The Life And Yogi-isms Of ‘A Yankee Everyone Could Love’
There’s not much I can add to the remembrances of Yogi Berra that have poured forth -- no, gushed -- this week after his death at the age of 90.
Here are some of the best tributes of the baseball Hall of Famer, D-Day veteran, commercial pitchman and master of his own brand of wisdom. There are many more, but I especially liked these:
Allen Barra, author of “Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee,” in The Daily Beast, on Berra’s legacy beyond the diamond, and the generation who watched him play;
Roger Angell of The New Yorker, who just turned 95 and did see Berra play (paywall);
At Sports Illustrated, Alex Belth, creator of the magnificent Bronx Banter Blog, writes that Berra was “a Yankee everyone could love, which is perhaps the greatest Yogi-ism of all.”
Joe Posnanski at NBC Sports writes that “Berra liked that his words made people laugh. But they never told his story.”
Roy Peter Clark, master writing instructor at The Poynter Institute, on “eight language lessons from Yogi.”
Goodreads has a comprehensive list of books by, and about, Yogi. It's over. RIP. A life well-lived, and fondly remembered.
Best reads of the week
Another beloved baseball legend received similar praise upon his passing. But at Chicago magazine, longtime Windy City sports journalist Ron Rapoport writes that Ernie Banks’ final years were far from idyllic.
The recent bloodbath of layoffs at The New York Daily News hit the sports department especially hard. Among the veterans let go was columnist Filip Bondy, author of the newly published “The Pine Tar Game,” and who at 63 has an unexpected abundance of time to write more books: "At my age, I don't think the phone is going to be ringing off the hook."
Monday Night Football turned 45 this week, and at Forbes, Maury Brown writes that it “changed how America viewed the game.”
Robert Birnbaum, who writes about books for The Daily Beast, dropped his best books about football list that I think focuses far too much on the here and now, especially the hot topics of concussions and violence. But at least “It’s Good to be Gronk” (really?) is more than offset by a lavish new book featuring the pro football work of legendary Sports Illustrated photographer Neil Leifer.
Another of Birnbaum's authors, Nicholas Dawidoff (of the excellent "Collision Low Crossers"), addresses how the NFL sanitizes its television product. In The New Yorker, he calls it nothing less than "the comprehensive illusion of football." (paywall)
University of Illinois history professor Adrian Burgos Jr. is teaching a sports and society class this fall that includes an explanation of how barnstorming put a dent in Jim Crow.
As the Rugby World Cup continues in England -- and it will be going on for a while -- is anyone in America paying attention?
Off the sports grid
As part of its 1,000th issue celebration, Esquire magazine has created a complete digital archive -- going back to 1933 -- that’s aimed partly at preservation, and partly at trying a new business model.
The first month is free for what’s being called Esquire Classic; after that subscriptions are $4.99 a month or $45 a year. A podcast will start on Oct. 5.
Certain stories, like Gay Talese’s truly classic “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” which turns 50 next year, will remain free to read.
For sports lovers, this means that they can look around well beyond the eight sports stories Esquire collected in e-book form in 2013, and featured writing from David Foster Wallace, John Irving, Tom Wolfe, W.C. Heinz and Richard Ben Cramer.
Nieman Lab takes a closer look at how, and why, Esquire Classic came to be. Senior features editor Tyler Cabot admits it’s “one big experiment.” Editor David Granger’s note to readers has more.
Alexandra Alter, who covers publishing for The New York Times, issues the latest “print books aren’t dead yet” update, based on recent sales figures, and how independent and small booksellers are encouraged. She quotes one relieved store owner claiming that “the e-book terror has subsided.” But for how long, though? Such exultations don't address the continuing decline of print, so I'm not sure how much celebrating is appropriate.
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