(Redirected from Yogiisms):''For the similarly named animated character see
Yogi Bear
'Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra' (born
May 12,
1925 in
St. Louis, Missouri) is a former
Major League Baseball player and manager. He played almost his entire career for the
New York Yankees and was elected to the baseball
Hall of Fame in
1972. He was one of only four players to be named the
Most Valuable Player of the
American League three times, and one of only six managers to lead both
American and
National League teams to the
World Series.
Berra, who quit school in the eighth grade, has a tendency toward
malapropism and fracturing the English language in highly provocative, interesting ways. Simultaneously denying and confirming his reputation, Berra once stated, "I never said half the things I really said." (''See
Yogiisms.'')
Early background
Born in a primarily Italian neighborhood of St. Louis called "
The Hill", Berra was the son of Pietro and Paulina Berra, immigrants from Italy. Pietro, originally from
Milan in northern Italy, arrived at
Ellis Island on October 18, 1909 at the age of 23, and later met Paulina in the United States.
[1] Yogi's parents originally
nicknamed him "Lawdie," derived from his mother's difficulty pronouncing "Lawrence" or "Larry" correctly. He grew up on
Elizabeth Avenue, just a few doors down from his boyhood friend and later competitor
Joe Garagiola (that block, also home to the late baseball broadcaster
Jack Buck, has subsequently been renamed "Hall of Fame Place"). Berra has been inducted into the
St. Louis Walk of Fame.
He picked up his more famous nickname from a friend who said he resembled a Hindu holy man (
yogi) they had seen in a movie, whenever Berra sat around with arms and legs crossed waiting to bat, or while looking sad after a losing game. Years later, the
Hanna-Barbera cartoon character
Yogi Bear was named after Berra, something Berra did not appreciate after he started being periodically addressed as "Yogi Bear."
He began playing baseball in local American Legion leagues, where he learned the basics of play as a catcher.
The
St. Louis Cardinals spurned Berra in favor of his boyhood best friend,
Joe Garagiola, in 1942. On the surface, the Cardinals seemed to think Garagiola the superior prospect -- but team president
Branch Rickey actually had an ulterior motive: knowing he was soon to leave St. Louis to take over the operation of the
Brooklyn Dodgers, and more impressed with Berra than he let on, Rickey apparently planned to hold Berra off until he could sign him for the Dodgers. The plan was ruined when the Yankees got to him first, signing him for the same $500 bonus the Cardinals offered Garagiola.
Berra is widely regarded as one of the greatest catchers in baseball history. In fact, according to the
win shares formula developed by
sabermetrician Bill James, Berra is the greatest catcher of all time and the 52nd greatest non-pitcher in major-league history. Late in his career, some sportswriters affectionately nicknamed Berra "The Little Squat Man."
Playing career
Following a stint in the
U.S. Navy during
World War II where he served as a
gunner's mate in the
D-Day invasion, Berra played
minor league baseball with the
Newark Bears before being called up for seven games in the major leagues in
1946. The following season he played 86 games for the Yankees, and he would play more than a hundred in each of the following fourteen years. He was affectionately known by the sportswriters as "The Little Squat Man."
During his nineteen-year career as a Yankee, Berra's teams dominated baseball. Berra appeared in fourteen
World Series, winning ten championships wearing the number 8 (except 1947, both of which are records. Because Berra's playing career coincided with the Yankees' most consistent period, it enabled him to establish the major league records for World Series games (75),
at-bats (259),
hits (71),
doubles (10),
singles (49), games caught (63), and catcher
putouts (457). In Game 3 of the 1947 World Series, Berra hit the first pinch-hit home run in World Series history off Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca (who later served up
Bobby Thomson's famous home run in 1951). Though Berra played in 14 World Series, he played every game in just nine of them, one fewer than Joe DiMaggio, who played every game in all ten of his Series appearances.
