He Must Have Said that before he Died: The Philosophical Yogi Berra

Berra, the colorful Yankees legend, died early Wednesday morning.

“Yogi Berra’s legacy transcends baseball”. His personality radiated way out of that ballpark.

The legendary athlete was one of the most beloved competitors of our time – his kindness, humility and good humor complemented his gifts on the baseball diamond. Apocryphal or not, every “yogism” contains something uniquely Yogi in it.

“Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical”. The shortstop during Yogi’s first Yankee years was an even smaller Italian-American, 150-pound Phil Rizzuto, listed at a generous 5 feet 6. The film included a yogi, likened to Berra by his pal.

Is that a bad thing?

“In 1943, Yogi Berra traded his minor league baseball uniform for a Navy uniform and bravely defended our country as a machine gunner on the USS Bayfield during the D-Day invasion at Normandy”, the proclamation notes. He was speaking two days after his father died at 90.

It honors his time with the Yankees, with whom he won 10 World Series Championships while playing for the Yankees. Bayless’s co-host, Stephen Smith, seemed duly chastised as he deferentially pleaded ignorance of the extent of the depth and utter breadth of Berra’s accomplishments and abilities.

For many, though, he was even better known for all those amusing “Yogi-isms”. Nothing could be farther from the truth. For example, “Never answer an anonymous letter”. “But we don’t need to see the medal to know what he meant to all of us”. Larsen threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Berra, and to make the day complete, Yankees starter David Cone threw a flawless game against the Montreal Expos.

A vacant lot near their properties served as a makeshift soccer field and baseball diamond.

Yogisms often tap into our universal human understanding of our own feelings and experiences.

Pete Ward’s card isn’t quite so go good.

Not that he put up too much of a protest.

Many of his obituaries featured his “It ain’t over till it’s over” statement which he made when he was with the New York Mets. This is a delightful and attractive thing.

But the lovable Berra did not capture the public’s fancy simply because of his abilities to hit and catch a baseball, as great as those abilities were, but by delighting Americans – as a pitchman and otherwise – with his modest charm, friendly demeanor and tangled expressions.

Graham has also modified one of Berra’s most famous quips to highlight God’s sovereignty and the eternality of heaven.

“He was humble, yet confident all at the same time”, Dale Berra said. ‘I ended up living there for 14 years. Among my most persistent childhood memories is the sound of Vin Scully’s voice announcing the Dodger games. Each game day, around 4 p.m., I’d go to Billy’s office and deliver two reports.

Lawrence became Yogi thanks to Bobby Hofmann, a childhood friend, believed Berra resembled a Hindu yogi, a holy man with a slow-paced walk and calmed demeanor. “That’s what made him such a national treasure”.

Berra married his wife, Carmen, in 1949.

There’s an endless cache of amusing stories involving Berra.

“Yogi probably played as big a part in the Yankee organization being what it is today than any other person on the field”, Gardner said. The unforgettable image of spontaneous joy defined the boyish enthusiasm for baseball that Berra kept all his life.

To appreciate the bond is to realize the depth of their connection.

I most remember from that series an afternoon game in which Whitey Ford was pitching and Yogi Berra was catching. But his success never clouded his ego.

Berra retired from the Houston Astros in 1992 and devoted his life to philanthropy. I vaguely remember seeing a guy named Pete Ward play for the White Sox, and he and Yogi were sort of contemporaries.

-“You can observe a lot by watching”.

Berra had a gift for talking outside the box. We may burn these wagons as we go, float the Mississippi but anyway, the wagon train has got to go not trying to be cut. If we don’t connect the dots, then we don’t get the picture.

“The future ain’t what it used to be,” he said.