Yogi Berra was born 96 years old today.
A former Major League Baseball catcher, outfielder and manager, Berra gained fame for his great mangled quotes. He played almost his entire 19-year baseball career (1946–1965) for the New York Yankees. As a player, coach or manager, Berra appeared in 21 World Series. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.
During Spring Training with the Yankees in Florida in the late 1970s, I sat with Berra, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford as they watched the younger players work out. Berra kept everyone laughing with what are now called “Yogiisms.” He was a very funny man, who could easily have been a comedian.
Yogiisms, pithy comments and witticisms, very often take the form of either an apparently obvious tautology or a paradoxical contradiction. More than as a baseball player, I liked him for his great quotes.
Here are a few:
• As a general comment on baseball: "90 percent of the game is half mental."
• On why he no longer went to Ruggeri's, a St. Louis restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."
• "It ain't over 'til it's over." In July 1973, Berra's Mets trailed the Chicago Cubs by 9½ games in the National League East. The Mets rallied to win the division title on the final day of the season.
• When giving directions to Joe Garagiola to his New Jersey home, which is accessible by two routes: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
• On being the guest of honor at an awards banquet: "Thank you for making this day necessary."
• "It's déjà vu all over again." Berra explained that this quote originated when he witnessed Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris repeatedly hit back-to-back home runs in the Yankees' seasons in the early 1960s.
• "You can observe a lot by watching."
• "Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't go to yours."
Berra quit school after the eighth grade. Simultaneously denying and confirming his reputation, Berra once said "I really didn't say everything I said."
Berra died at age 90 of natural causes in his sleep in West Caldwell, New Jersey, on September 22, 2015 – 69 years to the day after his MLB debut.
In the photo above, Berra on his 40th birthday