Yogi, as beloved for sayings as championships, was American classic
Yogi Berra was known for funny comments as well as those 10 World Series titles.
By
Jon Heyman
•
4 min read
Yogi Berra was a Yankee icon, and an American classic.
Yogi, who is known by that solitary, smile-inducing nickname, was one of the greatest catchers of all time and the winningest player in baseball history, at least if you go by World Series championships. But Berra, who died Tuesday at his home in New Jersey, will perhaps be better remembered for a quirky personality and especially a treasure trove of prescient, paradoxical sayings that were often hilarious -- intentionally so or not.
We may never know whether Berra’s seemingly endless contradictory quips were intended to be funny – “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded,” is one of many classic observations – but that was Yogi. He never was the type to grab credit for an American life that was among the most complete and successful ever lived.
The Yogi-isms were cited so often that they became part of the American lexicon, and at times they seemed to define Yogi, a star so big he was known only by that one name. Perhaps because he was short in stature and didn’t look the part of a superstar athlete, or because a smile came to your face whenever you thought of Yogi, he was sometimes omitted from the discussions of the greatest catchers of all time. But there's no question, he belonged right in the middle of those talks, perhaps even at the top.
He hit 358 regular-season home runs and made 15 straight All-Star teams as the backbone of Yankees teams that were headlined first by Joe DiMaggio, then Mickey Mantle, but Yogi, too. He didn’t play the Yankees glamour position of center field, and his statistics may not match Joe D. or The Mick -- catchers have a built-in disadvantage by the nature of that demanding position -- but there should be no debate that he is an all time great. It was no coincidence he won a record 10 World Series titles, with his teams winning the first six in which he played and going 10-4 overall.
Berra ranks with Johnny Bench, Mike Piazza, Pudge Rodriguez and just maybe one or two others as one the greatest catchers ever. He was great as not only a great hitter but a great defender, an excellent pitch caller and baseball mind who famously called Don Larsen's perfect game but also caught a higher percentage of victories than anyone else. He was famous as a bad-ball hitter, but he was just a plain great hitter. Older Yankee fans may recall he was also athletic enough to go out to the outfield and play left field adequately in his later years.
But, as everyone well knows, that is merely a part of his legacy that will live on in baseball lore (and otherwise) forever. The catchphrases seemed to be endless, and one of the most famous one was uttered after he went crosstown, and was skippering the Ya' Gotta Believe 1973 Mets. That was the year they managed to eke out a division title with the remarkably mundane record of 82-79, and Yogi is credited with coming up with, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over, ” a sports truism uttered as often as any other.
It was long suspected he didn’t actually come up with every single fantastic saying, and Berra teased us all by telling us, “I didn’t say half the things I said,” or some form of that mixed message, which only served to fuel the belief he was unintentionally brilliant.
The Yogi-isms will endure for all time, but Yogi took a famous break from the limelight. After the Yankees’ impetuous, tyrannical owner George Steinbrenner fired Yogi as manager 16 games into the 1985 season (and after promising him in spring training he'd get the full year), Yogi made good on his vow to stay away from his beloved Yankee Stadium for the next 15 years. It was not until 1999, when Yankees broadcaster Suzyn Waldman brokered the famous baseball truce ever and Steinbrenner trudged out to New Jersey to apologize and honor Yogi that the pair reconciled, and Berra began to be seen around the hallowed baseball grounds again.
Steinbrenner’s apology, which focused more on his regret about having an underling do the firing and not the mistake of treating an icon like that when he didn't deserve the ax, might not have been accepted by a man as great as Yogi. But Yogi, being a practically ego-less superstar, nodded and very nicely moved on.
New York baseball fans were thrilled that Yogi was back as part of the Yankee family. And, as someone who was around those clubhouses from 1999 through the next decade or so, it’s impossible to forget the smiles he brought the faces of the players of a new generation of Yankee greats – the Yankees were in the middle of another dynastic era when Yogi returned – who also probably knew Yogi as much for the witticisms as the winning. They may not have known the whole story, but the knew this one thing: It was wonderful to have this American legend around.
