February 19, 2021
Compiled by Randall F. More, P. Eng.
YOGI-ISMS
Born
Lawrence Peter Berra, Yogi Berra was a baseball legend. Yogi was born May 12,
1925 and died September 22, 2015.
Although
only 5’-7” in height, he was one of the greatest catchers in MLB history. Berra
was a three-time winner of the American League Most Valuable Player Award, won
10 World Championships as a player, and boasts 18 All-Star wins.
Berra
was born in a family of Italian immigrants. He loved sports ever since he was a
little boy and even though he had to drop out of school at the end of grade
eight to help his family, he still found time to develop his talent as a
baseball player.
The
famous player was first called “Yogi” by a friend who told him that he sat like
an Indian snake charmer after losing a game.
Yogi
Berra was also widely known for his malapropisms with his comments on life and
baseball known as “Yogi-isms.”
Following
are Yogi Berra quotes that should make you laugh. Astonishingly, they all make
perfect sense:
1. “It ain’t over till it’s over.” (In July 1973, Berra’s Mets trailed the
Chicago Cubs by 9-1/2 games in the National League East but rallied to clinch
the division title and eventually reach the World Series.)
2. “It’s deja vu all over again.” (referring to Mickey Mantle and Roger
Maris when repeatedly hitting back-to-back home runs)
3. “I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four.” (pre-game preparation)
4.
"Okay you guys, pair 'em up
in threes." (lining up for a Spring Training drill)
5. “Never answer an anonymous letter.”
6.
"In baseball, you don't know
nothing." (on congratulating Johnny Bench)
7. “We made too many wrong mistakes.”
8. “You can observe a lot by watching.”
9. “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace
else.”
10. “It gets late out here early.” (referring to the dark shade in right
field in Yankee Stadium)
11. “If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to
stop them.”
12. “Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.”
13. “Why buy good luggage, you only use it when you travel.”
14. “No, I don't go to that restaurant anymore. No body goes there. It's too
crowded.” (referring to Rigazzi’s Restaurant in St. Louis)
15. “All pitchers are liars or crybabies.”
16. “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
17. “Bill Dickey is learning me his experience.”
18. “He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.”
19. “Congratulations. I always thought that record would stand until it was
broken.”
20. “I can see how he won twenty-five games. What I don’t understand is how
he lost five.” (referring to Sandy Koufax)
21. “I don’t know (if they were men or women fans running naked across the
field). They had bags over their heads.”
22.
“I’m a lucky guy and I’m happy to be
with the Yankees. I want to thank everyone for making this day necessary.” (on
being honoured on Yogi Berra Day at Sportsman Park in his hometown of St. Louis
during his rookie season)
23. “I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school
like I did.”
24. “I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat and if
it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that
I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?”
25. “It ain’t the heat; it’s the humility.”
26. “I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the
house.”
27. “Little League baseball is a very good thing
because it keeps the parents off the streets.”
28. “I wish everybody had the drive he had. He never did anything wrong on
the field. I’d never seen him dive for a ball, everything was a chest-high
catch, and he never walked off the field.” (referring to Joe DiMaggio)
29. “So I’m ugly. I never saw anyone hit with his face.”
30. “Take it with a grin of salt.”
31. “We were overwhelming underdogs.” (referring to the 1973 Mets)
32. “The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase.”
33. “You should always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise, they won’t
come to yours.”
34. “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” (giving instructions to
Joe Garagiola to his New Jersey home accessible by two routes)
35. “You better cut the pizza in four pieces because
I’m not hungry enough to eat six.”
36. “You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.”
37. “Slump? I ain’t in no slump… I just ain’t hitting.”
38. “How can you think and hit at the same time?”
39. “The future ain’t what it used to be.”
40. “We have deep depth.”
41. “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know
where you are going, because you might not get there.”
42. “Even Napoleon had his Watergate.”
43. “If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going
to answer.”
44. “You don’t have to swing hard to hit a home run. If
you got the timing, it’ll go.”
45. “I’m lucky. Usually, you’re dead to get your own
museum, but I’m still alive to see mine.”
46. “If I didn’t make it in baseball, I won’t have made
it workin’. I didn’t like to work.”
47.
“We have a good time together,
even when we’re not together.”
48. “There
are some people who, if they don’t already know, you can’t tell ’em.”
49. "It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was
talking too much."
50. "The only color I don't have is navy brown."
51. "It's never happened in the World Series competition, and it still
hasn't."
52. "I wish I had an answer to that because I'm tired of answering that
question."
53. "The other teams could make trouble for us if they win."
54. "If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be."
55. "It's pretty far, but it doesn't seem like it."
56. "Half the lies they tell about me aren't true."
57. “A good time to hit is with men on base, because
the pitcher ain't got no place to put you. He's going to get that ball around
there somewhere. He don't want to walk you.”
58. “Little things are big.”
59. “You're always nervous at the beginning, the first
pitch. You get a little tense. When the game starts, then it's all right.”
60. “Those pinstripes, they make you do something.”
61. “My ambition is to hit 400 and talk 1000.”
62.
"Pie a la mode, with ice
cream."
63.
"You tell the stupidest
questions."
64.
"This message won't be over
'til it's done." (recording heard on the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning
Center's phone)
65.
"If you can't imitate him,
don't copy him." (on advising a young player trying to emulate the great
Frank Robinson's swing)
66.
“I looked like this when I was
young, and I still do.”
67.
“Pitching always beats batting –
and vice versa.”
68.
“It’s not too far; it just seems
like it is.”
69.
“If I didn’t wake up, I’d still
be sleeping.”
70.
“It’s nothing but rooms.”
(describing his enormous house in Montclair, N.J.)
71.
“You mean right now?” (when asked
what time it was while flying across different time zones)
72. “It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
73. “We're lost, but we're making good time.” (while travelling with his
wife and three sons)
74. “Yeah, I know it, but we’re making good time.” (upon being asked by Joe
Garagiola if he was lost while taking Joe for a ride in his new car)
75. “Public speaking is one of the best things I hate.”
76. “I love movies when I like them.”
77. “I’d find the guy who lost it, and, if he was poor, I’d give it back.”
(when asked what he would do if he found a million dollars)
78. “Texas has a lot of electrical votes.” (upon meeting George Bush during
an election campaign and being told by Bush that Texas was important)
79. “Thanks, you don’t look so hot yourself.” (on being complimented at a
formal event by Mrs. Lindsay, wife of New York City mayor, that he looked cool)
80.“You have to give 100 percent in the first half of the game. If that
isn't enough, in the second half, you have to give what's left.”
81. “Anyone who is popular is bound to be disliked.”
82. “He buys his roast beef; I buy my bottle of vodka. We get along real
good.” (on shopping with Ron Guidry)
83. “Surprise me.” (when asked by his wife, Carmen, where he would like to
be buried)
84.
“I guess I’ve got a smart
wife.”
85. “No matter where you go, there you are.”
86. “He must have made that before he died.” (referring to watching a Steve
McQueen movie after the actor’s death)
87. “Boy, Whitey, I hope I never see my name up there.” (to Whitey Ford
during opening day scoreboard tribute to recently deceased Yankees)
88.
“Love is the most important thing
in the world, but baseball is pretty good too.”
89. “I never said most of the things I said.
Then again, I might have said ’em, but you never know.”
