Where were we? Oh yeah:

Yogi played golf with Yankees owner Dan Topping. Manager Casey Stengel said: “I’m very fortunate in having these two young men. Billy (Martin) tells me how to run the ball club, and Yogi stands in good with the bosses.”

The author tells a story about Yogi taking guff from a 10 year old customer during his off season job at the All-American men’s and boys’ clothing shop in Newark. There’s another story about pitcher Allie Reynolds’ efforts leading to free agency, and stories about hanging at Toots Shor’s saloon in NYC.

We’re treated to a very detailed review of Don Larsen’s World Series Perfect Game, about which Yogi said: “It’s never happened in World Series history and it hasn’t happened since.”

The author revisits Roger Kahn’s theory that post-season baseball can be divided into the Honorable Order of Heroes, and the American Federation of Cowards.

In December of 1956 Charlie Silvera, who had been Yogi’s backup for nine seasons, was traded to the Cubs where he played in 26 games before retiring. Charlie refers to his house near San Francisco as “The House That Yogi Built.”

Mickey Mantle believes in two points about the World Series:
1. Pitching is 90% of it, and
2. The so-called book on hitters means very little in such a short competition.

On October 1st, 1958 the Yankees flew into Milwaukee for the World Series. Instead of staying at a downtown hotel, however, they stayed at Browns Lake. Even today Browns Lake, in Racine County, is off the beaten path. Yogi described it as “A fine place if you liked checkers and billiards.”

In 1963 Yogi was flattered by offers to manage but didn’t want to manage a second-division club because “you only have the job for two years, then you get fired.” Eventually the Yankees announced that Yogi would be their manager for the 1964 season. They promoted him and gave him a pay cut at the same time.

In 7,555 big league at-bats Yogi struck out just 414 times. (In contrast, Ted Williams batted 7,706 times with 709 Ks, and Stan Musial batted 10,972 times with 696 Ks.)

Reminiscing with Nolan Ryan about the 1969 World Series, Yogi summed it all up: “We were overwhelming underdogs.”

Willie Mays’ behavior towards manager Yogi Berra was described by Glenn Dickey in his book “The Jock Empire”: “He left the club in spring training without consulting Berra. He was fined upon his return; half of the fine, said one writer, was for leaving, the other half for returning.”

According to Jerry Coleman: “The only mistake Yogi made as a manager was that ‘he thought the players wanted to win as much as he did’.”

George Steinbrenner once told Elston Howard’s wife Arlene that “Elston is too good to be a manager. Managers are hired to be fired. He deserves better than that.”

Tom Seaver, after being traded from the Mets to the White Sox, described Yogi’s best managerial qualities: “He doesn’t come apart under pressure…You don’t see him get upset unless it’s with a player who gives something less than his best effort.”

Yogi once said, while managing the Mets: “If you ain’t got a bullpen, you ain’t got nothin’.”

One of Yogi’s managerial rules (spoken about his son, Dale) was “If he don’t hit, he don’t play.”

Economist Milton Friedman quoted Yogi as having said one thing that he, Friedman, always remembered: “A nickel isn’t worth a dime any more.” And, said Friedman, “He was right”.

While coaching the Houston Astros in the late 1980s, Yogi became a movie critic. About Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues” Yogi said: it “reminded me of being in the Army – even though I was in the Navy.”

Yogi praised baseball announcers Mel Allen and Vin Scully thusly: “If they didn’t have anything to say, they didn’t say it.”

This book includes a seven page bibliography which I expect to refer to from time to time.

There are two photos in the book which I especially want to point out. The first, which opens the book, is Yogi’s Topps baseball card photo. The second, which is my dad’s personal favorite, is of Yogi Berra shaking hands with Babe Ruth on Babe Ruth Day, June 20, 1948, at Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis.

Bill James, author of “The Bill James Handbook” says about what author Allen Barra has done for Yogi Berra: “Even if you hate the Yankees, you have to love Yogi.”

I would have to agree wholeheartedly. “Yogi Berra Eternal Yankee” is a great new book which I really enjoyed reading. I recommend it highly.