Althouse: "It ain’t over till it’s over."

September 23, 2015

"It ain’t over till it’s over."

And it's over, after 90 years, for Yogi Berra.

ADDED: "You should always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise, they won’t come to yours."

28 comments:

Humperdink said...: Talk about a full life. Yogi lived it.

Yogi is in that famous photo, watching Bill Mazeroski's 7th game, world series home run, go over the left field wall in 1960.

Sad for the loss of his son Dale (former Pittsburgh Pirate) due to addiction.; 9/23/15, 6:39 AM
Michael K said...: Yogi was a genuine character and a great baseball player.; 9/23/15, 7:00 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: Sad news, but what a great life. My Dad (a Brooklyn Dodger fan) used to tell me baseball stories about Yogi and his counterpart, Roy Campanella from the 1950s. What a great era for baseball. Godspeed, Yogi.; 9/23/15, 7:28 AM
Roger Sweeny said...: I suppose a million people thought of that. But I didn't. So kudos to you.; 9/23/15, 7:46 AM
Curious George said...: "Humperdink said...

Sad for the loss of his son Dale (former Pittsburgh Pirate) due to addiction."

He's not dead.; 9/23/15, 7:53 AM
Tank said...: One Jim Bouton story about Berra:

Bouton was sitting on the bus leaving Yankee Stadium during the 1962 World Series when the pitcher realized he needed one more World Series ticket. The traveling secretary went into the bowels of Yankee Stadium to try and score one while Bouton waited nervously.

“I’m sitting next to Yogi and Bruce [Henry] returns to the bus and he has this manila envelope and a smile on his face, so I know I’ve got a World Series ticket in the envelope. So Bruce says, ‘You’re lucky this is the last one we’ve got,’ and Yogi sitting next to me says, ‘Are we all out of them yellow envelopes?’ We were laughing so hard we couldn’t speak.”

There was also a famous story about cold cuts, but this is a family Blog.; 9/23/15, 8:06 AM
DrMaturin said...: I had the same reaction hearing this as I did when Leonard Nimoy died. "This is a man who was universally beloved. How many people can you say that about?"; 9/23/15, 8:19 AM
Brando said...: What a great athlete and great guy. You don't get a lot of sports celebrities like that. Hopefully people remember his saying, you should go to other people's funerals so that they'll come to yours.; 9/23/15, 8:20 AM
lgv said...: "No one goes there any more because it's too crowded."; 9/23/15, 8:26 AM
Kansas City said...: I went to my first ballgame on Saturday, June 22, 1957, with my Dad, at age 6. I remember seeing Yogi hit a "walk off" [the term was not used back then] home run in the bottom of the 13th inning The Yankees won 6 to 5. It was their 9th win in a row and they moved into first place (where they stayed for the rest of year - except for two days the next week).

It was a great moment for my Dad and me. My Dad was so happy with the result and with bringing his son to is first game that day. 41 years later I brought my own son (age 10) to NYC and, while we did not go to the game, we watched David Cone pitch his perfect game on Yogi Berra Day sitting in Mickey Mantle's restaurant. Always regretted that I failed to go to the game, but still grateful for all the Yankee memories.

Thank you, Yogi, and Dad. May you both Rest in Peace.; 9/23/15, 8:33 AM
Ron said...: Someone came up to ask him the time and he said 'You mean now?'; 9/23/15, 8:37 AM
DrMaturin said...: @Kansas City

My first game, also taken by my Dad, was to watch the Yankees at home play the Kansas City Athletics in 1962. The Yankees won 9-8 and Yogi Berra homered. What a wonderful memory.; 9/23/15, 8:39 AM
MadisonMan said...: I appreciate people who come up with great witticisms. Who does that these days? Who is today's Dorothy Parker or Yogi Berra?; 9/23/15, 8:47 AM
Kansas City said...: Dr. Maturin:

So nice to hear a similar memory. You probably know this, but you can find all the details of your game pretty easily at baseball-reference.com

It helps make the memory even fonder.; 9/23/15, 8:48 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: Just as movie producer Sam Goldwyn was credited with a lot of "Goldwyn-isms" that he may or may not have actually said (e.g., "A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on"), I wonder how many "Berra-isms" were actually said by Yogi Berra.

That said, RIP, Mr. Berra.; 9/23/15, 8:49 AM
SeanF said...: Curious George: "Humperdink said...

Sad for the loss of his son Dale (former Pittsburgh Pirate) due to addiction."

