When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It! by Yogi Berra

Author:Yogi Berra [Berra, Yogi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7868-7172-8
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2001-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

21

IT AIN’T OVER ’TIL

IT’S OVER

As a coach with the Yankees in the early 1980s, I appreciated the good wishes. © Yvonne Hemsey/Liaison

Idon’t think there’s a truer lesson in life. Never assume anything’s really finished or officially happened … until it’s really finished or officially happened. It can be a ball game or a closing on a new house. It can be a war or an election. It’s like they tell you as a kid—don’t count your chickens before they hatch.

I’ve always lived by this rule, especially when things look darkest. It’s a great thing to tell yourself when you don’t get what you want most. Nobody ever wanted to be a major-league ballplayer more than me. When Branch Rickey told me at age sixteen after a tryout with the Cardinals, my hometown team, that I was too awkward and should find another career, I was pretty brokenhearted. Coming from the smartest man in baseball, it was real discouraging. But I couldn’t accept that my baseball career—my great hope—was over before it started. I reminded myself that I was still young. I could improve by keeping on playing, which I did in American Legion ball, and eventually I’d get another chance. And I did when I got signed by the Yankees in 1943 to play for their minor-league team in Norfolk.

I know politicians like to say it ain’t over ’til it’s over, because it gives them hope. That’s good. They should be positive and keep their supporters hopeful. My mom and pop and all the Italian families on The Hill were big on Harry Truman. They liked him because he was a Democrat and for the common man, and not afraid to speak his mind. And he always was optimistic, despite people telling him he couldn’t win. “I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he’d taken a poll in Egypt?” he used to say. The newspaper that ran the headline “Dewey Wins” proved that the election really wasn’t over until the last votes were counted. Then it was over.

The 2000 presidential election was a dandy, too. The election was over, but it wasn’t. At least for a long time, until all the recounts and courts got into it. To be honest, I didn’t think I’d ever hear “It ain’t over ’til it’s over” so much in a political race.

A lot of people think I said, “It’s not over until the fat lady sings,” but it wasn’t me. It was Dick Motta, who used to coach the Washington Bullets in the 1970s. His favorite saying was, “The opera isn’t over until the fat lady sings,” so when things didn’t look good for his team, he’d tell everyone to wait for the fat lady. I guess he was saying everything has to run its proper course.

That’s what I learned about baseball. It’s a long haul. The season is played out day by day, night by night, and that’s why the game has timeless appeal. No matter how terrible things look, you have a chance for a great redemption at the end … if you believe you can do it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.