When You Come to a Fork in the Road, TAKE IT!

When You Come to a Fork in the Road, TAKE IT! Inspiration and Wisdom from One of Baseball s Greatest Heroes: Yogi Berra, with Dave Kaplan. Hyperon: New York, NY, 2001 Book Summary by Douglas W. Green, Ed. D. dgreen@stny.rr.com

Why I summarized this book. I have always been a big fan of Yogi as he seems like such an unlikely hero. He doesn t look like a star and at first his speech doesn t sound like it contains a lot of wisdom. He was the son of poor immigrants and dropped out of school after the 8th grade. In spite of this be became a successful manager and many of his quotations have become known throughout our culture. As this book shows, they are not just amusing. The quotes along with Yogi s philosophy contain a lot of wisdom mixed in with the humor.

When You Come to a Fork in the Road, TAKE IT! Throughout life you come to serious forks in the road - decisions. No matter what decision you make, taking a job, getting married, buying a house, whatever it is you shouldn t look back. Trust your instincts. I ve always done things that feel right. Learn from the choices you make and don t second guess yourself.

When You Come to a Fork in the Road, TAKE IT! On big life decisions get all the advice you can. Talk it over with a parents, a mentor, a teacher, or a coach. They ve had more life experience. They have more miles on them and can help you get on the right path. A teacher once asked me, Don t you know anything? and I said I don t even suspect anything.

Enjoy the moment Nobody can help but be nervous in the World Series or at a job interview, or giving a presentation, or when you re called on in class. You have to channel that nervousness. Enjoy the moment and make it a great experience. You need to learn to relax. You can t be afraid of making a mistake. There s always the next inning, or the next day. Life goes on.

Nobody Did Nothin to Nobody There were many times I had to help my teammates so that bad things didn t happen. When you re part of a team you stand up for your teammates. Your loyalty is to them. You protect them through good and bad, because they d do the same for you.

I ain t in no slump. I just ain t hitting Everybody has slumps. As Catfish Hunter use to say The sun don t shine on the same dog s ass all the time. To break a slump just keep the faith and keep working hard and hope your luck changes. I believe you develop good habits through practice. Bad habits can slip in through different things like injury, carelessness, fatigue, and worry. More than anything, you have to have a good frame of mind.

We have a good time together, even when we re not together. Any marriage is a trust. It s a foundation on which a family is built. Yogi has lived this since his marriage to Carm in 1949. He felt like he was king of the hill then and still does.

I don t know, I m not in shape yet. Yogi said this in spring training one year when someone asked him his hat size. You can t do much about the way you re built. God determines that. But conditioning can go a long way in helping your performance and your confidence. You have to take your health seriously. Sometimes you lose sight of what s happening to your body because of stress or work. I am more obsessive about food than Jenny Craig. Anyway, I like the way my cap size fits now.

Public speaking is one of the best things I hate. Yogi mentions speeches by Lou Gehrig (I m the luckiest man on the face of the earth), Babe Ruth (The only real game is baseball.), and Joe DiMaggio (I want to thank the good lord for making me a Yankee.) He advises that if you have to make a speech, make it from the heart without a script. When acknowledging the crowd at a dinner in his honor Yogi said I want to thank everyone who made this night necessary.

He s learning me all his experience. To do any job you have to be prepared. You can learn by doing but you can also learn by learning. Yogi tells of Bill Dickey who helped him learn how to catch and awaken pride in himself. Everyone should have a mentor. You can always learn from someone else s experience.

If you don t have a bullpen, you got nothing. Most important, you need good talent. (Doug: The most important thing a leader does is find good talent and nurture it.) You need to be encouraging and reassuring even when someone fails. Everyone has a bad day. The idea is not to dwell on it.

If people don t want to come out to the park, nobody s going to stop them. The point is that you can t take anything for granted in baseball, business, or in life. In order to succeed in any endeavor you need to work hard and attend to many details. Don t assume that someone else will do it for you.

You can t win all the time. There are guys out there better than you. I learned a long time ago that losing is a learning experience. It teaches you humility. It teachers you to work harder. It s also a powerful motivator. Accept the loses in life and learn from them. Most of the greatest competitors know how to win and lose graciously. When you lose you have to move on and look at the positives.

Don t get me right, I m just asking. Communication is real important in everything you do. Yogi always had good rapport with his pitchers. We learned to think along the same channels. Teamwork involves a good deal of talk between players and coaches and it s the same in any business. You need to remind people, anticipate situations, and discuss them. Good leaders are good communicators. They let you know what they expect.

