IT AIN’T OVER: Celebrating One of Baseball’s Greatest Players Yogi Berra

For anyone who’s an avid fan of baseball, Yogi Berra feels like one of the game’s patron saints. It’s not so much what he did on the field, but how he became a larger-than-life personality who transcended the baseball diamond.

However, it’s this very thing that It Ain’t Over, the new documentary about his life and career,  looks to remedy. The project is executive produced by his granddaughter, Lindsay Berra, and features involvement from much of his immediate family. Thus, it offers up a level of intimacy while also looking to redefine the reputation Berra gained throughout the press from his earliest days as a ballplayer.

I’m probably as much to blame as the next person because I was met with Yogi Berra‘s aura from an early age. He was the wise sage sitting in the barber’s chair for Aflac commercials or the great from the All-Century Team who quipped about being a “bad ball” hitter.  He grinned at the camera and said, “To me, they looked good when I hit ’em.”

And his plethora of Yogisms are a thing of legend. Axioms like “It ain’t over ’til it’s over” or “If you see a fork in the road, take it.” They’ve become all but ubiquitous in our popular lexicon, especially among sports enthusiasts, for their paradoxical wisdom.

The presentation of the documentary by director Sean Mullin is fairly traditional albeit with lots of wonderful archival footage and plenty of interviews with living players and family integral to Berra’s life. However, one pointed structural decision is to flash quotes by historical titans like William Shakespeare, Plato, and Albert Einstein up on the screen — closely followed by a related witticism by Berra.

It proves he was a sage on par with anyone else in the history books. But that’s not the only thing…

Yogi: The Ballplayer and Family Man

It Ain’t Over makes the case Lawrence Peter Berra (1925-2015) was many of the things we remember as propagated by the media thanks in part to his good-natured candor. However, he was also so much more.

Lest we forget, the 3-time MVP was the winningest baseball player of all time with 10 World Series wins, and he anchored some of the greatest teams Major League Baseball has ever seen. This is hardly a coincidence.

The New York Yankees have featured some phenomenal talents throughout their illustrious history from Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig to Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. Yogi, with his squat frame and perpetual grin, didn’t fit the mold, and yet his run with the Yankees was equally extraordinary.

Take as one example the 1950 season where he hit 28 home runs and got 124 RBIs. For a catcher, these offensive stats are quite impressive on their own. However, to put it into context, he struck out 12 times! That’s unheard of! In a modern game that has become bloated by an overabundance of strikeouts in pursuit of the analytically advantageous and equally crowd-pleasing Home Run, Yogi’s feat feels especially remarkable.

Yogi is also deeply entrenched in World Series lore courtesy of his numerous appearances. One of the famed moments that has lived on involves Jackie Robinson‘s notorious dash home in Game 1 of the 1955 World Series. Yogi can be seen leaping up and jawing at the umpire after Robinson is called safe. It would all be a footnote in history if not for the fact it became a catalyst for the Brooklyn Dodgers’ one World Series championship against the mighty Yankees.

Still, the following year the Bronx Bombers’ juggernaut would keep on rolling epitomized by Don Larsen‘s Perfect Game — the only one of its kind in the Fall Classic to this day — and of course, the man calling the series from behind the plate was Yogi Berra. In a fit of uncanny serendipity, decades later, David Cone tossed a perfect game on the inaugural Yogi Berra Day with both Berra and Don Larsen in attendance. You cannot script sports moments like this. They seem destined to happen.

One substantial part of Berra‘s career that normally gets even less air time was his coaching. I had forgotten that he was there with Gil Hodges when they led the Miracle Mets to the 1969 World Series in a run that shocked the sports world. Yogi also had the opportunity to coach his own son — the promising prospect Dale Berra — before he was unceremoniously sacked by George Steinbrenner — a grievance that kept Yogi away from Yankee stadium for over a decade.

It’s this personal tension with Steinbrenner and then even Dale’s own struggles with drug abuse that make Yogi seem all the more human. It’s important to make the distinction that he’s not just a sportsman portrayed as a court jester, but a living, breathing human being who faced the interpersonal trials we all do.

As a WWII veteran who saw action at D-Day, Berra discloses one of the hardest experiences he ever had was burying the dead after the carnage on the beaches of Normandy. Hearing recollections such as these force us to begin reframing how we come to terms with his legacy; it’s a way to measure the whole essence of the man.

Conclusion:

There was never any doubt in my baseball-loving heart about Yogi Berra. My affection was unwavering since boyhood. This was not likely to change.  However, what It Ain’t Over gifted me was a deeper admiration for what he did with his life in all its many facets.

He was a serial winner without question. Depending on the metrics you use, with his 10 championships, he was one of the most successful athletes of all time. He was the glue for a dynasty, in the same way, Bill Russell anchored the Boston Celtics for all those years. Think about it. Yogi won championships in ’47, ’49, ’50, ’51, ’52,’ 53, ’56, ’58, ’61, and ’62! It was an unheard-of stretch for a ballplayer. As a coach, tack on World Series victories in ’69, ’77, and ’78.

He was featured in That Touch of Mink with Doris Day and became the namesake for the cartoon Yogi Bear, along with a plethora of commercial appearances for products such as Yoo-Hoo, Aflac, and MasterCard.  He saw action on D-Day and became an unassuming family man married to his beloved wife Carmen for 65 years.

What I appreciated most is how the documentary does not disregard or negate all the stories I’ve heard about Yogi over the years even as it looks to cut through some of the mythology. It makes these legends come in sharper relief because we get a fuller, more genuine sense of who Yogi Berra was, both as an all-time great ballplayer and an everyday human being.

Full disclosure, I’m born and bred a Dodgers fan, and that includes Brooklyn. Jackie Robinson will forever be my favorite player. The Yankees were the uptown rivals and crusher of Dodger dreams perennially during the ’40s and ’50s, thanks in part to Yogi & Co. But I could never begrudge him any of his success. You have to tip your cap to the guy and love him because he was a winner with a legacy far bigger than baseball. I’d like to think he and Jackie are still ribbing each other about that stolen base all the way back in 1955.

It seems apropos to share some of Yogi’s advice in parting. Baseball is not forever; it’s only a game. There’s so much life to be lived outside the bounds of the base paths, and you can’t take your championships with you when you’re gone. We should all internalize Yogi’s wisdom and “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.”

It sounds glib even nonsensical, but I think it touches on something impactful. Human relationships are what life is founded on — a responsibility and obligation to our friends and family. Yogi Berra gave us so much. He’s a national treasure, and I thank his family for sharing him with us all.

It Ain’t Over will have a limited release in the US on May 12, 2023!

Watch It Ain’t Over