Yogi Berra (Lawrence Peter Berra) was a professional baseball player. He was a catcher, coach and manager and played 18 of his 19 seasons with the New York Yankees. He lived to the grand age of ninety and left us in September 2015. Yogi was known to have made some memorable quotes [1] and has even been credited with quotes that might not have been his own. Here are just 20 of my favorite quotes from the baseball great that I believe are original to him. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Most Famous Yogi Berra Quote: “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”
[2]Yogi Berra, May 12, 1925 – September 22, 2015
“We made too many wrong mistakes.”
“You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.”
“Slump? I ain’t in no slump… I just ain’t hitting.”
“If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.”
“You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.”
“It ain’t over till it’s over.”
“He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.”
“It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.”
“I don’t know (if they were men or women fans running naked across the field). They had bags over their heads.”
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
“You can observe a lot by just watching.”
“Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.”
“Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken.”
“Why buy good luggage, you only use it when you travel.”
“The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase.”
“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.”
“Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.”
“A lot of guys go, ‘Hey, Yog, say a Yogi-ism.’ I tell ’em, ‘I don’t know any.’ They want me to make one up. I don’t make ’em up. I don’t even know when I say it. They’re the truth. And it is the truth. I don’t know.”
“I never said most of the things I said.”
Final Thoughts
No doubt, Yogi Berra had a way with words. A way that made no sense but made sense. A way that the sports writers loved and a way that, when remembered, we all chuckle a little and consider how these funny sayings are going down in history, just like the legend that first spoke them.
Take a look at this collection of quotes: Christian Quotes by Topic [3]
Photo source: Baseball Digest, front cover, September 1956 issue. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons