download PDF

Yogi Berra, Yankees legend and Hall of Famer may be better known for the way he creatively butchered the English language, with what became known as Yogi-isms.

Here are 35:

1.“It ain’t over till it’s over.”

2. “It’s deja-vu all over again.”

3. “I usually take a two-hour nap from 1 to 4.”

4. “Never answer an anonymous letter.”

5. “We made too many wrong mistakes.”

6. “You can observe a lot by watching.”

7. “The future ain’t what it used to be.”

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

9. “It gets late early out here.”

10. “If the people don’t want to come out to the
       ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.”

11. “Baseball is 90 percent mental.
       The other half is physical.”

12. “Pair up in threes.”

13. “Why buy good luggage, you only use it
       when you travel.”

14. “Nobody goes there anymore.
       It’s too crowded.”

15. “All pitchers are liars or crybabies.”

16. “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”

17. “Bill Dickey is learning me his experience.”

18. “He hits from both sides of the plate.
       He’s amphibious.”

19. “I always thought that record would stand
       until it was broken.”

20. “I can see how he (Sandy Koufax) won
       25 games. What I don’t understand
       is how he lost five.”

Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra in 1955.

21. “I don’t know (if they were men or women
       fans running naked across the field).
       They had bags over their heads.”

22. “I’m a lucky guy and I’m happy to be
       with the Yankees. And I want to thank
       everyone for making this night necessary.”

23. “I’m not going to buy my kids
       an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school
       like I did.”

24. “In baseball, you don’t know nothing.”

25. “I never blame myself when I’m not hitting.
       I just blame the bat and if it keeps up,
       I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t
       my fault that I’m not hitting,
       how can I get mad at myself?”

26. “I never said most of the things I said.”

27. “It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.”

28. “I think Little League is wonderful.
       It keeps the kids out of the house.”

29. “I wish everybody had the drive he
       (Joe DiMaggio) had. He never did anything
       wrong on the field. I’d never seen
       him dive for a ball, everything was
       a chest-high catch,
       and he never walked off the field.”

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

31. “Take it with a grin of salt.”

32. (On the 1973 Mets) “We were
       overwhelming underdogs.”

33. “The towels were so thick there I could
       hardly close my suitcase.”

34. “You should always go to other people’s
       funerals, otherwise, they won’t come
       to yours.”

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

Sources: Los Angeles Times, Baseball Almanac, Baseball Digest,
Catcher in the Wry (Bob Uecker), Sports Illustrated