Stengel:
"I broke in with four hits and the writers promptly
declared they had seen the new Ty Cobb. It took me only a
few days to correct that impression."
"All right, everybody line up alphabetically according to your height."
"I made up my mind, but I made it up both ways."
"Being with a woman never hurt no professional baseball player.
It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in."
"Good pitching will always stop good hitting, and vice versa."
"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from
the guys who are undecided."
On hearing that a rival manager was trying to win the pennant with just three pitchers::
"Well, well, well, I heard it couldn't be done,
but it don't always work."
On players who did not drink:
"It only helps them if they can play."
On winning the 1958 World Series:
"I couldna done it without my players."
On being asked how the Mets were doing:
"Well, we've got this Johnny Lewis in the outfield.
They hit a ball to him yesterday, and he turned left, then he
turned right, then he went straight back and caught the ball.
He made three good plays in one. And Greg Goossen, he's only twenty
and with a good chance in ten years of being thirty."
On being asked about his future in the spring of 1965:
"How the hell should I know? Most of the people
my age are dead. You could look it up."
To his excuse-prone Mets:
"You make your own luck. Some people have bad
luck all their lives."
Yogi:
"If you can't imitate him, don't copy him."
"Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical."
"You can observe a lot by watching."
"In basball, you don't know nothing."
"A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore."
"It's deja vu all over again."
"If you come to a fork in the road, take it."
"I usually take a two-hour nap, from
one o'clock to four."
"If the people don't want to come out to
the park, nobody's going to stop them."
"Why buy good luggage? You only use
it when you travel."
"Think! How the hell are you gonna
think and hit at the same time?"
"I didn't really say everthing I said."
Hey Yogi, what time is it?
On being asked his cap size at the beginning of spring training:
"I don't know, I'm not in shape."
On why the Yankees lost the 1960 series to Pittsburgh:
"We made too many wrong mistakes."
On Ted Williams:
"He is a big clog in their machine."
On the tight 1973 National League pennant race:
"It ain't over 'til it's over."
On being told by the wife of New York Mayor John V. Lindsay that he looked cool despite
the heat:
"You don't look so hot, either."
On Yogi Berra Appreciation Day in St. Louis in 1947:
"I want to thank you for making this day necessary."
On the American League situation:
"The other teams could make trouble
for us if they win."
After receiving a check made out to
"Bearer" for his appearance on Jack Buck's pregame show in St. Louis:
"How long have you known me, Jack? And
you still don't know how to spell my name."
Dale Berra, Pittsburgh Pirate shortstop and son of noted linguist Yogi
Berra, on the comparisons being made between him and his father:
"Our similarities are different."
Asked if first baseman Don Mattingly had
exceeded his expectations this season:
"I'd say he's done more than
that."
On the aquisition of fleet Ricky Henderson:
"He can run anytime he wants. I'm
giving him the red light."
On a fancy White House dinner he attended:
"It was hard to have a conversation with anyone,
there were so many people talking."
Don Baylor, New York Yankees DH, on Billy Martin and his predecessor
Yogi Berra:
"Playing for Yogi is like playing for
your father; playing for Billy is like playing
for your father-in-law."
Reminiscing during a tv interview about New York Yankee
battery mate Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series:
"It's never happened in the World Series
competition, and it still hasn't."
After Milwaukee Brewer manager Phil Garner told him that he
had said a Yogi-ism:
After accepting an invitation to dine at
the White House this week:
"I thought they said steak dinner, but
then I found it was a state dinner."
