Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee

"Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee" is an excellent biography of perhaps the greatest catcher in baseball history. It is well written and makes the point of Yogi's greatness and, yes, intelligence. Yogi Berra was born in "The Hill", the Italian neighborhood in St. Louis. Amazingly this tightly knit neighborhood of small yards spawned, at the same time, Yogi and his friend Joe Garagiola. Their fathers had come from the same town in Italy. For a St. Louisan, the early parts of the story are filled with familiar venues and personalities. Yogi worked at Ruggeri's and Biggie's, how many times was I there? The colorful phrases associated with Yogi started with others. When he first became famous a proud Hill matron told him "You the firsta boy what comes from the Hill with a name witha ends a, e, I, o getta name in the paper and no killa somebody." He went to Saint Louis University basketball games, as I did last week, and went to many other places with which we are all familiar. The interesting thing about Yogi's early career is that he was not signed by either the Cardinals or the Browns. The probable reason is that Joe Garagiola was a better catcher at that time. Yogi signed with the Yankee organization and worked his way up to New York. On the way up he spent time in the Navy and was aboard ship off shore on D-Day. Yogi's era with the Yankees lasted from 1946-64. Starting in the DiMaggio era, Yogi was the mainstay who bridged the gap into the Mantle era. Although a "Berra Era" is not often thought of, that is what the 1950s were. The 50s were an era of Yankee dominance, largely because of Yogi. Although the Yankees dominated in the end, this book shows how each season was a struggle in which Yogi's contribution was crucial. Author Allen Barra takes the reader through the highlights of season after season. He makes several good points. Besides going through Yogi's offensive milestones, Barra explains Berra's valuable contribution by handling pitchers so as to maximize their effectiveness. We often focus on the pitchers, but overlook the catchers who made them great. Yogi's unofficial role as Casey's "assistant manager" contributed to keeping the team working together to achieve the results which all remember. Eventually Yogi had to quit as a player but, with his extensive knowledge of baseball, went on to a career as a coach and manager. His first manager's job was the Yankees in 1964, after which he was fired for losing the World Series to his home town Cardinals. He then went over to the Mets where he served as coach and manager. It was there that the famous Yogism, "It ain't over till its over" was born. Eventually he came back to the Yankees where he tangled with George Steinbrenner and, like most who tangle with George, lost. It left Yogi with a bitter taste in his mouth, but they eventually they made up. Barra does a good job of using Yogisms to tell his story. Many times he mentions that someone "taught him all

This is an EXHAUSTIVE tome on the man who has won more World Series Rings than any other player ever. The book goes in great detail about Yogi's early life in the neighborhood of St. Louis, and chronicle's the evolution of his deep love of Baseball, and sense of family. The book details many of the interactions between the players, and also peppers the text with Yogi's wit and wisdom. This would be a wonderful gift for fathers day, or for any lover of baseball.

This book will introduce those who never saw Yogi play (or manage) and gives a wonderful retrospective on his career, his colorful character and, more, the basic integrity and honesty of a kid from St. Louis who went on to become one of the truly great all-time stars of baseball. Yogi's colorful presence is balanced with a well-written, thorough story of his life and career in baseball and beyond. The book is studded with photographs, many never seen before by this long-time Yankees fan, and this book is highly recommended. There is definitely a nostalgic flair about the book as well. Back in the day, when sports heroes WERE sports heroes and people you could look up to, Berra's story is much like the all-American dream for a kid growing up playing baseball and reaching for the stars. Who knew that he would shine as brightly as any star ever did on the diamond? I was a bit afraid I'd be disappointed in a bio done today about a highly regarded ballplayer; not to worry. This book gives a sparkling history not only of Yogi and his teammates, but the way that baseball was--and only should be, again. Definitely a 5 star read for any baseball fan.

Yogi Berra is a former baseball player that has always presented two distinct personalities. There was the baseball superstar that some argue with justification was the best catcher in the history of the game. Yogi was not only a solid offensive player, he was also superb on defense and his knowledge of the opposing hitters and ability to call a game made many mediocre pitchers good to great. For years, Yankee manager Casey Stengel regularly referred to Yogi as his assistant manager. However, the other side of Yogi was that of the clown, a man who supposedly uttered ridiculous phrases that somehow made sense and that are repeated on a regular basis. Statements like, "It gets late early out there", "Deja vu all over again" and "It ain't over till it's over" are repeated by people talking about sports to politics. This personality was even captured in a cartoon character, Yogi Bear, whose catchphrase was "Smarter than the average bear." There is also a third side of Yogi Berra, the solid citizen that avoided the wild nightlife of other Yankees such as Billy Martin, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford. While Yogi himself may not have understood business, he was smart enough to seek out those who did and as a consequence, his business activity off the field was a success. He has been married to his wife Carmen for decades and there has never been a hint that he was ever anything but a faithful and loving husband and father. All three sides of this man are presented in roughly equal portions in this biography of one of the greatest players and Yankees of all time. Barra does an excellent job in summarizing the amazing run of the Yankees while Yogi was a player without bombarding the reader with details and statistics. Entire books have been written about single seasons of those years, so the temptation to be more specific must have been great. Barra also praises Yogi for his contributions and pushes him a little higher on the baseball recognition ladder. When Yogi first joined the Yankees Joe Dimaggio was the penultimate Yankee and his place was immediately taken by successor Mickey Mantle with Roger Maris included for a few seasons. Yet, through all the glory years where Casey Stengel was at the helm, Yogi was consistently the most valuable player on the Yankee team. There is also a somewhat bitter streak to this story based on the actions of Yankee management. The modern follower of sports generally has no idea how poorly paid baseball players were until the seventies when the reserve clause was finally overturned. In the fifties, Yankee management was ferocious in keeping salaries down, even to the point that it was detrimental to the team. There were some seasons when the money the players received from making the World Series was nearly equal to their salary for the entire season, even for some of the stars of the team. This is an aspect of the history of baseball that is often overlooked and it was pleasing to see Barra deal with it. Despit

Ted Williams was once quoted as telling a prospective biographer of Yogi Berra "If you don't write a good book about Mr. Yogi Peter Berra I will have you killed!" Alan Barra has nothing to worry about from Teddy Ballgame. His new book Yogi Berra-The Eternal Yankee, along with his excellent biography of Bear Bryant establishes him as one of the premier sports biographers in the market. The book is lovingly written in an excellent prose style. He covers Yogi's life from childhood, dwells extensively on his Yankee career, and gives us a great picture of Yogi's post managerial career. He writes with a clear point of view-Yogi Berra is the greatest catcher in the history of the game and if you don't like it I'll prove it. He doesn't avoid Yogi's weaknesses, but he clearly shows his strengths as person, husband, player and businessman. He covers the controversies in detail and tries to draw conclusions about events such as the Copacabana incident and Jackie Robinson's steal of home in 1955. He takes time to tell stories about significant games-especially Don Larsen's perfect World Series game. He also deals with Yogi's firing by Steinbrenner and the 20 year feud that followed. Barra touches all the basis in this excellent biography. I highly recommend it to any baseball fan and anyone who loves a well written and researched Biography