Berra has become a beloved, cuddly figure in American sport, which in some ways has obscured his immense talents as a competitive athlete. Berra was a fifteen-time
All-Star, and won the league's
MVP award three times, in
1951,
1954 and
1955. From 1950 to 1957, Berra never finished lower than 4th in the voting. He received MVP votes in fifteen consecutive seasons, tied with
Barry Bonds and second only to
Hank Aaron's nineteen straight seasons with MVP support. (
Ted Williams also received MVP votes in every year of his career, but it was twice interrupted by military service.) Between
1949 and
1955, on a team filled with stars such as
Mickey Mantle and
Joe DiMaggio, it was Berra who led the Yankees in
RBI for seven consecutive seasons.
Berra was excellent at hitting bad pitches, covering all areas of the
strike zone (as well as beyond) with great extension. He was simultaneously able to swing the
bat like a
golf club to hit low pitches for deep home runs, and chop at high pitches for
line drives. However, despite this wide plate coverage, he also had great bat control. Five times, Berra had more
home runs in a season than
strikeouts. In
1950, Berra struck out twelve times in 597 at-bats. This combination made him a feared "
clutch hitter"; rival manager
Paul Richards once called Berra "the toughest man in the league in the last three innings."
As a fielder, Berra was truly outstanding. Quick, mobile, and a great handler of pitchers, Berra led all American League catchers eight times in games caught and in chances accepted, six times in
double plays (a major league record), eight times in putouts, three times in
assists, and once in
fielding percentage. Berra left the game with the AL records for catcher putouts (8,723) and chances accepted (9,520). He was also one of only four catchers to ever field 1.000 for a season, playing 88 errorless games in
1958. Later in his career, he became a good defensive outfielder in Yankee Stadium's notoriously difficult left field. In June
1962, at the age of 37, Berra showed his superb physical endurance by catching an entire 22-inning, seven-hour game against the
Tigers.
One of the most notable days of Berra's playing career came when he caught
Don Larsen's
perfect game in the
1956 World Series, the only
no-hitter ever thrown in
postseason play. The pictures of Berra leaping into Larsen's arms following the 27th
out are among the game's most memorable images.
On
18 July,
1999, Larsen and Berra celebrated the feat with a ceremonial pitch for "Yogi Berra Day" at
Yankee Stadium (the 74-year-old Berra did not jump into the 70-year-old Larsen's arms, though). This was a part of the celebration to mark the return of Berra to the Stadium, which ended his 14-year feud with Yankees' owner
George Steinbrenner. The feud started in
1985 when Steinbrenner promised Berra a full chance as manager, then fired him in the third week of the season. Berra vowed to never return to Yankee Stadium so long as Steinbrenner owned the team. Amazingly, Yankees pitcher
David Cone then hurled his own perfect game against
Montreal Expos, only the 16th time it had ever been done in
Major League history. The coincidence served to illustrate one of the more famous
Yogiisms – "It's like déjà vu all over again".
In 1946, Berra wore uniform No. 38 on the Yankees, switching to 35 the next year. In 1948, he changed to No. 8, which he kept for the rest of his career on the Yankees (and later, the
Mets). The No. 8 was retired in 1972 by the Yankees, jointly honoring Berra and
Bill Dickey, his predecessor as the Yankees' star catcher. Berra's uniform number and stocky build were familiar enough to baseball fans that
Sports Illustrated once used a photo of Berra facing away from the camera as its cover, with the blurb "YOGI'S BACK." Yankee television announcer Michael Kay has introduced Berra on Old Timers Day as "one of the best known faces on the planet."
Managing career
After Berra's Yankee playing career ended with the 1963 World Series, he was hired as the manager of the New York Yankees. Much was made of an incident on board the team bus in August. Following a loss, infielder
Phil Linz was playing his harmonica, and Berra ordered him to stop. Seated on the other end of the bus, Linz couldn't hear what Berra had said, and
Mickey Mantle impishly informed Linz, "He said to play it louder." When Linz did so, an angry Berra slapped the harmonica out of his hands. All was apparently forgotten when Berra's Yankees rode a September surge to return to the World Series. But the team lost to the
St. Louis Cardinals in seven games, after which Berra was fired. It was later learned that general manager
Ralph Houk had been ready to discharge Berra since midseason, apparently for a perceived loss of control over the team.
