REGGIE Jackson is Mr. October. Yogi Berra is Mr. World Series.
Another Yankee-less Fall Classic begins Wednesday and Yogi will be watching. No one has more World Series memories than Berra, who owns 10 World Series rings. No one will catch him.
Derek Jeter seemed to be on his way, winning four World Series his first five seasons, but Jeter and the Yankees haven’t turned the trick since 2000, which led to this wild week in Yankees history.
At the time of this interview with Berra, Joe Torre had yet to tell the Yankees he was walking away from their offer. Yogi is a huge fan of Torre.
“I played for a lot of great managers, Joe is right up there with them, heck, 12 postseason appearances in a row,” said Berra, who managed the Yankees two different times and was fired by George Steinbrenner in 1985, replaced by Billy Martin. “It’s a funny game. Managers are hired to be fired, but you got to have the pitching to win.”
There was never any better World Series pitching than Don Larsen’s perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series. Berra was catching.
“As long as this game’s been played, it’s never happened except that one time,” Berra, 82, said. The last pitch, a called strike on Dale Mitchell, Berra noted, was “right on the corner.”
Berra raced out to Larsen and leaped into his arms.
“That was a great feeling; I wish it was the last game of the Series,” Berra said. “It’s funny; he pitched the second game of the Series and blew a six-run lead. I was never expecting a perfect game, but everything I put down, he got over. He only got behind on one hitter that was in the first inning to Pee Wee Reese, 3-and-2. He never threw three balls again. We worked together real good, he never shook me off the whole game. He had a good fastball. He could throw hard.”
The Yankees lost Game 6, 1-0, but in Game 7, Berra hit two home runs, fulfilling a request from his beloved mother, who was hospitalized with diabetes. She asked him to hit a home run for her. Berra never let his mother down, and that remains his most cherished World Series game.
In all, Berra appeared in 75 World Series games, spanning 14 World Series from 1947 to 1963. People can watch Game 4 of the 2007 World Series on Oct. 28 with him at the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center. Tickets are $250 (973-655-2378).
“It’s a lot of fun, we have popcorn, hot dogs and hamburgers, it’s just like you’re going to a ballgame,” Berra said. “People ask questions. We give out gifts to them. They second-guess. They ask, ‘Would you have done that, Yogi?'”
Times have changed since Berra first appeared in a World Series 60 years ago. The Yankees beat the Dodgers in seven games in that 1947 Classic.
When it ended Oct. 6, Berra went home to St. Louis to work at Sears, Roebuck & Co. His friend and fellow major leaguer Joe Garagiola also worked there. Berra was stationed in the hardware department.
“I didn’t know too much about hardware; Joe worked in the sports department,” Berra said.
You could buy a lawn mower from someone who had just hit the first pinch-hit home run in World Series history, a salesman who would go on to set a record with 259 World Series at-bats, bat .274 with 71 hits, 41 runs, 32 walks, 12 home runs and 39 RBIs.
Back then, players would call their own meetings. In one such pre-Series meeting, Berra recalled backup catcher Charlie Silvera saying, “I need a new wing on my house. Let’s go, boys.”
Berra’s first World Series share was $4,000. He made $5,000 for the entire 1947 season.
“That was a big bonus, boy,” he said.
Berra and the Yankees won five straight World Series from 1949 through 1953.
“That’s never been done before. Jeter almost had it, I told him he’s got to start all over,” Berra said. “It’s pretty tough to get five in a row; everything changes.”
Not everything. Yogi Berra forever remains the same lovable Mr. World Series.