[Dan_ref]

Originally posted by ChuckElias

Ok, wake up, Dan.

Yeah yeah yeah.

Enjoy:

Yogi Berra Fields Some Questions
Watching the World Series with a baseball legend.

BY ALLEN BARRA
Thursday, October 28, 2004 12:01 a.m.

LITTLE FALLS, N.J.--It's a lucky few who get to visit a museum and talk with the person it's named after. As Yogi Berra himself said at the 1998 dedication of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center here: "This is a great honor. Usually you have to be dead to get something like this."
For the third year in a row, several dozen baseball fans and supporters of the museum gathered in the museum's amphitheater Tuesday night to watch the third game of the World Series, this year between the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals, with Yogi. (The event is open to the public and advertised through the museum's Web site, its mailing list and the Yankees Web site; the charge is $250 a seat, most of which is tax deductible as a donation.) The theater is designed to look like the bleachers at Yankee Stadium, only, as Yogi says, "It's warmer in here and the language is nicer."

The house that Yogi built, as the sign at the entrance announces, is on the campus of Montclair State University. The building covers nearly 7,300 square feet and is on the first-base line of the Yogi Berra Stadium, a charming minor league ballpark that is home to both the Montclair State Red Hawks and the New Jersey Jackals of the Independent Northeast League.

With interiors designed by Frank Cirillo, former director of exhibits and design for the Baseball Hall of Fame, the museum includes , among other displays, a tribute to the Negro Leagues housed in the Larry Doby gallery (named for the Hall of Famer who was the first black player in the American League and a close friend of Yogi's for nearly half a century); the Yankee cow from the 2000 Cow Parade, autographed by numerous Yankees; life-size statues of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig; scores of autographed balls and bats; Yogi's record 10 World Series rings; the bronzed mitt Yogi used to catch Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

Celebrity, a tribute to Berra's unique status in American culture, showcases Yogi figurines, comic books, cereal boxes, magazine covers, and even Berra's cartoon namesake, Yogi Bear. There are also hundreds of historic photos of baseball greats from every era, including many of Yogi with other Hall of Famers and several American presidents. "Every time I walk through here I see pictures of me I've never seen before."

There are plans for expanding the museum that could eventually double its size, creating space for interactive projects for visiting schoolchildren. There are also plans for a broadcast studio to be operated by Montclair State. But as Dave Kaplan, director of programs and education, puts it, "Our major resource is Yogi."

Between innings of Tuesday night's game, the man Billy Crystal once called "a wonderful piece of American folk art" fielded questions as deftly as he once handled Whitey Ford's curve ball while his vivacious wife, Carmen, served cookies to the fans in the "cheap seats."
Q: "Yogi, who's your favorite catcher in the game today?"

A: "The guy on Detroit, 'Pudge' Rodriguez. He's built like me. I don't like tall catchers."

Q: "Yogi, who are you rooting for in the World Series?"

A: "The St. Louis Cardinals. They're my hometown team."

(From Carmen Berra: "You shouldn't root for them, they didn't sign you.")

Q: "Yogi, what did Ted Williams say to you when you tired to distract him by talking?"

A: "He'd say, 'Shut up, you little Dago.' " ("But," adds Yogi, "Ted was a great guy.")

Q: "Yogi, what kind of padding did you use in your glove to keep your hand from getting sore when you were catching?"

A: "I used to stick a 'falsie' in the glove. It was perfect."

("I had to go buy them for him," said Carmen. "He was too shy.")

Q: "Yogi, what's your lowest golf score?"

A: "You mean now?" (When asked what he meant by "now," Mr. Berra replied, "You mean what do I shoot now, or back when I could really play golf?" His best score, he says, was 78.)

Q: "Yogi, if you had to pick a guy in this year's World Series who looks the least like a player in your own time, who would it be?"

A: "Johnny Damon. He looks like that guy, what was that movie about trying to escape from New York?" (Kurt Russell in "Escape From New York," someone tells him.) "Yeah, that guy."

Q: "Yogi, one of the most famous plays in baseball history was in the first game of the 1955 World Series when Jackie Robinson stole home while you were catching. Do you still say--"

A: "OUT!!!!! He was out!"

Q: "But after watching the replay in slow motion--"

A: "OUT!!! I've seen the replays. He's still out."

In the fifth inning, when the Red Sox went up 4-0, someone asked Yogi if he thought they could replace the Yankees as baseball's No. 1 dynasty. "I don't know," he replied. "If they win about 20 more, I might get worried."
Also on hand for the evening was George Roy, producer of "The Curse of The Bambino," a documentary detailing 80-odd years of Red Sox frustration. As the Red Sox were poised to go ahead of the Cardinals three games to none in the Series, one guest asked Roy if he believed in "The Curse." "No," answered Roy, an avid Red Sox fan. "It's just been a combination of an odd, unpredictable ballpark, bad front-office decisions and just plain bad luck." What then, someone else wanted to know, if the Cardinals came back to win the Series? "Then," replied Roy, glancing over at Yogi, "I'll rethink it."

"Yogi," someone asked toward the end of the evening, "is this going to become an annual event?"

"Well, yeah," replied the Hall of Famer, "if we do it every year."

Mr. Barra writes about sports for The Wall Street Journal.


Copyright © 2004 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.