Berra made a very brief return to the field as a player-coach for the crosstown Mets, playing in just four games. His last at-bat came on May 9, 1965, just three days shy of his 40th birthday. Berra stayed with the Mets as a coach for the next eight seasons, becoming the team's manager in 1972, following the death of manager
Gil Hodges. That same year, he was elected to the
Baseball Hall of Fame. The following season, his Mets won the NL East division despite winning just 82 games, and eventually lost that year's World Series in seven games. Berra remained the team's manager for two more seasons. In 1976, he rejoined the Yankees as a coach. The team won its first of three consecutive AL titles, and (as had been the case throughout his playing days) Berra's reputation as a lucky charm was reinforced. (
Casey Stengel once said of his catcher, "He'd fall in a sewer and come up with a gold watch.") Berra was eventually elevated to Yankee manager before the 1984 season. Berra agreed to stay in the job for 1985 after receiving assurances that he would not be fired, but the impatient Steinbrenner did fire Berra after the 16th game of the season. Instead of firing him personally, Steinbrenner dispatched
Clyde King to deliver the news for him
[1]. This caused a rift between the two men that would not be mended for almost 15 years.
On August 22, 1988, Berra and Dickey were honored with plaques to be hung in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. Berra's plaque calls him "A legendary Yankee" and cites his most frequent quote, "It ain't over till it's over." However, the honor was not enough to shake Berra's conviction that Steinbrenner had broken their personal agreement; Berra would not set foot in the Stadium for another decade, after Steinbrenner publicly apologized to Berra.
In 1999, Berra appeared at No. 40 on ''
The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and fan balloting elected him to the
Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
Coaching and Managing career
★ 1963 – New York Yankees player-coach
★ 1964 – New York Yankees manager (won American League pennant)
★ 1965–1972 – New York Mets coach (won World Series in 1969)
★ 1972–1975 – New York Mets manager (won National League pennant in 1973)
★ 1976–1983 – New York Yankees coach (won American League pennant in 1976 & 1981 and World Series in 1977 & 1978)
★ 1984–1985 – New York Yankees manager
★ 1986–1989 –
Houston Astros coach
Career statistics
| G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | TB | SH | HBP |
| 2,120 | 7,555 | 1,175 | 2,150 | 321 | 49 | 358 | 1,430 | 33 | 704 | 414 | .285 | .348 | .482 | 3,643 | 9 | 52 |
Non-baseball activities
Berra married his wife Carmen in 1949. They have three children and have lived in
Montclair,
New Jersey since Berra's playing days. Two of Berra's sons also played professional sports - his son
Dale Berra played shortstop for the
Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Yankees, and
Houston Astros, and his son Tim Berra played
American football for the
New York Jets.
In 1998, the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center
[2] and Yogi Berra Stadium (home to the
New Jersey Jackals baseball team) opened on the campus of
Montclair State University in Upper Montclair, N.J. The museum is currently the home of various artifacts, including the mitt with which Yogi caught the only perfect game in World Series history, several autographed and "game-used" items, three World Series Championship trophies, and nine of Yogi's championship rings (Berra only wears the 1953 ring, in commemoration of the Yankees' record 5th consecutive World Championship). It was an appearance on behalf of the museum by George Steinbrenner that led to their ultimate reconciliation. Yogi Berra was given the 1951 Yankee World Series banner for display purposes.
Berra is very involved with the project, and frequents the museum for signings, discussions, and other events. It is his intention to teach children important values such as sportsmanship and dedication, both on and off the baseball diamond. When asked "So, what is it you do here?" Yogi, without missing a beat, replied convincingly, "It's my museum."
Berra is a recipient of the
Boy Scouts of America's highest adult award, the
Silver Buffalo Award.