If you don t know where you re going, you might not get there. You must have a good idea of what you want. You need a plan along with confidence and desire. I had a good idea of what I wanted so I could devote myself to that goal. Have a vision, a goal of what you want to do. Unless you re sure of where you want to go, you ll never get there.

Ninety percent of the game is half mental. To succeed in anything, you need good intuition and observation. It also helps to have a good memory. As a catcher, I used to study the opposing hitters: their tendencies, their weaknesses, their strengths. As a manager I use to say: You can observe a lot by watching. Always notice the little stuff, it helps.

Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel. I m not big on owning fancy things. I ve come a long way from being the son of immigrant parents who couldn t speak English. I think you are what you are and your values should never change. When I was twelve I helped organize a team. We were the only team who couldn t afford uniforms. That was real motivation for us to beat the other guys. Everyone needs to keep a grip on what s important.

You can observe a lot by watching. It always pays to pay attention. You d be surprised how much you can learn if you really keep an eye on things. As a catcher you are the only player who faces his teammates so you can do a lot of watching. You observe the mannerisms and tendencies of opposing batters and the actions of your pitcher. Observing is learning. If you pay attention you can learn a lot. The one exception was on Omaha Beach during World War II when my lieutenant said Put your head down if you want to keep it.

It s déjà vu all over again. Things have a funny way of happening again, even if it takes a while. The Subway Series in 2000 was a lot like the Yankee-Dodger series in the 1950 s. Who thought John Glenn would go into space 25 years later? Forty years ago it was the $64,000 Question. Today it s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? It s almost like déjà vu.

We made too many wrong mistakes. I baseball and in life, your condition, confidence, and concentration affect your performance. But everyone makes mistakes. Mistakes are physical or mental. There are mistakes, and there s wrong mistakes. They are more serious and more avoidable, most costly, and usually mental. Yogi quotes Casey Stengel as saying Most people my age are dead at the present time. and I won t make the mistake of being 70 again. in response to mistakes made during the 1960 World Series.

Little League is is good thing because it keeps parents off the street and kids out of the house. Yogi never played Little League because there wasn t any where he grew up in St. Louis but he did play a lot of what he calls sandlot baseball where kids just had fun and there was no pressure. He feels Little League can be a good thing when coaches and parents just let kids play and enjoy themselves. It s too bad that many kids don t play unless they are given uniforms, coaches, trophies, and banquets.

A nickel ain t worth a dime anymore. As soon as Yogi and his three brothers were old enough, they had to look for jobs to help support the family. Since money was so hard to come by, Yogi became serious about it. Whenever you negotiate you should leave room for compromise but stick to your guns. Don t let anyone take advantage of you and use whatever leverage you have I ve always been serious about money. Maybe because it was hard to get, and it s never worth what it once was.

It ain t over til it s over. I ve always lived by this rule, especially when things look darkest. At the age of sixteen, Branch Rickey (the smartest man in baseball) told Yogi that he was too awkward and should find another career. He couldn t accept that his great hope was over before it started so he worked hard to improve and get another chance. He cites Harry Truman as saying I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he d taken a poll in Egypt?

It gets late early out here. This quote was in reference to the shadows the showed up early in the afternoon when Yogi started playing left field in Yankee Stadium. Since then many people have seen how it applies to life when your later year come earlier than you expect. Yogi s advice is to take care of yourself, exercise, watch what you eat and drink, and continue to set goals. If you don t set them you can t regret not reaching them.

If you can t imitate him, don t copy him. Always be true to yourself. Be your own person. It s ok to idolize somebody, but you have to do things that are right for you. Role models are very important. Being a good role model means living a positive life, taking care of your family, and doing good for society. If you can copy someone with the same result, that s fine. If you can t, then do it your way.

If I didn t wake up, I d still be sleeping. Bad things can happen, and often do when you leave things to chance. Usually you re late. Being early and being prepared to me, that was a big part of doing my job. I ve always been an early riser. I always get up at 6 A. M. no matter what time it is.

Nobody goes there anymore, it s too crowded. It s not just enough to have a great product. You need to find ways to reinforce customer loyalty. If you don t do that, nobody will go there anymore. The original quote was in reference to a crowded restaurant that was losing customers due to the fact that it had cut back on customer service. The main point is that you need to constantly work to get better.

So I m ugly. So what? I don t hit with my face. The way you look shouldn t affect what you do in life. As Abraham Lincoln use to say, If people say I m two-faced, why would I use this one? Due to his looks, Yogi suffered a lot of insults. They only made him more determined to play harder. He found it to be a test of character. If you ever show someone that they are getting to you, you re dead. Ignore. That s what you gotta do, ignore.

