The Wit and Wisdom of Yogi Berra

The Twins and Red Sox are in town.  It's time for spring training.  And for those of us who are baseball fans living in Florida, that's really good news!  For even though we live hundreds of miles away from Minnesota and Boston, we too get a chance to see our favorite players in action.  I've already got tickets for a couple of games--one each at Hammond Stadium, the spring training home for the Twins, and JetBlue Park (or Fenway South as it is also known).

One of the reasons I find baseball so fascinating is because it is all about choices.  There are fielder's choices, where you can only get one man out and you have to choose which one.  There are decisions pitchers and catchers have to make about whether to throw a slider or a curve ball.  And managers make choices about lineups and pitching rotations all the time.  We even say the winning pitcher gets the decision.

One of the great philosophjers of the game is the former (I shudder to say the word Yankee's catcher, Yogi Berra.  WEell-know for his malapropisns, Yogi always seemed to have a comment to offer up.  When Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris his back-to-back home runs yet another time, Yopgi said, "It's deja vu all over again.  And when Johnny Bench broke Yogi's record fo0r the most home runs hit by a catcher, Yogi sent him  a telegram that read:  "Congratulations.  I knew the record would stand until iut was broken."

One of his most famous quips had to do with choices.  One time Joe Garagiola was going to visit Yogi.  He was coming from New York, so he called Yogi to get directions.  As Yogi told him how to come, he got to one point in the instructions and said, "When you get to the fork in the road, take it."  (All quotations from Yopgi Berra, The Yogi Book).

Soemtimes choices, decisions, are clear and easy.  Soemetimes they aren't.  But always there are choices.  And we need to make them.