Opinion: Line by LineTake a break with some profound 'Yogi-isms'

By Edward M. Gilbreth

We were having a curbside chat with a lady during our Nantucket visit recently, and she said that a member of her family had to be put on anxiety medication shortly after arriving on the island.

I couldn't believe it. Anxiety medication? Nantucket? People go up there to get off that sort of stuff, not on it.

Being impossibly nosy, I had to pry. It turns out that the family member in question was her dog. The poor thing was thrown into a crowded beach house with a bunch of other people he didn't know and apparently just started acting really weird. Canine Xanax, or some variation thereof, was prescribed by a local vet, and suddenly the dog was all smiles again.

And now the dog's human counterparts will be prescribed exactly the same after leaving the island and coming back to reality. Which is the problem with vacation. You're all pumped up and excited before leaving. You want a break. And yet the letdown of bouncing back to reality makes you feel like you need another!

In the department of philosophical study, there's a great cover story by Joe Posnanski in last week's Sports Illustrated on Yogi Berra. Titled, appropriately enough, "Yogi Berra Will be a Living Legend Even After He's Gone," the article summarizes Berra's career and analyzes the simplistic, yet quirkily profound, sayings that have embellished his fame. The problem is Berra's "Yogi-isms" don't really lend themselves to rational analysis, so you end up going around in circles and making yourself nuts.

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

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

"You can observe a lot by watching."

Berra should absolutely be remembered for his baseball career, probably first and foremost. He's considered by many to have been the greatest winner in baseball history. Berra's favorite manager, Casey Stengel, was quoted as saying that no player had a better understanding of what a team had to do to win games. He also said that Berra could fall into a sewer and somehow come out wearing a gold watch. In other words, he was lucky and good.

Berra played great in clutch situations and was nearly impossible to strike out. A classic bad-ball hitter, he never struck out more than 38 times a season. He played 100 more games during the seven golden years of his career than any other catcher in baseball. During that same time span, Berra started at catcher in both games of a doubleheader 117(!) times. Seven times during the same stretch, he started both games of a doubleheader on back-to-back days.

If that doesn't amaze you, consider this. From 1957 through 1981, New York baseball teams appeared in 13 World Series. Berra, as player, coach or manager, appeared in every one of them. In all, he appeared in 21 World Series, a staggering achievement that defies making any sense of it.

Just like Yogi-isms. They defy being made sense of, too. People don't want to talk about Berra's Hall of Fame career, including three MVPs. They just want to talk about the meaning of Yogi.

A couple of star-struck admirers approached Berra not long ago and asked him to come up with a pithy expression right on the spot.

"If I could make 'em up on the spot," Berra said, "I'd be famous."

The couple split a rib over that one. Meanwhile, Berra didn't seem to know what was so funny.

And now, class, kindly ponder the following classic remarks and make of them what you may:

"If people don't want to come out to the park, nobody's gonna stop 'em."

"If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer."

"I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hitting."

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

"If you can't imitate him, don't copy him."

"I always thought that record would stand until it was broken."

Berra's still got plenty of spunk at age 86. The article concludes with an amusing story involving Derek Jeter, who just reached the 3,000 hit plateau and who turns regularly to Berra for advice. The two are close, and Berra remembers watching Jeter strike out on an eye-high fastball. The next day, Yogi asked why he would swing at such a lousy pitch.

"Well, you did," said Jeter.

Said Yogi Berra: "I hit 'em."

Edward M. Gilbreth is a Charleston physician. Reach him at edwardgilbreth@comcast.net.