Happy Birthday!
« The Curse of The Birdwatch | Main | Rolen »My fellow St. Louis native Lawrence Peter Berra turns 80 today.
Name doesn't ring a bell? You know him better as "Yogi".
Cardinals fans like to give well deserved crap to Cubs fans for the famous trade that sent Ernie Broglio, Bobby Shantz, and Doug Clemens to the Cubs in return for one Lou Brock (actually, the Cards also got Jack Spring and Paul Toth in that trade as well, but whenever you say "Jack Spring" or "Paul Toth" to any but the most obsessed of baseball fans, the most likely response is "who?"). However back in 1943 the Cardinals made offers to two amateur catchers, both of whom were native St. Louisans from the Italian enclave known and loved in St. Louis as "The Hill". The Cards offered one a signing bonus, while they offered the other one a straight contract with no signing bonus. The one who got the bonus was Joe Garagiola. Yogi, who was the one who didn't get a signing bonus, was so miffed by the Cardinals' snub that he signed with the New York Yankees. Now, one of those catchers is in the Hall of Fame, and the other one isn't. Hint: the Hall of Famer isn't Joe.
It's not one of the high points in the history of Cardinals player development.
Yogi is, of course, also known for his wonderful facility with the English language, which has resulted in some of the most memorable quotes known to baseball, or to collectors of quotations. The only trouble for the collector of "Yogiisms", as they are known, is that, as observed by The Master Himself:
I never said most of the things I said.Basically, Yogi's way of expressing himself, while characteristic and amusing, was also very easily imitated, and it's an open secret that many sportswriters weren't beyond making up a few Yogiisms when they wanted to spice up their stories. So you have to take any listing of Yogi Berra quotes with a pretty large grain of salt; it's never clear which ones are legitimate Yogiisms and which are fabricated.
A few of my favorite Yogiisms (and I'm not necessarily vouching for their authenticity, but all of these have been credited to Yogi at some time):
A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.And, of course, I can't forget the one that I'm sure was manufactured specifically for the ad that runs when AFLAC sponsors a MLB game:Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.
Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.
I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.
Half the lies they tell about me aren't true.
He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious.
I just want to thank everyone who made this day necessary. [At "Yogi Berra Appreciation Day" at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, 1947]
I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.
If people don't want to come out to the ball park, nobody's gonna stop 'em. [In a somewhat similar vein, Yogi once gave a capsule review of a New York restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded."]
We have deep depth.
You wouldn't have won if we'd beaten you.
And they pay you cash, which is just as good as money.I think it says something about the regard that baseball fans have for Yogi, that this commercial is still running in its the third straight baseball season. Posted by Len at May 12, 2005 12:25 PM
Does anyone know why there was a "Yogi Berra Appreciation Day" in St. Louis in 1947? I know he's now one of the city's revered natives, but back in 1947 he was a 22-year-old rookie with the Yankees, so I wonder what he had done by then to earn an appreciation day.
Posted by: Jeff at May 12, 2005 01:13 PMI'd posit a guess. Yogi signed with the Yankees in 1942. He then went into the Navy for a stint and then played in the minor leagues with the Newark Bears. Although he played 6 or 7 games in 1946, 1947 was when he played more than 1/2 of the season. I imagine St. Louisans were just honoring a hometown boy back from the War and playing in the Bigs. Plus, the Browns had to be the team honoring him, not the Cards, so maybe the crosstown rivals, who were a pathetic 59-95 in 1947, we taking a bit of a jab at the Birds.
My favorite Yogi quote is, "When you get to a fork in the road, take it."
Posted by: Sean at May 12, 2005 01:55 PMFWIW, just about every result returned when you Google "yogi berra appreciation day" says it was STL in 1947. This bears closer examination, but Sean's guess sounds extremely plausible.
Posted by: Len Cleavelin at May 12, 2005 03:14 PMNice article Len. I knew Yogi was from The Hill, and I thought I had heard he tried out for the Cards at one point, but I don't think I knew that part of the story about him turning down the contract due to the fact that it didn't include a signing bonus.
Anyway, ESPN's also got a little nod to Yogi, with some of his famous quotes updated for modern day players: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=gallo/050512&num=0
Posted by: John at May 12, 2005 03:31 PMNot to pick nits---well, okay, I'm picking nits: Garagiola is also a Hall of Famer, having been inducted in 1991 as a broadcaster.
Posted by: salvo at May 12, 2005 03:49 PMJohn: The stories I read about Yogi not signing with the Cards attribute it to 1) not getting a signing bonus at all, or 2) not getting as big a bonus as Garagiola was offered. I go with 1) because that's the story I originally heard, and I don't have any good reason other than that to choose one version over the other.
Salvo: I'm one of those stubborn old timers who does not consider receipt of the Frick or Spink award to be "induction" into the "broadcasters'/writers' wing of the Hall of Fame". I thought I remembered the HoF as actually drawing that distinction in their FAQ, but I see now that the Hall is referring to recipients of the Frick and Spink awards as "honorees", which suggests to me that they want people to think of receiving one of those awards as being not that far removed from induction into the Hall:
http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/faq.htm#difference
So technically Garagiola is an "honoree" vice a Hall of Famer. That's probably a very minimal distinction in most fans' minds, so I'm not going to slam anyone for thinking Garagiola is "a Hall of Famer", as long as they add the qualifier "as a broadcaster".
Posted by: Len Cleavelin at May 12, 2005 06:30 PMI think I'd rather have on my team the HoFer who reached as a player rather than the HoFer who's in as a broadcaster.
Posted by: salvo at May 13, 2005 06:25 AM