He's not dead.

If Dale were here in person, Humperdink would say, "I'm sorry for your loss." Dale's not here, so Humperdink says, "I'm sorry for Dale's loss." Dale was not himself lost, he suffered the loss.

MisterBuddwing: Just as movie producer Sam Goldwyn was credited with a lot of "Goldwyn-isms" that he may or may not have actually said (e.g., "A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on"), I wonder how many "Berra-isms" were actually said by Yogi Berra.

"I didn't say half the things I said." - Yogi Berra; 9/23/15, 9:10 AM
Curious George said...: SeanF said...
Curious George: "Humperdink said...

Sad for the loss of his son Dale (former Pittsburgh Pirate) due to addiction."

He's not dead.

If Dale were here in person, Humperdink would say, "I'm sorry for your loss." Dale's not here, so Humperdink says, "I'm sorry for Dale's loss." Dale was not himself lost, he suffered the loss.

Sorry dude. That's not what he was trying to convey. "...due to addiction."; 9/23/15, 9:26 AM
Jason said...: D-Day veteran, too. Crewed a 36-foot landing craft/rocket boat taking men to Normandy Beach, and running messages between Utah Beach and Normandy Beach.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/5210564/ns/msnbc-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/t/yogi-berra-was-d-day/#.VgK6IbTGKSI

RIP to a great player, a great guy and a great American.; 9/23/15, 9:43 AM
mccullough said...: 10 World Series championships. Buster Posey is the player most like Yogi Berra in terms of catching and hitting. He has three World Series Championships and 1 MVP. If he kept up his hitting and catching numbers for another 10 years, he would have Yogi's career.; 9/23/15, 10:08 AM
Humperdink said...: My apologies. My memory, poor as it is, thought Dale had passed on. My error.

I have earned my ridicule.; 9/23/15, 10:16 AM
Kansas City said...: Funny what you remember. But I also remember Yogi coming back for a few days as a player for the Mets in 1965. He actually caught two full games at age 40 after being retired since 1963.

I remember seeing him on television getting a couple hits in the first game he caught and, as a 14 year old, thinking he could still pay. The second game he caught, Tony Cloninger struck him out 3 times and, I guess, reality set in. He was 2 for 9 in his brief comeback.

On Yogi's final day, a 24 year old Joe Torre hit a couple home runs for the Braves that day. Hank Aaron also played for the Braves that day. Funny how, at least to a baseball fan, the story of baseball is so interwoven in many interesting ways.; 9/23/15, 10:36 AM
William said...: Yogi was about as great as you can get and still retain your humanity. I don't think there wll be a single unkind word said about him anywhere. Yogi looked a little like get current Pope. The Pope can only hope to inspire such veneration.; 9/23/15, 10:38 AM
DrMaturin said...: Kansas City,

Speaking of Yogi as a Met, I used to often go to Shea Stadium when he was first base coach. My best friend's father had box seats on the first base line. Yogi would always snag foul grounders bare-handed, to the delight of the crowd. I never saw him miss or even bobble.; 9/23/15, 10:59 AM
Mark said...: "When you get to a fork in the road, take it."

America's Zen Master.; 9/23/15, 11:24 AM
Wilbur said...: Yogi had the greatest career of any MLB catcher. Others had greater individual seasons, but he was in the lineup nearly every day for 10 years. His team won 9 pennants and 7 World Series over those 10 years.

The greatest ability is availability.

Yogi got his reputation as a coiner of funny sayings mostly through the career-building efforts of his boyhood pal, Joe Garagiola, using him as a fictional mouthpiece for funny, off-beat remarks. Nothing particularly wrong with that, and Yogi went along with it when he realized it meant more notoriety (money) for him, too.; 9/23/15, 12:02 PM
WillowViney said...: "If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be."; 9/23/15, 2:00 PM
Leigh said...: "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I wouldn't have gotten so old."

It's hard to come up with quips like these. Try it.; 9/23/15, 2:29 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Yogi retired before I was born, but, I did get to see a game in 1983 at Yankee Stadium, when he managed the Bronx Bombers. There was some disputed call at 2nd Base, and Yogi came barreling out of the dugout, onto the field (just like Billy Martin) to lambast the umpires, and we all started chanting, "Yogi! Yogi! Yogi!"

Of course, he got ejected, but we all loved it. My uncle caught a foul ball too.; 9/23/15, 4:05 PM