RIP - YOGI BERRA

[Gray Mule]

He was one of the great ones.  He played back when the hated Yankees

were winning almost all the time, gaining the World Series and winning

 that also.

 

He will always be remembered for his great play and for his famous Yogi isms.

 

Example:  He once ordered a pizza.  "Do you wish it to be cut into four slices

or six?"  Yogi replied, "Just cut it into four.  I can't eat six slices."

[macdaddy]

Great guy!

 

"I didn't really say everything I said" - Yogi

[macdaddy]

Saw this in ajc. 

 

 

Yogi Berra, the New York Yankee mainstay for 10 championships, died Tuesday at the age of 90.

Berra, a catcher, was a master tactician who threw dirt on batters' shoes and needled players with his witt from behind the plate. He appeared in 21 World Series, and still holds the record for games played.

Two of those Series -- in 1957 and 58 -- came against the Milawukee Braves and slugger Hank Aaron. In '57, the Braves beat the Yankees for the world championship in a seven-game duel that would mark the first of four post-season meetings (1957, '58, '96 and '99) between the clubs. In Allen Barra's 2009 book, "Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee," he tells the story of an on-plate encounter between Berra and Aaron during that '57 series that would become part of baseball lore:

Mike Groll / AP

Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, of the Braves, and Yogi Berra, of the Yankees, would continue to meet beyond their playing days. 

"In the 1957 Series, despite the hostility between the Yankees and Braves, Yogi went out of his way to learn his experience to the twenty-three-year-old Henry Aaron, who, after all, had hit only .322 that season.

"Hank," Yogi reminded the NL's batting champ of 1956 in a tone of avuncular concern, "you need to hold the bat so you can read the label. You're gonna break that bat. You've to to be able to read the label."

"Didn't come up here to read," Aaron calmly replied.

Photos: Remembering Yogi Berra, 1925-2015

 

Berra would often tell the story following the loss.

Barra writes that while many thought it was another of Yogi's needling tactics to get into batters' head, Aaron thought it more as light conversation.

"I didn't take it that way," Aaron said in a 1992 interview. "I always enjoyed coming to bat when Yogi was catching. He helped me relax, and I hit better. I had no problem talking to him. I just wasn't very interested in talking about the label on my bat. I just wished he had talked to me about movies, or fishing, or something else."

The Yankees defeated the Braves in another seven-game Series in 1958.

[Guest]

RIP. Does anyone know if Yogi Bear was named after Yogi Berra by any chance? I love the pizza line GM! Gonna use it on my gf this weekend when I order a pie. Cut that puppy in 4 :-) I can't eat 6.

[Gray Mule]

Yogi was correct about the bat.  I know.  I'm from that time.  I don't know about

how it's done these days but, back then, all of us country kids, who grew up poor,

knew that the grain of the wood in every bat determined how it was to be used

and the trademark was always aligned with the wood's grain.

 

The easiest way to break a bat was to not turn the trademark up but sideways,

going against the grain of the wood.  Bats were expensive and if you deliberately

turned the bat wrong and broke it, you were responsible for replacing it.

[Guest]

Yogi was correct about the bat. I know. I'm from that time. I don't know about

how it's done these days but, back then, all of us country kids, who grew up poor,

knew that the grain of the wood in every bat determined how it was to be used

and the trademark was always aligned with the wood's grain.

The easiest way to break a bat was to not turn the trademark up but sideways,

going against the grain of the wood. Bats were expensive and if you deliberately

turned the bat wrong and broke it, you were responsible for replacing it.

Your wisdom is much appreciated. Being a historian in, well almost everything, I love the info :-)