Yogi Berra biopic a home run but not a grand slam
Yogi Berra biopic a home run but not a grand slam
Baseball predictions are worthless
Good morning, all. I hope your week is off to a great start.
I watched the Yogi Berra biopic, “It Ain’t Over,” last week. Was it a home run? Yes. Was it a grand slam? No. At least in this sportscaster’s humble opinion.
Kudos to Lindsay Berra, whose ode to her grandfather was spot on. Berra is an award-winning journalist, who did a superb job in producing this documentary. The impetus behind the picture was the introduction of Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Willie Mays and Sandy Koufax as baseball’s greatest living players, before the 2015 All-Star game in Cleveland. Lindsay was watching the introduction with her grandfather and wondered aloud, what about Yogi? A good question. A very good question. So she set about setting the record straight with this biopic.
True disclosure, here. I grew up a Yogi Berra fan. Others wanted to be Mickey Mantle.I rooted for Mickey too, but Yogi was my man. The fact I got to interview both Mantle and Berra, after I became a broadcaster, was a real thrill. But back to the movie, which I purchased for $24.99 on Apple TV. You can rent it for five bucks cheaper, but remember, I am a Yogi fan.
For the most part, the picture does a great job, covering Yogi’s full life, which is why I scored it a home run. The movie, however, left out some key points, which is usually the case, when tackling such an enormous assignment. Maybe those parts were left on the cutting room floor.
Here are some examples:
The movie made scant reference to Phil Rizzuto, who was Yogi’s teammate and later covered the Yankees 40 years, as their beloved broadcaster. Rizzuto and Berra also were in business together and that was not mentioned. In Rizzuto’s last days, while he lay dying in a nursing home, Berra visited him on almost a daily basis. That was Yogi Berra.
Berra’s lifelong friend, Joe Garagiola (They grew up across the street from each other in St. Louis.), figures prominently in the flick. How ironic then, that after the Yankees dismissed Berra as manager, following the 1964 season, they hired Garagiola as a broadcaster. Wouldn’t it have been interesting, if the two had worked together, as broadcaster and manager?
Incidentally, the Yankees did not fire Berra but gave him a two-year contract to be General Manager Ralph Houk’s assistant. An assistant to the GM back then was unheard of (Today, GM’s have numerous assistants), but you can make the case Houk was breaking new ground. As it turned out, Berra, left the Yankees after two weeks in his new job, to become a player-coach with the Mets. And he got to keep the money promised in his new contract with the Yankees.
By the way, Houk admitted firing Berra was the toughest thing he ever had to do. Remember, the two were lifelong teammates, before he became Berra’s manager. And did you know, Yogi was back in a Yankees uniform the next year, appearing at Old Timer’s Day, 1965. How awkward must that have been, back in the Yankees dugout, with his successor, Johnny Keane nearby?
And Houk and Berra did smooth things over (Yogi, except for his feud with George Steinbrenner, rarely held a grudge) and the two were introduced together on Mickey Mantle Day in 1969 at Yankee Stadium.
You could make a strong case that the Yankees iconic doubleplay combination of Tony Kubek and Bobby Richardson received an inordinate amount of time in the movie. Yes, they were prominent in the Yankees 1960s dynasty, but several accounts of that 1964 season mention how the two went behind Berra’s back to GM Houk, claiming Berra had lost control of the team. There was no mention of that in the movie. In fact, Richardson was praiseworthy of Berra the manager. He should be. The Yankees reeled off a season-ending winning streak to win the American League pennant and took the St. Louis Cardinals to the seventh game, before losing, in a thrilling World Series that I still remember watching and listening to.
The fact Berra was the only manager to ever manage both Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays in the major leagues, also did not merit a mention, although stories suggest Mays was not a fan of Berra the manager.
The part about Berra not returning to Yankee Stadium, after he was fired early in the 1985 season, because Steinbrenner didn’t fire him face-to-face, was also a stretch. Newspaper accounts from that era reported that when Joe Torre was the manager, Berra would sneak into the Stadium on numerous occasions to visit with Torre and his staff, especially during the off season.
I also wish the part about the Berra-Steinbrenner rapprochement would have included how nervous Steinbrenner was on the drive to New Jersey to make peace with Yogi at the Yogi Berra Museum. George Steinbrenner nervous? Several accounts indicated he was but that story never made the movie.
On the whole, though, the biopic was a home run and Lindsay Berra managed to convey her grandfather was more than a caricature. He was a Hall of Fame ballplayer, a better than average manager and a great person. In fact, I loved the movie, I just wouldn’t score it a grand slam.
Baseball predictions are worthless
Baseball predictions like most predictions are fun, but they are also worthless. Don’t think so? As we approach the midway point of the season, just check the standings. As of this writing, the team with MLB’s highest payroll, the New York Mets, are five games below .500 (33-38) and 12 1/2 games out of first place. Their crosstown rivals, the Yankees, are 10 1/2 games out of first. Tampa Bay, with one of the lowest payrolls, has baseball’s best record at 51-24.
Toronto, picked to be a solid contender, is 11 games out of first. Miami, everybody’s doormat, stands at 41-31 and leads the NL Wild Card race. Arizona is first in the NL West with the Giants, riding a seven-game winning streak, in second after sweeping the disappointing Dodgers, who with their high payroll are a distant third at 39-33.
Some of these clubs will be saved by baseball’s playoff system, but all-in-all, the season has been full of surprises, proving predictions are good for website clicks and not much else.
That is it for this week’s newsletter. As always, thank you for your support and have a terrific week.
SPORTSCASTER DAN