Yogi the Great (Yogi Berra)

The rapprochement with the Boss -- 5 Jan 99

The return to Yankee Stadium - 9 Apr 99

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Quotes from one of the great real people 

"It ain't over 'til it's over." 

"Never answer an anonymous letter." 

"It's déja vu all over again."

"When you come to a fork in the road....Take it." 

"I didn't really say everything I said." 

"You can observe a lot by watching"

On his coaching a player: "He can run any time he wants. I'm giving him the red light."

Yogi on what he does before night games: "I usually take a two hour nap, from one o'clock to four."

Yogi to an interviewer: "If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer."

Yogi asked about a streaker, if it was a male or female: "I don't know.They were wearing a paper bag over their head."  

When asked what time it was......" you mean now?"

"At Yogi Berra Day in St Louis 1947 " I want to thank you for making this day necessary" 

"If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be "

On a hot day in Florida, Yogi was dressed snazzily. "Good afternoon, Mr. Berra," a woman said. "My, you look mighty cool today." "Thank you, ma'am," Yogi replied. "You don't look so hot yourself."

Yogi on the 1969 NY Mets....." overwhelming underdogs"

Yogi once showed up for an appointment just fifteen minutes after he was supposed to. "That's the earliest I've ever been late," he said.  

"If the people don't want to come out to the ballpark, nobody's going to stop them " 

On why NY lost the 1960 series to Pittsburgh "We made too many wrong mistakes"  

About baseball, Yogi Berra once said, "Ninety percent of this game is half-mental." Similarly, he once said, "Ninety percent of the putts that fall short don't go in."  

"It gets late early out here" -- referring to the difficult late afternoon sun in Yankee Stadium's leftfield

On a restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

Yogi: "Is he living?" -- Person: "Yes" -- Yogi: "Is he living now?"

"You give a hundred percent in the first half, and if it isn't enough,in the second half you give what's left."

"Mantle's a switch hitter because he's amphibious."

"How can you say this and that when this and that hasn't happened yet?

"If you can't imitate him, don't copy him."

"A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.."

Yogi on why his team will do well: "We have deep depth."

Reporter: "Yogi, have you made up your mind yet?" Yogi:"Not that I know of."

To another team: "You would have won if we hadn't beaten you."

When asked his hat size -- "I don't know, I'm not in shape yet.

"Slump? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hitting."

"If I didn't wake up, I'd still be sleeping."

"How can you think and hit at the same time?"

"I wish I had an answer to that because I'm getting tired of answering that question."

Reporter:"I understand you had an audience with the Pope. "Yogi: "No, but I saw him."

After a performance of Tosca: "It was pretty good. Even the music was nice."

"If there's a 50 percent chance we'll win the pennant, you gotta remember there's also a 75% chance we won't."

"Congratulations on breaking my record. I always thought it would stand until it was broken."

Yogi was given a check "Pay to Bearer." His comment: "That ain't the way to spell my name."

Yogi was asked why he was wearing gloves: "I'm wearing these gloves for my hands."

When someone told Yogi he was foolish for buying a lot of insurance, and asked what good all that money would do him, Yogi replied, "I will get it when I die."

Reporter: "What would you do if you found a million dollars?"Yogi: "If the guy was poor, I would give it back."

When a reporter asked if Yogi had been apprehensive near the end of a particular ball game, Yogi said, "No, but I was scared."

Yogi used to work with the Yoo-Hoo soft drink company. A woman once called and asked if Yoo-Hoo was hyphenated. Yogi said, "No,ma'am, it's not even carbonated."

Yogi to sportswriter: "I went 3 for 4 yesterday, and your paper said I was 2 for 4." Sportswriter: "It was a typographical error. "Yogi: "Error? It was a clean single to right!"

Putting down his comic book to speak with a teammate (probably Dr. Bobby Brown) who was reading Gray's Anatomy: "How did yours come out?"

"You gotta be careful if you don't know where you're going, otherwise you might not get there."

Yogi to his partner as they were winning an important golf match: "Don't count on me. I'm playing way over my mind."

After a poor golf game: "I think they just got through marinating the greens."

"The future ain't what it used to be."

"There's nothing like a home opener, whether it's at home or on the road." [actually that makes perfect sense - as many Yogisms do when you really think about it]

Vice President Bush (on the upcoming election): "Yogi, Texas is very, very important." Yogi: "I know, Texas has a lot of electrical votes."

When his wife told him she had been to see Doctor Zhivago: "Oh, what's the matter with you now?"

After a waitress asked if Yogi wanted his pizza cut into four or eight slices: "Four, I don't think I can eat eight."

Enos Slaughter said that he had been jumping in and out of the bushes so much looking for quail, that he got a cyst on his back. Yogi asked, "What kind of bird is a cyst?"

Yogi's son Larry: "The man is here for the Venetian blinds." Yogi: "Look in my pants pocket and give him five bucks."

Upon being told that Ernest Hemingway was a writer: "Yeah? With what paper?"

For a spring training drill, Yogi instructed his players to "Pair off in threes."

"Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel."

"If you don't go to other people's funerals, they won't come to yours."

When watching a Steve McQueen movie on TV: "He must have made that before he died."

Testifying before a grand jury about a New York Yankees' brawl in a nightclub: "Nobody did nothin' to nobody."

Yogi once tried to calm a writer who was incensed over the price of a diner breakfast he'd just eaten. "That's because they have to import those English muffins," Yogi explained.

After arguing long and loud with an umpire about where a ball had hit and thus whether it was a home run or still in play, Yogi said afterward, "Anybody who can't tell the difference between the sound of a ball hitting wood and a ball hitting concrete must be blind."

After a dinner party at the White House: "It was hard to have a conversation with anyone, there were so many people talking."