Title: 100 Years of 100 Things: Yogi Berra

[MUSIC]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. For our last 15 minutes today, thing number 93 in our 100 Years of 100 Things series. Yes, 100 years of Yogi Berra, the New York baseball great, also known for his accidentally amusing use of the English language. Lawrence Peter Berra, aka Yogi, was born 100 years ago today, May 12th, 1925.

The Baseball Hall of Fame website says he got the nickname "Yogi" as a teenager when a friend thought he looked like an Indian yogi they had just seen in a movie. Yogi's parents were immigrants from Italy. They raised him in the 1920s and '30s and early '40s in St. Louis. In the '40s, Yogi joined the Navy and fought for the US in World War II, including on D-Day at Omaha Beach, before becoming a Major League Baseball player.

Yogi came to our studio in one of his later years and one of this show's earlier years. He took calls from listeners like Don in Cranford, New Jersey.

Don: What would you say to any of the parents who are listening about the importance of remembering that sports is supposed to be fun for kids?

Yogi Berra: It is. It's fun. I enjoy playing, I think so. Somebody's got to win, somebody's got to lose, and you can't cry if you lose. That's the way I figure. There's more part. You say next time we're going to beat you, and it is. You can't instill in the kids, 'Come on, you got to win every day. You'd like to win, but you can't.'

Brian Lehrer: Well, I think I know where Don is going with this. What do you think of Little League today? Is it too competitive?

Yogi Berra: To me, it is. I never did like Little League baseball, I don't know, because it is too competitive. At 12 years old, you've got some good kids out there, that's true, but a lot of them might not want to play Little League. They're forced to play it.

Brian Lehrer: Yogi Berra wasn't a fan of Little League. Yogi here in 1999. We'll hear a few more excerpts from that appearance. We're going to do this a little differently for most of our 100-Year segments because I have this Yogi tape and some other past guests talking about him to excerpt from, so we don't have a live guest for this. We're going to do it with our archive tape, and if we have time, because there are some interesting tape to get through with you on the phones, if we happen to have anyone who wants to contribute.

You're invited right now to call in and say anything that made you a fan of Yogi Berra. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Call or text if you're old enough to have seen him play for the Yankees. What made him great to watch as a ballplayer in his great years? There are so many stats that show what a great player he was. Here are just two that jump out at me from his official bio.

He led the Yankees in runs batted in seven years in a row, meaning he even got more RBIs than the likes of Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, who were on those teams. As a fielder in the tough position of catcher, he once went 148 games without making an error. When he was on the show, Yogi said he had fun in a way fans couldn't even see.

Yogi Berra: Play hard and work at it. It really is. It don't matter who wins – you're not playing for your life out there. You have fun, that's the thing. I had a lot of fun, I really did. I enjoyed playing, I got to meet a lot of people in that game, in baseball. Especially if you’re a catcher, boy, you can talk to all the hitters. That’s what's a lot of fun.

[laughter]

Brian Lehrer: Anyone listening who's a baseball coach, want to say if you can take anything from Yogi's style of hitting? Do you teach anything about Yogi's approach? When he was on the show, he made it sound like it wasn't technique so much as just good instincts. Answering a question from our caller, John, in Glenrock.

John: How did you become such a good-- what they call bad-ball hitter?

Yogi Berra: I just saw the ball good and I swung it and hit it. That's the only thing. It looked good to me.

Brian Lehrer: That's it. It looked good to you. Ball out of the strike zone-

Yogi Berra: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: -high over your head.

Yogi Berra: It looked good.

Brian Lehrer: Call in if you were a fan of Yogi on the field. Then there were also his Yogi-isms, things that he said that he didn't even know he said. Malapropisms and things like that, that have gotten him quoted to this day by so many people with smiles on their faces. I went through a few of those with Yogi on the show.

Funny thing is, before people started hearing your words as gems, they used to make fun of how you spoke. Wasn't that a problem when you first joined the Yankees?

Yogi Berra: Well, all these things I said, though, I don't even know I say them. That's the funny part about it. I didn't try to speak that way. That's the way it came out. First time I fouled up was my day in St. Louis. I asked Bobby Brown, our third baseman, to write a speech for me. He said, "All you have to say is one line to thank everybody here for making this night necessary." Not necessary, make a nice day-

Brian Lehrer: Possible.

