Word: yogis
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...Kidding. Ah, but Yogi was smarter than the average bear. While he was getting yuks, Yankee pitchers were getting the sign and the team was winning pennants-ten under Casey Stengel, three straight under laconic Ralph Houk. For fun and profit, Yogi built a bowling alley in Clifton, N.J., became a vice president of something called Yoo-Hoo chocolate drink, and prospered to the point that he could claim to be "half a millionaire." Stengel liked to call him "Mr. Berra, my assistant manager," and Houk promoted him to player-coach this year. No one could figure out if they...
Sportswriters called him "the ballplayer Ring Lardner missed," and when Yogi was beaned in Detroit, the papers reported: "Xray pictures of Berra's head showed nothing." Rival players hung by one hand from the dugout roof when he came to bat, scratching their armpits with the other. "Hey, Yog," they yelled. "You still sleeping in trees?" One opposing catcher used to watch Yogi step into the batting cage, then bellow: "Quick, men! Shut the gate! You got him." TV even got into the act with a "Yogi Bear" cartoon series about an animal that walks like...
...Yankee front office never kids. Owners Dan Topping and Del Webb started thinking about Berra a year ago, right after the 1962 World Series. General Manager Roy Hamey wanted to retire, Ralph Houk looked like the right man for that job, and with Yogi taking over on the field the Yankees could at least expect a rise in attendance. Even if they lost, Yogi was sure to tickle the turnstiles. For once, Berra was speechless. He kept mum about it all year long, just standing there in the first-base coach's box "observing...
...manager, Yogi will take a pay cut of perhaps $10,000 ("We'll make do," says his wife), and the mantle of dignity rests a bit awkwardly on his bulky shoulders. Last week he chuckled happily over congratulatory telegrams, including one from Mantle and Pitcher Whitey Ford: WE WOULD LIKE OUR UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE TO BECOME PROFESSIONAL GOLFERS...
Suave in a dark business suit, Yogi signed his one-year contract, sweated through his first press conference ("Maybe I shoulda stayed a player"), and then raced home to Montclair, N.J., to report the day's big doings to his family. "You," asked Lawrence Peter Berra Jr., 13, "a manager...