The late, great Yogi Berra (1925 – 2015) was an extraordinary baseball player and coach. He was born Lorenzo Piero Berra in a working-class St. Louis Italian immigrant neighborhood. He served on a rocket boat on D-Day in World War II and was married for 65 years to Carmen Berra.
Writer and director Sean Mullin opens this entertaining documentary with a ceremony at the 2015 All-Star Game in which Henry Aaron, Johnny Bench, Sandy Koufax, and Willy Mays were saluted as baseball’s greatest living players.
Lindsay Berra, Yogi’s granddaughter, points out that statistics from his phenomenal career -- ten World Series championships, three American League Most Valuable Player Awards, and eighteen All-Star appearances -- prove that this batter, catcher, and coach was as great a player as the four legendary players honored that day. Further evidence is presented by Berra’s three sons and passionate fans including Billy Crystal, Derek Jeter, Bob Costas, and Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully. They note his skills on the field and also focus on what he brought to the game as the coach and manager of both the Yankees and the New York Mets.
The documentary touches on other things for which Berra was famous, including his interesting observations known as “Yogisms.” He was not particularly pleased when caricatures were made of him as Yogi the Bear. The public’s fascination with his off-the-field persona sometimes overshadowed their appreciation for this remarkable contributions to baseball.
Perhaps the best tribute to Yogi Berra is the one offered by Lindsay: “What I always say about Grandpa is, as good as he was as a ballplayer, he was an even better human. Even though he was the very best at what he did, he never for a moment thought he was better than anyone else. That’s a refreshing thing in our heroes.”