Yogi Berra: -possible. I got up there and I said, "I want to thank everybody for making this night necessary." I didn't even know I said it, to tell you the truth, until I got back to Bobby. He said, "You know what you said?"

Brian Lehrer: You got a big laugh, huh?

Yogi Berra: Yes, I got a laugh. They said, "Learn how to talk a little bit." [chuckles]

Brian Lehrer: All those other one, "When you come to a fork in the road--"

Yogi Berra: Fork in the road, take it.

Brian Lehrer: "90% of baseball is-

Yogi Berra: Half mental.

Brian Lehrer: -half mental." Did I get that right?

Yogi Berra: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Now, did you really say, "No one goes there anymore-

Yogi Berra: Anymore. It's too crowded.

Brian Lehrer: -it's too crowded"?

Yogi Berra: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: I love that one. Comedian Billy Crystal says that you, at some point, became something other than a ball player. You became this wonderful piece of American folk art.

Yogi Berra: Well, then I don't know [chuckles] why he said that.

Brian Lehrer: Does it feel weird, Yogi, to have people say things like that about you?

Yogi Berra: Oh yes, I get a lot of things like that. I could be walking down the street, a lot of guys look at me and say, "Gee, you look like Yogi Berra." I say, "A lot of people tell me that."

[laughter]

Brian Lehrer: In a whole other aspect of his life, maybe some of you even knew Yogi personally because after his playing days, he lived for a long time. Lived out his days in Montclair and gave back to the community a lot. There's a Yogi Berra Museum in Montclair that isn't just baseball memorabilia. He called it the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center. The reason he came on the show that time was to represent the Montclair Public Library, promoting a literacy event for kids that they were going to hold. That prompted this exchange when I took another call.

Melanie in Brooklyn, you're on the line.

Melanie: What is it that you think, Mr. Berra, that makes you do the kind of work you're doing now as an older person with a lot of time on your hands?

Yogi Berra: I don't have that much time on my hand now. [laughs]

Melanie: What?

Brian Lehrer: He's got a museum to run.

Melanie: Well, but that's what I mean. That's what I mean.

Yogi Berra: Oh, I think it's a lot of fun. Ballplayers do a lot of things. They think they don't do a lot of things, but they do. They do a lot of things for charity. We didn't have to retire to do all this stuff, we did it even when we were playing. We went to hospitals, we went all over. We went to Japan. We visit the hospitals there in Okinawa. I've been to Guam. I've been to-- We do a lot of things. You'd be surprised.

Brian Lehrer: Point of Yogi Berra, the humanitarian. When Yogi died in 2015, lived to 90 years old, the Yankees radio broadcaster, Suzyn Waldman, came on with me here to remember him. She talked about the effort to get Yogi the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Suzyn Waldman: His granddaughter, Lindsay, had tried to get it. They did get the amount of signatures, and it was sent to the president, and I guess nothing ever happened. It's too bad because nobody has done more for--If you don't know about Yogi Berra's life, it's not just the quips and it's not just the ball player. He was a war hero. He was at Normandy. He was very active in civil rights, and he was very active in teaching children to read. The Learning Center at the Yogi Berra Museum in Montclair is a testament to that. He loved nothing more than reading to classes of kids. He loved the kids.

He's done everything in this world that was right, and he is just such a-- He is such a beacon, was such a beacon, of what America is about. Where he came from and how he brought himself up, and what he did with his life. It wasn't just a ball player. Somebody said to me yesterday, "He's a Hall of Famer, yes, but he's a better person." I'm sorry this didn't happen, I really am, because I can't think of anybody who was more deserving.

Brian Lehrer: The great Yankees radio announcer Suzyn Waldman here in 2015, upon the death of Yogi Berra. It's 100 Years of 100 Things, number 93: 100 Years of Yogi Berra, born 100 years ago today, May 12th, 1925.

