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“I really didn’t say everything I said.” ~ Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra

Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra was born on May 12, 1925 in St.Louis, Missouri. Berra is a former American Major League Baseball catcher, outfielder, and manager. He played almost his entire 19-year baseball career (1946–1965) for the New York Yankees. He was one of only four players to be named the Most Valuable Player of the American League three times and is one of only six managers to lead both American and National League teams to the World Series. As a player, coach, or manager, Berra appeared in 21 World Series. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.

Yogi Berra after hitting a home run in 1956.

Yogi Berra is also well known for his pithy comments and witticisms, known as “Yogiisms”. Yogiisms very often take the form of either an apparently obvious tautology (an unnecessary repetition of meaning, using dissimilar words that effectively say the same thing) or a paradoxical contradiction (a statement that contradicts itself by forming the logical, usually opposite inversions of each other). The following are some of his most famous:

“Yogiisms”

It ain’t over ’till it’s over.

Ninety percent of this game is half-mental.

Pair up in threes.

We made too many wrong mistakes.

I knew the record would stand until it was broken.

If people don’t want to come to the ballpark
how are you going to stop them?

Always go to other people’s funerals,
otherwise they won’t go to yours.

You can observe a lot by watching.

If you don’t know where you’re going,
you might not get there.

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

The future ain’t what it used to be.

I looked like this when I was young, and I still do.

If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.

If you ask me a question I don’t know,
I’m not going to answer.

If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him.

It gets late early out there.

It’s déjà vu all over again.

It’s so crowded, nobody goes there.