What Time Is It? You Mean Now? by YOGI BERRA

Author:YOGI BERRA
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SIMON & SCHUSTER PAPERBACKS
Published: 2003-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

“It Was a Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity, and I’ve Had a Couple of Those.”

When you hear that America is a place of opportunity, it’s true. There are plenty of things anybody can be if they work hard enough—and they’re given the chance. Heck, look at all the ballplayers in the big leagues today; they come from everywhere—from South America to Japan and even beyond. They all got an opportunity to show what they could do and they did it. Most everybody in life gets a chance to prove themselves at something, and usually you get more than one chance. But it’s better to do better the second time, or you’ll soon be running out of chances.

I feel fortunate for my opportunity—me, a kid from The Hill, the son of immigrants, who quit school but got a chance to play baseball. That’s the great thing about this game—poor boy, rich boy, they’re all on equal footing in professional baseball. What counts is ability and only that.

I don’t agree when someone says something is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” How do they know? Why only once? Maybe sales guys are trained to say that, I don’t know; we always hear that stuff, “now for a limited time only” or “don’t let this opportunity pass you by,” but that’s just salesmen talk. Opportunities can happen out of the blue. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize an opportunity or where it will lead, but if you make the most of whatever you’re doing, and if opportunity comes and you’re ready maybe you’ll get lucky.

Playing American Legion baseball as a teenager was a great opportunity for me. I didn’t make any money, but it was a tremendous experience. It was my first organized team—Stockham Post—and I got my first actual uniform, got to travel and meet different people, got to test my skills against real good players, and I also got a break because our manager was Leo Browne, who loved baseball and liked me. He arranged for me and Joe Garagiola to try out for the St. Louis Cardinals in Sportsman’s Park when we were sixteen. Joe got a $500 signing bonus, and I got nothing, just Branch Rickey telling me that I’d never be a big-league ballplayer. A year later, after the 1942 World Series, Browne called his friend John Schulte, who was a coach for the Yankees and lived in St. Louis. He told Schulte I was worth the $500, so the Yankees signed me.

When opportunity knocks, you got to answer—especially in baseball, which is a game of opportunities and missed opportunities. It can rip your heart out and then make you as happy as a clam. I think the biggest regrets in life are missed opportunities, but you can’t get pessimistic over things that should’ve been or you’ll just go into a depression.

One of the worst things I ever felt was back in 1951 when Allie Reynolds was working on a no-hitter in the ninth inning. We got two outs, then needed to get Ted Williams, only the greatest hitter in the game, for the final out.

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