In February 2005 Berra filed a lawsuit against
Turner Broadcasting System. He alleges that they used his name in a racy advertisement for ''
Sex and the City''. The advertisement asked what the definition of a "yogasm" is: a) a type of yo-yo trick; (b) sex with Yogi Berra; or c) what Samantha has with a guy from
yoga class. (The answer given was C.) This case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum of money.
Berra has frequently appeared in advertisements for
Yoo-hoo,
AFLAC,
Entenmann's, and Stovetop stuffing, among others, frequently demonstrating his famous "
yogiisms." He is among the longest running commercial pitchman in the U.S.; his television commercials span from the early 1950s to the present day. Based on his style of speaking, Yogi was named
Wisest Fool of the Past 50 Years by the
Economist magazine in January 2005.
In an article in 1976 in
Esquire magazine, sportswriter Harry Stein published an "All Time All-Star Argument Starter," consisting of five ethnic baseball teams. Berra was the catcher on Stein's Italian team.
Quotes
Berra is famous around the non-baseball world for his pithy comments and witticisms, known as 'Yogiisms'. Many of these are in the vein of the
gravedigger in
Shakespeare's ''
Hamlet'', the comments of a worldly-wise philosopher who does not have the education and vocabulary to express his thoughts accurately.
Similar utterances are called "
Colemanisms" or "
Colemanballs" in the
United Kingdom, "
Cruijffiaans" in
The Netherlands, "
Perronismes" in the French speaking part of
Canada and "
Trapattonismi" in Italy. In
Australia they are called "Dyerisms," after
Australian rules football legend
Jack Dyer. Movie mogul
Samuel Goldwyn is also the source for several humorous "Goldwynisms."
Yogiisms should not be confused with
Farberisms (popularized by
Prof. David J. Farber). The former are typically either
pleonastic or
oxymoronic
redundancies, while the latter are most often
non-sequiturial mondegreens, though both usually share the goal of making a point through
surreally humorous,
absurdist mis-use of language, especially the alteration of
clichés through
malapropism and
mixed metaphor.
Examples
★ As a general comment on baseball: "90% of the game is half mental."
★ On why he no longer went to a trendy Missouri restaurant: "Nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded!"
★ On the attendance problem experienced by the
Kansas City Athletics: "If the people don't want to come to the ballpark, how you gonna stop them?"
★ "It ain't over till it's over." - After Berra's 1973 Mets trailed the
Chicago Cubs by 9½ games in the
National League East; the Mets rallied to win the division title on the next-to-last day of the season.
★ When giving directions to his New Jersey home, which was equally accessible via two different routes: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
★ On why, despite a lack of managerial experience, he thought he could be successful during his first year as a baseball manager: "You can observe a lot by watching."
★ Advice given to a young player who had unsuccessfully adopted the batting style of a well-known veteran: "If you can't imitate him, don't copy him."
★ On being the guest of honor at an awards banquet: "I'd like to thank all those who made this night necessary."
★ On the afternoon shadows that fell on left field at Yankee Stadium: "It gets late early out here."
★ When, during a batting slump, his manager told him to think about his approach: "You can't hit and think at the same time."
★ "You should always go to other people's funerals. Otherwise, they won't come to yours."
Books
Four books by Yogi Berra (with co-authors):
★ ISBN 0-07-096947-7; (April 1989) ''Yogi: It Ain't Over''
★ ISBN 0-7611-1090-9; (April 1998) ''The Yogi Book: 'I Really Didn't Say Everything I Said' ''
★ ISBN 0-7868-6775-2; (May 2001) ''When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It! Inspiration and Wisdom from One of Baseball's Greatest Heroes''
★ ISBN 0-7432-3768-4; (October 2002) ''What Time Is It? You Mean Now?: Advice for Life from the Zennest Master of Them All''
See also
★
List of top 500 Major League Baseball home run hitters
★
List of major league players with 2,000 hits
★
List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
★
List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI
References
1. The List: Steinbrenner's worst ESPN
External links
★
★
★
★
yogiberra.com Official website
★
Yogi Berra Museum
★
york.ca A university study into the philosophical implications of Yogiisms
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