Yogi Berra relives baseball history with Turley, Blyleven

No matter how many times you've heard these before, every family member in the room -- young and old alike -- listens intently to the patriarch share one colorful episode after another, somehow forcing even those whose youth has long since passed to remember it just a little more vividly with each passing word.

With one pretty glaring difference, mind you.

Your grandfather never won 10 World Series.

And chances are, his supporting characters aren't named Mickey, Whitey, or "Bullet" Bob, either. Oh, and there's probably not a villain named George.

The legendary New York Yankee catcher spent last Friday afternoon as a guest of the Bonita Springs Speakers Assembly, participating in a 55-minute question-and-answer session with former teammate and 1958 Cy Young Award winner "Bullet" Bob Turley. The two would later be joined on stage for an interview with former pitcher Bert Blyleven, who had most of his 287 wins with the Minnesota Twins.

With his impeccable comedic timing and a number of sharp one-liners -- not to mention a baseball memory in which he cited specific game situations, hitters and pitching counts from over 50 years ago -- Berra brought many of the 550 in attendance back to their own youths. And for a little while, anyway, a conference room at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort may have felt a little like The Bronx of another era.

How else to explain how a man with 10 championships, three American League MVPs, who was named to 15 all-star teams and whose career numbers (lifetime .285 BA, 2,150 hits, 358 HR, 1,430 RBI, and .482 career slugging percentage) place him among the greatest catchers of all time, is more commonly overshadowed in the mind of the casual baseball fan by his words?

His "Yogi-isms"?

While Berra's performance on the baseball field helped cement a place for him in the halls of Cooperstown, his words have helped cement a place for him in something else: American pop-culture. Nearly 40 years after his playing career ended, he continues to be seen in advertisements for everything from Yoo-Hoo to AFLAC to the Visa Check Card, and children who don't even know who he is commonly quote his more famous expressions (like "It ain't over 'til it's over" or "when you come to a fork in the road ... take it.")

And because editing Yogi Berra is like picking out one of your grandpa's stories from all the others, here are some memorable expressions from Friday's lunch in Bonita:

* Yogi on how Lawrence Peter Berra got his famous nickname: "Playing American Legion ball, that Bobby Hofman who played with the New York Giants, when we played in the sandlot, you never had a dugout. You had to sit on the ground, and I always had my arms folded and my legs crossed. Bobby looked at me and he said, 'You look like a yogi.'"

* On his reputation as a bad-ball hitter: "Bad ball? I wasn't a bad ball hitter, I don't think. Every time somebody asks me, 'How come you'd swing at it?' 'Cause it looks good to me.' I'd say, 'You throw that and I'll swing at it again.' I told Jeter, not this year but the year before, he swung at a pitch high and struck out and I said, 'What the hell are you swinging at? You missed it. That's not a strike, hit a strike.' He said, 'Well, you used to swing at it.' I said, 'Well, I hit it, you don't.'"

* On his era versus baseball today: "You know, everybody's swinging for home runs, and I guess people like to see them hit home runs. They use smaller bats than we did. They threw it hard, but they swing harder today. I always felt, when I swung hard I missed the ball. Because that makes you move your head. And also, my gosh, you can't come inside anymore. You can get thrown out of the game. Everything's out here. It'd be nice to hit today. Oooh, boy, throw it right here."

* On catching Whitey Ford: "I enjoyed Whitey. He'd throw the curveball and he'd change up some time, and I'd tell him, 'Why don't you stick that thing up your...!' You know. He was great."

* On the suggestion that he was standing up to catch the last pitch of Don Larsen's perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series: "No, that's my bending down. That's the farthest I can go. Everybody asks me, 'When did you know he was going to get the no-hitter?' I'd say, 'When we got the last out of the game.'

* On the AFLAC Duck, with whom he costarred in a commercial: "No, he didn't really talk but he arrives and he starts talking to me. I don't understand it. People don't believe it, but he comes walking in and there's a spot on the ground and he comes walking in and he stops right there. They had three ducks there, so if he don't work out they pull him right out. I asked the trainers how long it takes to train them, and he said it takes about five months to train them ducks. They have a duck walk, actually, but he didn't do it. They do make good pets too."

* On the New York Yankees, Joe Torre and resigning free agents: "Well, it's good they get in the World Series. Last year, they didn't get in. Their pitching wasn't that good last year, this year was good pitching and they didn't win. (Torre), he'll be there this year. He don't know what he's going to do yet. Clemens, I was with him last night and I asked him if he was going to Texas. He said, 'I'm not going.' What has he got to prove? Unless some guy really gave him a lot of money. The guy we really got to sign is Pettitte. They'd better. I think it really helps that Stottlemyre said he's coming back."

* On Yao Ming: "Real tall. I asked him, 'how come you don't pitch?' He said he doesn't know how to play ball."

* On George Steinbrenner: "George? He's gonna do what he wants anyhow, what's the difference?"

And finally, on how he enjoyed his afternoon in sunny Southwest Florida: "It was very good. It was fun. You got Bert Blyleven here, Bob Turley, it makes it real good. They're very nice people. This is the first time I've been down here. It's not bad so far, but I'm leaving Sunday. I have to go to another dinner."

Thanks, Yogi, you were great.

As always.

Contact Sports Editor Dana Oppedisano at 213-6045 or doppedisano@naplesnews.com