Let's get a few phone calls in here. I guess we're going to connect Yogi Berra's 100th birthday with yesterday, which was Mother's Day. Joan in Washington Heights, you're on WNYC. Hi, Joan. Joan, you're on. Joan, don't lose your shot. Okay, we're going to come back to Joan. Andy in Yonkers, you're on WNYC. Hi, Andy.

Andy: Yes. Hi, Brian. Words about Yogi, one of the great clutch hitters of all time. I was fortunate to interview him about three times. Game 7, 1956 World Series, for all the marbles. He hits two home runs early, and that really set the tone. I asked him about that game, and he always said Johnny Kucks pitched a great game that day. Which he did, but as you know as a baseball fan, it's a lot easier when you're ahead four-nothing, five-nothing. Berra was the star. He was modest and one of the great clutch hitters of all time.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. One of the other clips from our interview, I didn't pull it for this, but Don Larson, who pitched the World Series perfect game to Yogi Berra as the catcher, gave Yogi a lot of credit. When I asked Yogi about that, he just said, "Oh, Larson had great stuff that day," so backing up your story.

Joan there? Try Joan again.

Joan: Yes, I am.

Brian Lehrer: Hi, Joan.

Joan: Hi. Yes, my mother taught me baseball. It was in the '50s on the radio, and she adored Yogi. She said, "Watch his hands. That's what a good catcher does. Watch his hands." It was beautiful. Then she took me to games. That was the best.

Brian Lehrer: Joan, thank you very much. Used Yogi to teach her daughter about baseball. John in Rye, you're on WNYC. Hi, John.

John: Hi. First time, long time, but I lived in Montclair for 30 years and ran into Mr. Berra a number of times. I went to a costume party where everyone had to wear a mask. I happened to be standing next to him when he walked in the door wearing a business suit, carrying a paper bag that had a catcher's mask in it. Then he put it on and he said to his wife, "You think anyone will know it's me?" That was my Yogi Berra story.

Brian Lehrer: There's a Yogi-ism that didn't make it into the public discourse. Really, you're telling me he came to a costume party disguised as himself?

John: Correct. The mask was the key to the party.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Jim in Spring Lake, you're on WNYC. Hi, Jim.

Jim: Hi, Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. What you got? Real quick.

Jim: Yes. As a teenager, one of my best friends, still one of my best friends, one of the sons of Gil McDougald, who was the second baseman when Yogi was playing for the Yankees. There were times you'd walk in the back door at the McDougald's house, and there's Yogi sitting at the kitchen table there. I was always struck just by how gracious he was to us as teenagers, with a handshake and a smile, and "How're you guys doing?" Just absolute gentleman for somebody that accomplished so much that he did as an athlete and humanitarian and human being, really, really made an impact on me.

Brian Lehrer: Jim, thank you very much for that. More to that point, text from a listener says, "My husband's family lived on the same street as Yogi Berra in Montclair. Every Thanksgiving, Yogi would rent a horse and carriage, which would give rides to all of the kids on the street."

Even more to that point, we're going to end this segment with sportscaster Bob Costas, who was just on the show last week. When I asked him if he knew Yogi Berra, he told us about something that he, Bob Costas, is going to do today on Yogi's 100th birthday. Listen to the context that he puts this in.

Bob Costas: In fact, I will be the host of a ceremony at the Yogi Berra Museum on Monday marking his 100th birthday in Montclair, New Jersey. I knew Yogi well. He was so kind to me because he was so kind to everyone. He's one of the greatest catchers in baseball history, three-time MVP, and because he played with those great Yankee teams from the late '40s into the '60s, and then later was a coach or manager with the Yankees and then the Mets, I think he has more World Series rings than anybody in the history of the game.

Of course, he's a beloved figure because of his kindness and because of those Yogi-isms. There are too many of them to list, but at least four or five of them are in Bartlett's book of famous quotations. Alongside Churchill and Plato, here's Yogi Berra. My favorite one-- there are so many, but my favorite was always this: "Always go to your friends' funerals, otherwise they won't go to yours." Who can dispute the logic of that?

Brian Lehrer: Bob Costas, here last week. That's 100 Years of 100 Things, thing 93: 100 Years of Yogi Berra, born 100 years ago today.

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