Today would have been Yogi Berra's 95th birthday. Do you, by chance, remember the time Berra, a 10-time World Series champ and one of the greatest catchers to ever don a major league uniform, threw his cigarettes at Yankees owner George Steinbrenner? Maybe you don't, but Tim Kurkjian sure does.
The veteran baseball scribe recalled Berra's infamous spat with Steinbrenner in Tuesday's column for ESPN. New York's meddling owner wanted to replace one of Berra's players, but the Yankees skipper wasn't having it, blowing his top by hurling a pack of cigarettes (which he cleverly hid up his sleeve) in Steinbrenner's direction. That show of anger must have gotten the point across as Steinbrenner decided to keep the player at Berra's behest.
Kurkjian shared plenty of other nuggets in celebration of Berra's birthday, including the time he roomed with teammate Bobby Brown, a third baseman who spent his free hours studying to become a heart surgeon. On one occasion, Brown was reading a medical textbook while Yogi, also at home, thumbed through one of his preferred comic books. At the end of the night, the three-time AL MVP and eighth-grade graduate asked his roommate, "How did yours turn out?"
Berra was a human quote machine, but he was also an all-time great, launching 358 homers while submitting just 414 strikeouts over a 19-year playing career spent almost exclusively in the Bronx (his final season came with the cross-town Mets in 1965). As a minor leaguer, Berra once plated 23 runs in a double-header, needing just one homer to accomplish that Herculean feat. Kurkjian also notes Berra was nearly traded to the Boston Red Sox in 1947 (the two archrivals briefly considered a swap of Hall-of-Fame outfielders Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams), but obviously that proposed blockbuster never reached the finish line.
Yogi was one of a kind. Happy 95th to the man who once reasoned, "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
