Yogi Berra's 10 Best Quotes & Sayings

'Yogi Berra's 10 Best Quotes & Sayings'

By J.P. Scott - Athlon Sports & Life - April 4, 2018

The former Yankee catcher was universally liked, mostly due to his "Yogi Berraisms."

New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra passed away at the age of 90. An 18-time All-Star and 10-time World Series champion, Berra was not only one of the most accomplished catchers of all-time, he will go down as one of the greatest to ever wear the famous pinstripes of the New York Yankees.

The Missouri native played as an outfielder and as a catcher with the Yankees from 1946-63, followed by a short stint with the Mets. In addition to his playing experience, Berra was a manager in Major League Baseball with the Yankees in 1964 and again from 1984-85. He also managed the Mets from 1972-75.

Growing up as a Red Sox fan, I despised everything about the New York Yankees. I didn't like the players, the managers, the fans or those pinstriped uniforms. I didn't like any of their history either. You could say — like many people — I was a Yankee hater.

But I never hated Yogi Berra.

Yogi was baseball to kids growing up in New York. Your grandpa would talk about him like they were friends. If you played catcher, you were the next Yogi Berra.

But Yogi was bigger than just baseball, largely due to some of the crazy-yet-poiniant things he would say. The zaney statements came to be known as "Yogi Berra-isms." Here are some of his best:


Yogi Berra's 10 Best Quotes & Sayings

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

"It gets late early around here."

"A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore."

"The future ain't what it used to be."

"Ninety percent of this game is half mental."

"I really didn't say everything I said."

"You can observe a lot just by watching."

"Half the lies they tell about me aren't true."

"If you don't know where you're going, you might end up someplace else."

"We have a good time together, even when we're not together."


A bonus (and perhaps the most famous of his fantastic baseball quotes):

"It ain't over till it's over."


Today, we're all sad it's over. Rest in Peace, Yogi.


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Yogi Berra was of Milanese/Lombard descent. He was from "The Hill" in St. Louis, which was a Milanese district going back to the 1880s up to about a century ago when it started to become a Sicilian district.

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Panthers prowling around northern Italy

Panthers prowling around northern Italy

Bobby Tanzilo's Blog - OnMilwaukee.com - August 3, 2010

The UW-Milwaukee Panthers announced a slate of four games in northern Italy this month. I held out hope they'd be going to Casale Monferrato, but it's not happening.

I often check the back pages of Il Monferrato, the Italian newspaper that's delivered to my house and for which I've written on a few occasions. That's where they keep the basketball coverage. Although Casale always has at least a couple American players, I've yet to see any with a Milwaukee connection.

When I heard the Panthers were headed to northwest Italy, I thought maybe these worlds would collide.

(There are a few other connections between Casale and Milwaukee, like the DeGiovanni family from Casale, which runs the Golosi gelateria in Oconomowoc; the Zerand company in New Berlin is owned by Casale-based Cerutti; Casale's Buzzi Unicem cement company has a small depot in the Valley across 6th Street from the Harley Museum; and Waukesha's Rose Glen School students have long had a pen pal relationship with a school in Casale, too.

The Panthers, instead, will play Lombardia of the B2 league on Aug. 18. Next they head to Livorno, on the Tuscan coast, to play that city's B2 team on Aug. 20.

Then they head back north to the region of Lombardy to face the Serie A2 team from Treviglio, a town I've only seen from the train on the way to visit my cousins in Bergamo, on Aug. 21. UWM wraps up its tour on Aug. 23 against another B2 squad, Brianza Select, from Brianza (another city in Lombardy).

Milwaukee isn't a city with a lot of Italian-Americans with Lombardian roots. For that you've got to head to St. Louis, where two of the greatest Lombardian-American sports figures -- Yogi Berra (with roots in Cuggiono) and Joe Garagiola (Inveruno) -- were neighbors as boys.

I hope the Panthers play some great basketball in Italy, but I also hope they get time to look around, taste the food, meet the people and have a great time getting to know one of the loveliest parts of the world.

And when they get back, I hope they kick some butt when their season starts.

My advice for them in Italy: while in the neighborhood, stop in and check out the Milwaukee 50's Diner in Varedo. And tell 'em we said howdy.

You can follow the Panthers' escapes in Italy via the team blog.

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