US Navy
during the Second World War and was a gunner’s mate on the USS Bayfield during
the D-Day invasion of France.
His first game
for the Yankees was on September 22, 1946 and he would go to play 18
seasons for the Bronx Bombers until the end of the 1963 season. In 1965, he
would play four games for the New York Mets. During his career, Yogi played in
2120 games, collected 2150 hits (.285 batting average), hit 358 home runs, and
1430 RBIs and even steal 30 bases. Defensively, he was primarily a catcher
(1699 games) and switched to the outfield in the later years of his career.
He was an
All-Star for fifteen straight seasons (1948-62) and won three American League
Most Valuable Player Awards (1951, 1954 and 1955). He had his uniform number
(8) retired by the Yankees in 1972 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of
Fame that same year.
Most impressive,
though, was his postseason numbers. As a player, he appeared in 14 World Series
with the Yankees, winning ten of them, including the New York’s Major League
record five in a row from 1949-53. No other player in history has won ten
championships (Joe DiMaggio is second on the list with nine). His 75 World Series games played is a record, as is his 259 at bats,
71 hits, 10 doubles and 49 singles. He would later add three World Series
championships as a coach in 1969 (with the Mets) and 1977 and 78 (with the
Yankees.)
Besides, being a
coach, Yogi was also a manager for several years, with the Yankees in 1964 and 1984-85, and with the Mets from 1972-1975.
As for his antics
and games with the media off the field, you could write volumes. I will stick
to one story as told by the late Frank Gifford in his book “The Glory Game”
that detailed the New York football Giants of the 1950s. During those days,
both the Yankees and football Giants played their home games in Yankee Stadium
(the baseball Giants played in the Polo Grounds) and a lot of the players from
the two teams hung out together as most had homes or rented apartments in the Bronx. The hangout was a place
called “Toot Shor’s Restaurant.”
On one particular
evening, as Gifford tells it, the proprietor of the restaurant walked over to
Yogi with author Ernest Hemingway alongside him and made the introductions.
“Yogi,” Toot
began. “This is Ernest Hemingway. He’s a famous writer.”
“Glad to meet ya,
Ernie,” Yogi exclaimed as he shook Hemingway’s hand. “Which paper you with?”
Again another
example of Berra playing dumb, but looking brilliant with his wit.
As for the
quotes—again, volumes but I’ll stick to ten. Enjoy.
1.
“It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”
2.
“Baseball is 90 per cent mental. The other half
is physical.”
3.
“You can observe a lot by watching.”
4.
“If people don’t want to come to the ballpark,
how are you going to stop them?”
5.
“So I’m ugly. I never saw anyone hit with his
face.”
6.
“When you come to the fork in the road, take
it.”
7.
“It’s déjà vu all over again.”
8.
On a player trying to pattern his swing after
Frank Robinson: “If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him.”
9.
On the 1973 Mets: “We were overwhelming
underdogs.”
10.
And my dad’s favourite. After miserably failing
a test in high school, Yogi’s teacher asked him, “Don’t you know anything?”
Yogi's response: “I don’t even suspect anything.”
Truly a character,
baseball will miss him, but never forget him.
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