The Sunday Funnies

In November of 1964, the New York Mets signed legendary lefty Warren Spahn, then 44 years old. A week later, they added legendary catcher Yogi Berra, who was approaching 40.

Said Spahn: "I don't know if we'll be the oldest battery in baseball, but we'll be the ugliest."

The Sunday Funnies

The late Yogi Berra on the difficulties of playing third base:

"Third ain't so bad if nothing is hit to you."

Notes, quotes and comment

The 2015 Twins are not a particularly outstanding team. Their record (78-73) is too close to .500 for that. But they have a resilience that seems noteworthy.

After they were swept in Saturday's doubleheader, I had (again) essentially written them off as a playoff contender. Three wins-in-a-row later, they are, in the cliche phrase, in control of their own destiny. Win them all, they win a wild card spot.

Yes, they're a game out of the second wild card. But they are tied with Houston in the loss column, and that's the crucial factor. If the Twins win out, and the Astros win out, they will finish the schedule dead even -- and go to a game 163.

The odds of them winning out are, of course, incredibly thin, but they don't have to. They will have to win a lot, however. And the more whoever gets that second wild-card wins, the less pedestrian their record will be.

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Let's put the remaining schedules for the wild card contenders on the record. I'll include the Rangers, in first place in the West, because much of their remaining schedule is against the Astros and the Angels. One of those teams could catch them for the division crown, which would leave them in the WC picture.

The Twins have 11 games to play. They finish their homestand today with Cleveland, Then it's off to Detroit for three games Friday-Sunday and to Cleveland for four. They finish at home with three games against the Royals.

Houston (nine games to play) is off today. They are home against the Texas Rangers this weekend for three games, then hit the road for three games at Seattle and three games at Arizona.

Anaheim (10) is off today. They are home for three games against Seattle and three games against Oakland, then finish with four games at Texas.

Texas (10) finishes its series at Oakland today, then travels to Houston for three games before returning home for three against Detroit and four against the Angels.

Baltimore is three games behind the Twins, Cleveland 3.5 back. I'll not bother with their schedules. Nor will I bother looking at the Yankees, who are four games ahead of the Astros. If the Yanks come back to the pack, great, but I'll let them actually do so before I start thinking about them.

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A belated note on Yogi Berra, since I had a couple of people ask me about it yesterday. The Hanna-Barbara animated cartoon character was dubbed in the ballplayer's honor, not the other way around. Berra had been known as "Yogi" from childhood after a pal saw him sitting crosslegged "like a yogi." The cartoon character debuted in 1958, by which time Berra had won his three MVPs.

The initial Associated Press bulletin on Berra's death Thursday morning identified him as "Yogi Bear." Ah, the curse of becoming such a cultural icon that cartoon characters swipe your name.

Yogi Berra, 1925-2015

Yogi Berra as manager of the New
York Mets in 1983. The Mets went to
the World Series that year despite
being barely better than ,500.

Always go to other people's funerals. Otherwise they won't go to yours.

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra

The family of Yogi Berra announced this morning that the legendary catcher, manager and malaprop philosopher died on Tuesday.

It was appropriate timing; Sept. 22 was also the anniversary of Berra's major league debut.

If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra

The question "Who is the greatest catcher in baseball history" has many plausible answers. One of the best answers is Yogi Berra.

A three-time American League Most Valuable Player, Berra was the rare catcher who sustained a middle-of-the-order bat for a full career. Bill James once wrote that Berra made Casey Stengel a genius by being the one guy who could hit cleanup, catch 140 games a year and never have an off season.

So I’m ugly. I never saw anyone hit with his face.

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra

Stengel and Berra had aspects in common -- faces that drew gibes and a penchant for wisdom hidden in fractured English. When Berra joined the Yankees, one teammate reacted: "They finally found one uglier than (Charlie) Keller." 

We were overwhelming underdogs.

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra on the 1973 Mets

Berra was done as a player by the time I started paying attention to baseball. But I well remember his work managing the New York Mets in 1973. He had a rotation featuring Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Jon Matlack and a broken-down Willie Mays in center field. The Mets won just 82 regular season games, but that was enough to win the Al East. Then Berra piloted them past the Big Red Machine of Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench to get to the World Series, where it took the Mustache Gang A's of Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers seven games to win their second of three consecutive championships.

