RIP Yogi Berra, 90

You just knew some dummy would let this happen:


Still not fixed as of this morning: New York Yankees Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Bear has died. He was 90..

 

He didn't say half the things he said.

RIP.

 

Joe Garagiola must be devastated.

 

What a Boo Boo

 

You take his entire baseball career, as player and manager, and the fact that he was a folk hero for over half a century, and you think that's an awfully full life . . . and then you remember that he was also part of the D-Day invasion and earned a Purple Heart.

 

Awesome.

 

I always loved that his return to Yankee Stadium and thawed relations with Steinbrenner included him catching the first pitch from Don Larson, just before David Cone threw the second perfect game in Yankees history. RIP.

 

Jeter on Yogi's passing (via The Player's Tribune):
To those who didn’t know Yogi personally, he was one of the greatest baseball players and Yankees of all time. To those lucky ones who did, he was an even better person. To me he was a dear friend and mentor. He will always be remembered for his success on the field, but I believe his finest quality was how he treated everyone with sincerity and kindness. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

 

The ESPN.com obit had a Yogi-ism that I hadn't heard before, but it's still priceless. When his wife asked him if he wanted to be buried near their current home in New Jersey, somewhere in New York or in his hometown of St. Louis, he said, "surprise me."

 

My favorite Yogi-isms I first heard in the Ken Burns "Baseball" documentary.

One was when he showed up at some function in a new suit and chatted with the New York mayor and his wife:

Mayor's wife: "You look very cool in that suit, Yogi."

Yogi: "Thanks. You don't look so hot yourself."

The other came from when he was a kid in school (though it might have been a Joe Garagiola concoction):

Teacher: "Don't you know anything?"

Yogi: "I don't even suspect anything."

 

Yeah, that second one sounds fake.

 

George Will ended his column on him with a quote I'd never heard: On being told that Catholic Dublin had elected a Jewish mayor, Berra is supposed to have said "Only in America ..."