Yogi Berra, It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over
We don’t do very many sports stories on The Sarasasota Post, but I thought it would be fitting to write a bit about Yogi Berra who passed away yesterday at the age of 90.
I grew up watching the Yankees, but once the NY Mets came into town it became all about the Mets. But, there were two players in the Bronx who I loved to watch- Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra. Yogi was the real deal….he loved the game and loved the fans. He always had a smile on his face an played the game hard, everyday. He learned to play baseball in St. Louis in the ethnic neighborhood called “The Hill”.
There will be much written about Yogi Berra over the next several days. I choose to remember his hustle and hard work every day. But, there is something else that Yogi will be rememeber for- his famous sayings, his “Yogi-isms. They still live on today”………
“Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too croweded.”
“I am not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia…I am going to make them walk to school.”
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
“It’s, deja vu all over again.”
“Ninety percent of the game is half mental.”
“You can observe a lot by watching.”
And, his most famous line of all- “It ain’t over til it’s over”, which he said when he managed the NY Mets in 1973 and is actually a misquote.
We’re going to miss you, Yogi, You played baseball when there were no big contracts, you played everyday, there were no agents….and most of all you played hard and smiled!
photo from Wikipedia, 1953