Not A Bad Word About Him

“He’s got ten World Series rings (and Red Sox Nation boast of one measly ring), made both the Hall of Fame and All Century Team in a breeze, handled a pitching staff like Heifetz handled a violin, has been married to a beautiful woman for 55 years, played before the big salaries and still became rich, remains instantly recognizable for decades after he last played, and no one has ever said a bad word about him. And I’ve got to tell people how smart he is? You tell me.”

This is a quote from broadcaster and TV personality Bob Costas. Do you know who is talking about? A couple of very obvious clues are number of World Series rings and handling pitchers. You couldn’t win that many rings unless you played for the Yankees and a person that handles a pitcher is a catcher. If you guessed Joe Torre that’s wrong. The man with all these great credentials is none other that Yogi Berra, famous today for his AFLAC commercial and his witty and down to earth Yogi-isms.

I am not a Yankee fan but growing up in the North End we had a lot of people that rooted for the Yankees simply because of the history of Italian ballplayers that played for them. Some of the more famous ones are Joe DiMaggio, Vic Raschi, Phil Rizzuto, Tony Lazzeri, Yogi Berra and Joe Pepitone.

If I could spend a few hours having a beer with a sports figure my choice would be to spend it with Yogi. The more I listen to his aphorisms (Yogi-isms) the more I seem to connect with him. When he says, “When you come to a fork in the road, Take It!” I know that he means sh_t or get off the pot. There are people who come to fork in the road and freeze – they can’t make a decision, or they’re afraid that they’ll choose the wrong one.

Another that’s attributed to him is, “We made too many wrong mistakes.” Everyone makes mistakes, some are little blunders and some are whoppers. The wrong mistakes are the whoppers and usually are avoidable, the more serious and more costly. The wrong mistakes are more mental than physical. Most car accidents are mental mistakes – not paying attention, even for a split second, is a wrong mistake.

How about, “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t go to yours.” I know when he says this he’s talking about having respect for others. He’s telling us to be loyal to our family and friends.

There are many others attributed to him such as, “It’s déjà vu all over again” and “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” There’s one that describes his demeanor the best and it’s, “You can observe a lot by watching.” All he is trying to say here is pay attention. As a catcher he was basically the on the field manager, calling the pitches, setting the defenses and watching to make sure a runner wasn’t trying to steal a base. The catcher is the only one out of the nine players that faces his team. Yogi mentions on how this has always been his philosophy.

He describes that when he was playing American Legion ball, there were no benches or dugouts. So he used to sit with his arms and legs crossed, watching everything that was happening.. One day he and two of his buddies came back from the movies where they saw a travelogue about a Hindu guy called a yogi. The yogi sat with his arms and knees folded like him and so they decided to call him Yogi and it stuck.

Yogi was a talker when he was behind home plate and was always trying to distract the batter. Hank Aaron tells the story about the 1958 World Series, with Yogi behind the plate. Yogi kept telling Aaron to 'hit with the label up on the bat'. Finally Aaron turned and said "Yogi, I came up here to hit, not to read."

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the cartoon character Yogi Bear was named after him.