Joe Girardi with Yogi.
photo by Tim Evearitt
Yogi conversing with Bobby Richardson
photo by Tim Evearitt
Yogi talks baseball with Derek Jeter.
photo by Tim Evearitt
Yogi in the Yankees' dugout. Mike Mussina is to his left.
photo by Tim Evearitt
Yogi speaks with Bobby Cox whose career began with the Yankees.
photo by Tim Evearitt
For a number of years, I would take my son out of school for a week, with the teacher's permission, so that we could spend a week in March in Florida visiting Spring Training sites.
We first caught up with Yogi Berra in Kissimmee, Florida at the Spring Training site of the Houston Astros. Berra had had a falling out with Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner and taken a coaching job with the Astros. Tad and I took several photos of Yogi. I asked Tad what Berra said when he was taking his picture. The response was, “Hurry up, kid. I've gotta get to the ball field.” Tad got 3-4 baseballs signed by the Hall of Famer.
Later, after Yogi had been reconciled with Steinbrenner, Berra would leave his New Jersey home and travel to the Yankees' Spring Training camp at Tampa. He traveled with the team and was at the Braves' camp near Orlando whenever Atlanta hosted New York.
Although getting up in age, he got around well. A fan favorite, he took time to sign autographs but seemed most at ease around the batting cage. Of course, reporters were eager to get interviews.
The first photo in the gallery is of Yogi immediately after I interviewed him. As an educator, I asked Berra if there were any teachers who had a special influence on him as a youth. After telling me that he dropped out after junior high school, he mentioned a junior high teacher. “What was it about her, Yogi.” Recalling that he was from a poor Italian family in St. Louis, he stated, “She was kind to us guys and treated us nice.”
Upon his passing, a writer expressed, “Berra has risen from working-class St. Louis to the highest level of prominence in this country. But he always carried with him the humility of his upbringing and the appreciation that he'd been remarkably blessed.” So true.
A number of the photos were taken in 2007 at the Braves' Disney World Complex. A photographer friend told me he was from from the hometown of Bobby Richardson in South Carolina and had Richardson's phone number. He hoped to get Richardson on the phone and let him talk with Berra. This in fact is what happened and there are photos with Yogi talking with Richardson on the phone.
My photo of Yankee's manager of Joe Girardi with Yogi, fails to reflect the warmth the Yankees' manager had for Berra. But on the passing of the Yogi, Girardi said that Berra had a knack for instantly making everyone in a room feel comfortable, telling stories in a humble way. Though Girardi was always in awe of Berra, he said that Berra never made him feel like he should have been.
"When you were in his presence, I always felt like I was talking to my grandfather," Girardi said. "I just felt comfortable. I always felt he was going to pull something out of his pocket, a piece of licorice, and give it to you. It was a joy to be around him, and that's who Yogi was."
There is a photo with Yogi and Derek Jeter taken during batting practice. Berra and Jeter were often seen sharing laughs together, especially during Spring Training. Their mutual appreciation and respect was evident to all.
"To those who didn't know Yogi personally, he was one of the greatest baseball players and Yankees of all time," Jeter wrote on Wednesday in a post on his website, The Players' Tribune. "To those lucky ones who did, he was an even better person. To me, he was a dear friend and mentor.
There was only one Yogi Berra. We will miss hima and my son and I will cherish out memories