When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It! was a breezy read on some of Yogi Berra’s witticisms and their origins. We are probably all familiar with his stock phrases, such as, "It’s like déjà vu all over again," "Ninety percent of the game is half mental," and the ever popular, "It ain’t over ‘til it’s over."I learned several new ones as well, such as:
If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.I’ve never known much about Yogi Berra except that he was a baseball player, and he said funny things. His offbeat maxims always gave the impression he wasn't too smart, but as I read this book, I realized how wrong my assumptions were.
You can observe a lot by watching.
We made too many wrong mistakes.
Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.
We have deep depth.
The future ain’t what it used to be.
Although he dropped out of school after the eighth grade to help support his immigrant family, Yogi not only had good common sense, but amazing insight as well. I was duly impressed by his reflections as a major league catcher:
To me, there was always something in the way a batter stood, the way he held his bat, to tell you what pitch he was looking for. Always notice the little stuff, it helps ... [During the ’53 World Series] I was watching how the batters’ feet were pointing, and how our pitcher was keeping the ball where I wanted it. I could just tell the bunts were going to the left of the plate – and that’s where they went.Although he won MVP three times, played in fourteen World Series, and hit the first pinch hit home run in World Series history, he didn’t always win, and I applaud his advice on losing:
But I learned a long time ago that losing is a learning experience. It teaches you humility. It teaches you to work harder. It’s also a powerful motivator. I’ve always said, somebody’s got to win, somebody’s got to lose. Accept the losses and learn from them.This reminds me of a scene from a children’s movie where a young boy’s inventions repeatedly fail, and he’s ready to give up altogether, but some wise adults respond this way to his latest disappointment:
You failed!
And it was awesome!
Exceptional!
Outstanding!
From failing you learn.
Like my husband always says, keep moving forward!
Yogi balances his view of failures with this perspective:
I like to say there’s mistakes – and there’s wrong mistakes. What I mean is that wrong mistakes are more serious, more avoidable, more costly. They’re usually more mental than physical. I really think most car accidents are mental mistakes – not paying attention, even for a split second, is as wrong a mistake as you can make.His pithy “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over” are words to live by:
Never assume anything’s really finished or officially happened … until it’s really finished or officially happened. It can be a ball game or a closing on a new house. It can be a war or an election. It’s like they tell you as a kid – don’t count your chickens before they hatch … Nothing’s final or official until it’s final or official.How true. And so many hasty people get into trouble by not waiting “until [they] learn how the matter turns out” (Ruth 3:18).
The short, blocky catcher/manager/coach was no stranger to derision, and he offers these words on the subject:
Being personally ridiculed is a test of character. You can’t bury your head. Take it in stride. It may hurt underneath, but you can’t let that stuff affect your attitude or performance … It takes discipline and maturity to walk away.Always his own person, when he was named as manager to the New York Yankees, he said,
When people asked me in 1964 if I would manage like Casey Stengel or Ralph Houk,I said, "I’ll manage like Yogi Berra."While the book doesn't make it into my Top Fifty Faves, I enjoyed this relaxed memoir and its peek into the life of an unassuming baseball great.








