HOLY COW!
Posted on 09/24/2015 9:33:26 AM PDT by Grateful2God
Hi.
I woke up yesterday and was talking on the phone with a friend who was watching the Pope's visit. She said, "Oh, by the way, Yogi Berra died."
Let us say that I reacted strongly.
Mass media has done something for us. It has connected us with people we'll never meet on this earth, and sometimes makes them feel like part of the family. You didn't have to love the Yankees to love Yogi Berra. Despite his fame, he was a simple (not in the sense of dumb, please don't misunderstand!), humble family man who was able to laugh at himself. He loved kids; he loved baseball and the kind of harmless fun it represented in his heyday- and he admired his fellow players.
To support his family, he and buddy Phil Rizzuto operated a bowling alley to make money. You had to love the game back then-it didn't pay much. In later years, he did commercials, most of which celebrated his gaffes. Maybe the gaffes were part of what was so endearing: they were misworded, but still somehow made sense. Plus it made him human and easy to identify with. He reminded me of someone I'd be related to.
I could go on, but for now, I'm just asking for prayers for his soul from my fellow Catholics; and for all of us, not to forget that once there was a really nice fellow named Larry Berra, lovingly known as Yogi.
Thanks, fellow FReepers! It just needed to be said...
G-d ♡ bless you!
Grateful ✟ ✡
If you ever get a chance, visit the Yogi Berra museum in Jersey.
Impressive, wonderful place, well worth the trip.
There was more to the directions, which were given by Yogi over the phone speaking to Joe Garagiola, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it. But don't go that way, come this way."
From WIKI:
Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra (May 12, 1925 – September 22, 2015) was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and coach who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) (1946–63, 1965), all but the last for the New York Yankees. An 18-time All-Star and 10-time World Series champion as a player, Berra had a career batting average of .285, while compiling 358 home runs and 1,430 runs batted in. He is one of only five players to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award three times. Widely regarded as one of the greatest catchers in baseball history,[1] he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.
A native of St. Louis, Berra signed with the Yankees in 1943 before serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II. Making his major league debut in 1946, he was a mainstay in the Yankees’ lineup during the team’s championship years in the 1940s and 1950s. Despite his short stature, Berra was a power hitter and strong defensive catcher. Berra caught Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series, the only perfect game in MLB postseason history. After playing 18 seasons with the Yankees, Berra retired following the 1963 season. He spent one season as their manager, then joined the New York Mets in 1965 as coach (and briefly a player again). Berra remained with the Mets for the next decade, the latter four years of which were spent as their manager. Berra returned to the Yankees in 1976, coaching them for eight seasons and managing for two, before coaching the Houston Astros. He was one of seven managers to lead both American and National League teams to the World Series. As a player, coach, or manager, Berra appeared in 21 World Series and won 13 of them.
The Yankees retired his uniform number 8 in 1972 and honored him with a plaque in Monument Park in 1988. Berra was named to the MLB All-Century Team in a voting by fans in 1999. For the remainder of his life, he was closely involved with the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, which he opened on the campus of Montclair State University in 1998. Berra, who quit school after the eighth grade,[2] was also known for his malapropisms as well as pithy and paradoxical quotes, such as “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over”, while speaking to reporters. Simultaneously denying and confirming his reputation, Berra once stated, “I really didn’t say everything I said”
Bobby Richardson was a friend and teammate of Yogi. On the morning drive this AM they were talking to Bobby and he told the story about the time when the Mets and Yankees came to Columbia, SC to play an exhibition against the USC Gamecock baseball team. Richardson was coaching the Gamecocks at the time and Yogi was the manager of the Mets.
The format was the Gamecocks played 3 innings against the Yankees, three against the Mets and then the pros played three against each other.
Yogi told Bobby that there is no way a college team could stand up to big league pitching so when the Mets took the field Yogi got on the mound and pitched to the college team.
I’m sure those college kids have a great memory of that day.
Yup.
If there were more players like him today I might actually watch major league ball again. As it is I’ll stick to minor league and college baseball.
My fave is “nobody ever goes to that place anymore, it’s too crowded.”
It’s true: all of the weird things he said actually made sense on a certain level. We always knew what he meant..
-JT
Berra once stated, “I really didn’t say everything I said”
In my mind, a dream conversation would have been between Yogi and Gracie Allen
Thank you.
He was quite a character and is sorely missed.
And Steve McQueen must have made that movie before he died.
LOL. That could go on forever.
-JT
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