It’s deja vu all over again.

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra

Berra was, of course, no stranger to the World Series. He holds the records for World Series games played and World Series hits. As a manager, he led the 1964 Yankees to the Fall Classic (and got fired for his efforts); nine years later, as noted, he guided the 1973 Mets to the Series. He never won the title as a manager, but he won 10 as a player and earned another ring as a coach of the 1969 Mets.

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Lawrence Peter "Yogi' Berra

And before he could get his brilliant major league career started, Berra served in the Navy during World War II. He was on a "landing craft support small" off the coast of Normandy on D-Day. His heroics, obviously, went beyond the baseball field.

The future ain’t what it used to be.

It ain't over 'til it's over.

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra

The Sunday Funnies

Yogi Berra was a coach for the Houston Astros in the late 1980s. One day he climbed into the whirlpool and yelped in mock pain.

"What's the matter?" asked a trainer. "Is the water too hot?"

"I don't know," replied Berra. "How hot is it supposed to be?"

Pic of the Week

Yogi Berra, who served on a Navy destroyer in the
English Channel during the D-Day invasion, was
presented with a medal and a quilt during a ceremony
Friday at the Yogi Berra Museum in Montclair, N.J.
Friday was the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

Yogi Berra is 93 now and attended Friday's ceremony honoring his small part in D-Day in a wheelchair.

I've linked before to this story about Berra and D-Day. He's the one Hall of Famer I know of who took part in the invasion. And all those guys -- infantry, sailors, aviators -- deserve credit and honor.

Berra's playing career was well past when I started paying attention to baseball. My real first memory of him is as the manager of the 1973 "You Gotta Believe" Mets, who won an improbable pennant and took the Mustache Gang A's to seven games in the World Series. Tom Seaver at the peak of his powers, Willie Mays at the end of his.

It suddenly occurred to me as I looked at the photos from Friday's event: I'm older now than Berra was when he skippered the Mets to that Series. It was a long time ago.

Yogi Berra and D-Day

Today is June 6, and June 6, 1944, was D-Day — the start of the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France.

I know of three baseball Hall of Famers who saw considerable combat during World War II — Bob Feller, Warren Spahn and Yogi Berra.

Berra was part of the invasion 66 years ago. He was a seaman 1st class on a LCSS — Landing Craft Support Small — which fired rockets to protect the landing troops.

Here's Lawrence Peter Berra, Navy veteran and (my opinion) the greatest catcher in major league history, talking about D-Day with Keith Olbermann in 2004.

The Catcher Project: Yogi Berra

Born: 5-29-25

Career: 1946-1965

Hall of Fame: Yes

Career highlights: AL MVP in 1951, 1954, 1955; second in 1953 and 1956; from 1950 through 1956, he never finished lower in the voting than fourth. Fifteen All-Star teams. Played in 14 World Series, 12 as a regular; won 10 of those World Series. Five seasons of 100-plus RBIs, 10 straight seasons of at least 20 homers.

Career slash line: .285/.348/.482

See his stats here

Games caught after age 30 season: 606. Age in last season as regular catcher: 34. Win shares after age 30 season: 169. Win shares after age 33 season: 70.

Yogi Berra had a war to fight before he got his career started — he was in on the Normandy invasion — but he was still only 21 when he made his major league debut. But it took a while for the Yankees to decide that yes, he really was a catcher; for a few years, he split time between the outfield and catching.

But once Bill Dickey finished "learning me all his experience" — Berra's memorable phrase —Berra was — in Casey Stengel's words — "my man behind the plate." During that remarkable run of top five MVP finishes mentioned above, Berra never caught fewer than 133 games and was usually in the 140s.

That took him though his age 31 season. The catching workload eased off at that point — 121 games in '57, 88 in '58, 116 in '59 — his last season as the clear regular. He was getting older, and Elston Howard was well past ready for duty.

Berra is the one catcher in this pool who clearly transitioned from catcher to another position in his 30s (outfield) and remained a regular, at least for a few years.