WEBVTT - How Yogi Berra Became an American Original

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<v Speaker 1>This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories,

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<v Speaker 1>the show where America is the star and the American

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<v Speaker 1>people who would surprise. Winning columnist George Will has written

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<v Speaker 1>extensively about baseball and has said this about America's attraction

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<v Speaker 1>to it.

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<v Speaker 2>Quote.

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<v Speaker 1>Sports serves society by providing vivid examples of excellence. One

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<v Speaker 1>of those examples is New York Yankee catcher and cultural

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<v Speaker 1>icon Yogi Bearra. Here's George Will high drive, that's cuddled

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<v Speaker 1>and Yogi Da.

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<v Speaker 2>Don't run high over the train and end up at

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<v Speaker 2>that avenue.

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<v Speaker 1>It ain't over it until it's over. Ninety per cent

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<v Speaker 1>of his name is half a metal.

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<v Speaker 2>When you come to the fork in the world, take it.

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<v Speaker 2>It's days have roll all over again.

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<v Speaker 1>And the yanke is you pampas and look at thero

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<v Speaker 1>take you back ritting Popkadella.

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<v Speaker 2>The eighteen year old US Navy in listee, thinking it

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<v Speaker 2>sounded less boring than the dull training he was doing

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<v Speaker 2>in nineteen forty four, volunteered for service on what he

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<v Speaker 2>thought an officer had called rocket ships. Actually they were small, slow,

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<v Speaker 2>vulnerable boats used as launching pads for rockets to give

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<v Speaker 2>close in support for troops assaulting beaches. The service on

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<v Speaker 2>those boats certainly was not boring. At dawn on June sixth,

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<v Speaker 2>nineteen forty four, that sailor was a few hundred yards

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<v Speaker 2>off Omaha Beach. Lawrence Peter Barrot, who died at ninety,

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<v Speaker 2>had a knack for being where the action was because

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<v Speaker 2>he stood. When he stood. As a catcher, he spent

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<v Speaker 2>a lot of time crouching at baseball's most physically and

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<v Speaker 2>mentally demanding position five foot seven inches. He confirmed the

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<v Speaker 2>axiom that the beauty of baseball is that a player

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<v Speaker 2>does not need to be seven feet tall or seven

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<v Speaker 2>feet wide. Beah's ways, and that one's been a legal ballpark. Well,

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<v Speaker 2>what do you know, Larry beara the bollum Yogi his

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<v Speaker 2>very first time at the play in the major leagues

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<v Speaker 2>against the A's, and what does he do?

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<v Speaker 1>He hits the home run.

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<v Speaker 2>The shortstop during Yogi's first Yankee years was an even

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<v Speaker 2>smaller Italian American one hundred and fifty pound Phil Risuto,

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<v Speaker 2>listed at a generous five feet six Yogi had as

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<v Speaker 2>sportswriter Alan Barraw says in his book Yogi Barra Eternal Yankee,

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<v Speaker 2>The Winningness Career in the history of American sports. He

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<v Speaker 2>played on Yankee teams that went to the World Series

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<v Speaker 2>fourteen times in seventeen years. He won ten World Series rings.

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<v Speaker 2>No other player is more than nine. He won three

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<v Speaker 2>MVP Awards. Only Barry Bonds has more, with seven, but

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<v Speaker 2>four of them probably painted by performance enhancing drugs. In

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<v Speaker 2>seven consecutive seasons nineteen fifty through nineteen fifty six, Yogi

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<v Speaker 2>finished in the top four in MVP voting. Only Bill

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<v Speaker 2>Russell of the Boston Celtics eleven NBA Championships, FIVEP Awards

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<v Speaker 2>and Henri Richard of the Montreal Hockey Team eleven NHL

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<v Speaker 2>Championships have records of winning that exceed Yogis. He grew

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<v Speaker 2>up in what he and others called the Dago Hill

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<v Speaker 2>section of Saint Louis. When the Italian Americans who lived

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<v Speaker 2>there did not take offense at the name, they had

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<v Speaker 2>bigger problems. Biographer Alan Barrow notes that in an eighteen

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<v Speaker 2>ninety five advertisement seeking labor to build a New York reservoir,

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<v Speaker 2>the ad said whites would be paid a dollar thirty

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<v Speaker 2>to a dollar fifty a day, colored workers a dollar

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<v Speaker 2>twenty five to a dollar forty, and a Batalians a

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<v Speaker 2>dollar fifteen to a dollar twenty five. The term wop

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<v Speaker 2>may have begun as an acronym for the phrase without papers,

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<v Speaker 2>as many Italians were when they arrived at Alas Island.

