I knoe it’s not Berra who was one of my favorites, but:
Ken Clay was a Yankee pitcher from Lynchburg, Virginia. Once he was asked what he thought of Bob Lemmon as a manager.
He said the first game he started for Bob Lemmon, he was getting shelled in the first inning. After a bunch of runs and no outs, Lemmon came out to the mound. Bob Lemmon said, “That’s OK son, why don’t you go get a shower and have a couple of beers.” Thurmon Munson was standing there and said, “Coach, since you’re conceeding the game, can I go have a few beers, too?”
My favorite Thurman Munson story.
Here’s another good one.
A young reporter in Texas noticed that John Lowenstein (Orioles) always caught fly balls one-handed. After the game he asked John, “Who was the first major leaguer to catch a fly ball one-handed.” Without any hesitation, Lowenstein replied, “That was Pete Gray.” The reporter thought he had a scoop and wrote the story without any fact checking. Hint- if you don’t know who Pete Gray was and the circumstances of his playing in the big leagues was, you don’t know baseball. In spite of his handicap, he was a very good ball player.
I was there for this one:
Sitting a few rows up from the Oriole bullpen in old Arlington stadium, the Orioles were gettin blown out by the Rangers. This drunk kept hollaring, “What’s the score!!” This went on for several innings. Then Tim Stoddard came out of the dugout. Tim was a huge man and a relief pitcher who caused Earl Weaver to go through a pack of cigarettes every time he pitched. Tim came over to the rail and shouted at the drunk, “There’s a scoreboard up there; use it!” Then he disappeared back in the dugout. We never heard a peep out of that drunk the rest of the game.
My youngest son wrote Yogi for an autograph about twenty years ago. He sent an old baseball card from the back of a Wheaties’ cereal box for Yogi to sign. In his letter to Yogi he uttered his own Yogi-ism when he penned, “You have been my favorite player for ten years. You would have been my favorite for longer, but I’m only ten years old.” Yogi not only sent the card back signed, but a personal note. Class act on Yogi’s part!