And Catching.....and batthing 5th.....YOGI BERRA

[DCPatriot]

     

5 feet 8 inches tall.  194 lbs.  And yet he starred among the giants of The Show.

What others have said about Yogi Berra:

"He'd fall in a sewer and come up with a gold watch." - Casey Stengel

"He seemed to be doing everything wrong, yet everything came out right. He stopped everything behind the plate and hit everything in front of it." - Mel Ott

"They say he's funny. Well, he has a lovely wife and family, a beautiful home, money in the bank, and he plays golf with millionaires. What's funny about that?" - Casey Stengel

"Right now, (Yogi) Berra does about everything wrong, but Casey (Stengel) warned me about that. The main thing is he has speed and agility behind the plate and a strong enough arm. He just needs to be taught to throw properly. I know he can hit. I'd say Berra has the makings of a good catcher. I won't say great, but certainly a good one." - Bill Dickey

"Why has our pitching been so great? Our catcher that's why. He looks cumbersome but he's quick as a cat." - Casey Stengel

"Yogi (Berra) had the fastest bat I ever saw. He could hit a ball late, that was already past him, and take it out of the park. The pitchers were afraid of him because he'd hit anything, so they didn't know what to throw. Yogi had them psyched out and he wasn't even trying to psych them out." - Hector Lopez

"Yogi (Berra), I came up here to hit, not to read." - Hank Aaron in the 1958 World Series & an answer to Berra after being told to turn his bat around so he could 'read' the label and not break the bat

"You can't compare me to my father. Our similarities are different." - Dale Berra


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Some of Yogi's famous quotes:


"All pitchers are liars or crybabies."

"A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore." Source: Baseball Digest (June 1987)

"Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical."

"Bill Dickey is learning me his experience."

"He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious."

"How can a you hit and think at the same time?"

"I always thought that record would stand until it was broken."

"I can see how he (Sandy Koufax) won twenty-five games. What I don't understand is how he lost five."

"I don't know (if they were men or women fans running naked across the field). They had bags over their heads."

"If people don't want to come out to the ballpark, how are you going to stop them?"

"I'm a lucky guy and I'm happy to be with the Yankees. And I want to thank everyone for making this night necessary."

"I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did." (The sold them door to door back then)

"In baseball, you don't know nothing."

"I never blame myself when I'm not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn't my fault that I'm not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?"

"I never said most of the things I said."

"It ain't the heat, it's the humility."

"It gets late early out there." (about the shadows in Left Field)

"I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house."

"It's like deja vu all over again."

"I wish everybody had the drive he (Joe DiMaggio) had. He never did anything wrong on the field. I'd never seen him dive for a ball, everything was a chest-high catch, and he never walked off the field."

"Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets." Source: Catcher in the Wry (Bob Uecker)

"Ninety percent of this game is half mental." Source: Sports Illustrated (May 14, 1979)

"Nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded."

"So I'm ugly. I never saw anyone hit with his face."

"Take it with a grin of salt."

"The game's isn't over until it's over."

"The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase."

"You can observe a lot just by watching."

"You should always go to other people's funerals, otherwise, they won't come to yours."

"You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going because you might not get there."

"We made too many wrong mistakes."

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

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[famousdayandyear]

Yogi Berra--One of a Lifetime


THE CATCHER

    "Let somebody do 312,000 squats . . . then come back to me and ask why I'm retiring!" - Johnny Bench, on retiring from the catcher's position
[excerpt]

The position calls for a strong and accurate arm in order to prevent baserunners from stealing. This is especially important for the long throw from home plate to second base. Additionally, catchers must have a high degree of stamina, as they spend nearly the entire game in a crouched position.

The catcher has arguably the most demanding job in baseball, in both the mental and physical aspects. First and foremost, the catcher must "call the game," signaling to the pitcher what pitch to throw and where to throw it. For this reason, many catchers spend a considerable amount of their time scouting opposing batters, memorizing their tendencies and weaknesses.

On the physical side, catchers are crouched for the vast majority of the game, as stated above. This tends to not only increase their fatigue rate relative to other position players, but tax them offensively as well-- catchers are not typically known as offensive powerhouses.

-Tom Boswell, Washington Post