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<v Speaker 2>American sports and ethnicity have been interestingly entangled. The name

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<v Speaker 2>fighting Irish was originally a disparagement by opponents of Notre Dame,

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<v Speaker 2>which for many years had problems filling its football schedule

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<v Speaker 2>because of anti Catholic bigotry, but sports also have been

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<v Speaker 2>stolvents of a sense of a partness felt by ethnic groups.

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<v Speaker 2>In nineteen twenty three, the Sporting News, which for many

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<v Speaker 2>decades was described as the Bible of baseball, except by

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<v Speaker 2>baseball fans, who described the Bible as the sporting News

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<v Speaker 2>of religion, called the national pastime the essence of the nation. Quote.

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<v Speaker 2>In a democratic, Catholic, real American game like baseball, there

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<v Speaker 2>has been no distinction raised except tacit understanding that a

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<v Speaker 2>player of Ethiopian descent is ineligible the Mick, the Sheeni,

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<v Speaker 2>the Wop, the Dutch and the Chink, the Cuban, the Indian,

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<v Speaker 2>the Jap or the so called land glowed Saxon. His

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<v Speaker 2>nationality is never a matter of moment, if he can

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<v Speaker 2>pitch hitterfield ah diversity. In nineteen oh eight, The Sporting

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<v Speaker 2>News said this about a Giant's rookie Charlie buck Herzog quote,

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<v Speaker 2>the long nosed routers are crazy. Whenever young Herzog does

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<v Speaker 2>anything noteworthy, cries of Herzog, Hertzog, good boy, Hertzog go

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<v Speaker 2>up regularly, and there would be no let up even

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<v Speaker 2>if a million ham sandwiches suddenly fell among these believers

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<v Speaker 2>in percentages and bargains. David Morana sent his biography of

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<v Speaker 2>Pirates the Pirates Roberto Clemente, the first Puerto Rican superstar,

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<v Speaker 2>notes that as late as nineteen seventy one, Clementi's seventeenth

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<v Speaker 2>season one sportswriter still quoted him in phonetic English quote,

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<v Speaker 2>if I have my good armed fee ball, gainst their

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<v Speaker 2>a lethal quicker. In nineteen sixty two, Alvin Dark, manager

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<v Speaker 2>of the San Francisco Giants, banned the speaking of Spanish

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<v Speaker 2>in the clubhouse. Today, with three of the most common

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<v Speaker 2>surnames in baseball being Martinez, Rodriguez, and Gonzales, some managers

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<v Speaker 2>speak Spanish. Yogi's great contemporary, the Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella,

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<v Speaker 2>another three time MVP, was the son of an African

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<v Speaker 2>American mother and Italian American father. With two Italian Americans

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<v Speaker 2>on the Supreme Court, it is difficult to imagine how

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<v Speaker 2>delighted Italian Americans were with their first national celebrity, the

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<v Speaker 2>elegant center fielder on baseball's most glamorous team, Joe DiMaggio,

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<v Speaker 2>the son of a San Francisco fisherman. Demaggio was Big

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<v Speaker 2>Dago to his teammates, Yogi was Little Dago came the

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<v Speaker 2>nation's most beloved sports figure. As Yogi said when Catholic

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<v Speaker 2>Dublin elected a Jewish mayor, only in America.

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<v Speaker 1>And a great job on the production, editing and storytelling

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<v Speaker 1>by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to

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<v Speaker 1>George Will for sharing the story of Yogi Bearra indeed

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<v Speaker 1>only in America, Yogi Berra's story here on our American Stories.

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<v Speaker 1>This is Lee Habib, host of our American Stories. Every

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<v Speaker 1>day we set out to tell the stories of Americans

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<v Speaker 1>past and present, from small towns to big cities, and

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<v Speaker 1>from all walks of life doing extraordinary things. But we

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<v Speaker 1>truly can't do this show without you. Our shows are

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