There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time. I owe him my best. Yogi played with Joe DiMaggio (DiMag) for the last five years of Joe s career. For Yogi he was the type of mentor that we all need. He helped Yogi understand the importance of playing hard and playing hurt and what it was to be part of a team. Like Yogi, DiMag was the son of Italian immigrants and didn t finish school. He understood his value to the team and fought for every dollar at contract time. He was also generous to other players who made less than he did.

Usually when you get one of these you re dead or gone. Yogi said this in reference to the opening of the Yogi Berra Museum and Education Center. Yogi gave all of the proceeds from a special day the Yankees had for him to the Lou Gehrig scholarship fund at Columbia University. Since baseball gave him more than her ever hoped for, he has always wanted to give something back and he hopes that others who are well off will do the same.

Only in America Yogi tells the story of how his father and his friend Giovanni Garagiola gave up tenant farming in northern Italy to come the St. Louis to work making bricks. They bought identical houses across the street from each other in the Little Italy section. Their sons, Joe Garagiola and Yogi, both became major leaguers and Joe went on to a career in broadcasting. What are the odds? As Yogi says, only in America.

I d see if I could find the guy that lost it, and if he was poor, I d give it back. People ask me about the business of baseball as if I d gotten an MBA in 8th grade. I say that on good ball clubs and in good companies you need team players. You need everyone to perform and feel important. A lot of organizations aren t good at crediting or rewarding their valuable people. Without them you don t succeed.

I d rather be the Yankee catcher then the president. Yogi has met all of the presidents from Eisenhower, who he fought for on D-Day, to George W. Bush. Many have quoted him and his déjà vu line even came up during Clinton s impeachment hearings. George W. Bush, who was known for his malapropisms, carried a book of Yogi s quotes and said Yogi would be a good press spokesman because he could always say, I really didn t say everything I said.

Most people know me by my face. Although Yogi doesn t feel famous he has adapted to being famous. He always tries to be cooperative with the media and fans and act in a responsible way. He just tries to treat everyone the same, whether it s the guy pumping gas or the vice president of a bank.

I love movies when I like them. When he was growing up there was no TV and they never went on vacation. Movies captured his imagination and took him to places he could never see. He would see pictures for a nickel on Sundays. Later in life he even got paid to do movie reviews.

In baseball, you don t know nothing. Yogi was hired and fired three times as a manager even though he had winning records all three times. Rejections are part of life and its not what happens to you, but how you handle it that matters. Treat people the way you d want to be treated. Control what you can control. In any big job you re always second guessed and probably get blamed more than you should.

We have deep depth. Yogi tells about the Yankee culture as he experienced it as a player from 1946 until 1963. The experienced players led by example and everyone did their part. Even though they never had a captain during this era, leadership didn t suffer even though everyone had the same rank.

If the world were perfect, it wouldn t be. Everyone has flaws and makes mistakes. I ve learned in baseball and life, it s important to treat people with respect and to be tolerant. Yogi tells of his relationships with umpires. He always let them know when he thought they were wrong but he never did so in a way that would embarrass them. It s ok to disagree, but nobody likes a hothead. If you argue too much you come off as self-righteous and lose credibility.

The future ain t what it used to be. I don t think much about the future, not like I used to. Just enjoy life. It s too short to worry about. Everything is faster paced nowadays. The big thing is priorities. Things may change but that doesn t mean you should ever compromise your values. I treat each person different because each is different.

Always go to other people s funerals, otherwise they won t go to yours. I m a real loyal person. It s not an I ll do this for you if you do this for me deal. Loyalty is a selfless proposition. If people trust you, and your careful not to violate that trust, there s nothing you can t accomplish.

Ninety percent of short puts don t go in. Besides baseball, I ve always been involved in leisure sports. I ve always felt there is a great deal to be gained in playing them. It s a great release. It s fun. It s exercise. It s a good way to get away from stress. Everybody should have a release, something to clear the mind and a way to find enjoyment and peace.

It s over. I ve always believed in brotherhood, redemption, and forgiveness. I knew that I would catch hell from pop if I ever missed confession on Saturday. To this day, I regularly attend church. After fourteen years I finally forgave George Steinbrenner for not telling me face to face that I was fired. Fourteen years wasn t bad for a grudge. I guess I made my point. Now there is forgiveness and conciliation. I really have no regrets.