Yogi Berra left a lasting impact on baseball, but his legacy will also live on in the English language.
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America woke up on Wednesday to the sad news that the legendary Yogi Berra had passed away overnight. The manager, coach, 18-time All-Star, 13-time World Champion, member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and three-time American League MVP is best known for his indelible impact on the sport of baseball.
Yogi Berra’s impact on America’s social fabric goes well beyond baseball, however. His legacy will live on in the very way Americans use language. Baseball fans have long been familiar with Yogiisms, but some of his phrases have become part of the American English vernacular used by both baseball fans and non-sports fans alike. Berra even wrote a characteristically Yogi-esque book titled “The Yogi Book: I Really Didn’t Say Everything I Said.” Still, even if he didn’t say them or invent them, his affable personality and presence popularized them.
Berra was obvious before obvious was cool, all in the context of his beloved sport. His use of the phrase predated the over-popularity of “it is what it is” and sports commentators who feel compelled to wax philosophical with lines like “the other team needs to score more points than their opponent if they want to come out on top in today’s game!” Many so-called Maddenisms are uninspired riffs on Yogiisms. John Madden and Jon Gruden have nothing on Yogi Berra.
He had a knack for making perfect sense, while making no sense at all. “It’s deja vu all over again!” is inextricably linked to Berra who used the phrase to describe an iconic moment in baseball when Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris hit back to back home runs. “It ain’t over till it’s over” is also tied to a historic episode in baseball, originating during the 1973 pennant race when the Mets rose to the top of the National League East from fifth place at the end of August. Yet the popularity of the phrase transcends baseball, and even sports in general.
Here are a few other such phrases Berra coined or popularized:
“I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.”
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
“A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
“Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
“Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.”
“Never answer an anonymous letter.”
“We made too many wrong mistakes.”
“It gets late early out here.”
Next time you make fun of a bumbling sports commentator or roll your eyes at overused quips like “it is what it is,” take a moment to remember Yogi Berra. Far from clumsy, inept, or trite, his use of the language managed to be simultaneously silly and thought provoking; meaningful yet meaningless; paradoxical, yet perfectly congruent.
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