Wednesday, April 16, 2008

WASHINGTON TIMES REVIEWS YOGI


Baseball rules
By Larry Thornberry
April 6, 2008
Washington Times
Baseball is back. And not a minute too soon for the millions of fans of the Grand Old Game. Now mornings can begin as they were meant to begin, with coffee, toast (a bagel if you prefer) and box scores in the morning paper.

Triumph Books has brought out two volumes by two veteran sportswriters that make fine companions to the return of the national pastime.

"The Code" is a behind-the-scenes look that will help even veteran baseball viewers better understand the games they're watching, particularly those close pitches, hard slides at second, charging the mound, and catcher/runner collisions at home plate that sometimes lead to bench-clearing brawls. (OK, they're usually more shoving and shouting sessions than real brawls — players today make too much money to suffer a season-ending injury in a brawl — but occasionally someone does get his lights punched out). And "Yogi" is a pleasant trip through the life of one of the game's best players and most recognizable and revered characters, Yogi Berra....

Yogi, on the other hand, is no enigma. He's one of those one-name people who almost everyone, even those who don't follow baseball, recognizes at once. He was born to poor Italian immigrant parents in the "Dago Hill" section of St. Louis (later changed to "The Hill" to satisfy political correctness).

He survived the Great Depression and a loving but no-nonsense father who considered baseball a frivolous pastime to go on to become one of the best catchers and most feared clutch hitters the game has ever seen. He coached and managed (the Yankees and the Mets) into his seventies, and retired finally as one of the most popular men to every wear Yankee pinstripes. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Mr. DeVito doesn't break any new ground in his book, but he covers well, with about the right amount of detail and the right number of anecdotes, the basics of the well-lived life (which thankfully, goes on — at 82, Yogi is still with us) of an iconic American character. He separates Berra the cartoon creation of sports writers from Berra the baseball player, husband, father, savvy businessman, and good friend to many.

Young Americans, even young baseball fans, think of Mr. Berra, who last played in 1963, as a somewhat odd-looking, old pitchman for various products on TV, and the author of various mangled but funny sayings such as, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it," or, "Baseball is 90 percent mental, and the other half is physical." But baseball fans over 60 remember Yogi as an outstanding catcher and about the last man opposing pitchers wanted to see at the plate when the game was on the line.

Most of Yogi's 358 life-time homers seemed to come when it really mattered. His malapropisms were more than offset by his clutch hits, his deft calling of games, his toughness on plays at the plate, and his crackling, on-the mark throws to nab larcenous base runners. Laugh all you want at the Yogisms; this guy was a ball player.

Yogi's story is also baseball's and America's story, from the Depression years when young "Lawdie" Berra was playing sandlot ball with his pal-for-life, Joe Garagiola, to the post-everything years of drugs and steroids and preposterous player salaries. Yogi's career crosses paths with the game's greats. He was teammates with such as Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto, Whitey Ford, and Mickey Mantle. His personal coach who helped him hone his catching skills was Hall of Fame Yankee catcher Bill Dickey, teammate of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. In 1985, his final year managing the Yankees, Yogi's team included Don Mattingly, Dave Winfield, Lou Piniella, and Ken Griffey Sr.

That's a lot of baseball, American and Berra history. Mr. DeVito captures much of this. And Yogi Berra, to paraphrase one of Yogi's famous fractured sayings, was the guy who made it all necessary.

Larry Thornberry is a writer living in Tampa.