Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Damn Yankees

Page 169

Yankee organization in 1999 and worked in spring-training camp with catcher Jorge Posada.

In 1998, Berra appeared at No. 40 on “The Sporting News” list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and fan balloting elected him to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. At the 2008 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, Berra had the honor of being the last of the 49 Hall of Famers in attendance to be announced. The hometown favorite received the loudest standing ovation of the group.

On July 18, 1999, Berra was honored with "Yogi Berra Day" at Yankee Stadium. Don Larsen threw the ceremonial first pitch to Berra to honor the perfect game of the 1956 World Series. On that day, Yankees pitcher David Cone threw a perfect game

against the Montreal Expos, only the 16th time it had ever been done in Major League history.

Examples of Yogi-isms

"It ain't over 'til it's over." The Mets trailed the Chicago Cubs by 9½ games in the National League East in July 1973. They rallied to clinch the division title and eventually reached the World Series. The words became the title of a film about him.

"It's déjà vu all over again." Berra explained that this originated when he witnessed Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris