LOVABLE & QUOTABLE
IN ‘IT AIN’T OVER,’ ADMIRERS SHARE STORIES ABOUT THE WIT AND UNDERAPPRECIATED ATHLETIC TALENT OF CATCHER YOGI BERRA
Serving as a potent reminder of the stellar athletic ability that, in time, had been overshadowed by his admittedly outsize personality, the affectionate “It Ain’t Over” offers a winning coda to the career assessment of the late, great Yogi Berra.
Filmmaker Sean Mullin, armed with an archival treasure-trove of evidence and testimonials from a slew of admirers both on and off the diamond, makes a fairly irrefutable case for the New York Yankees catcher who became better known for such Yogi-isms as “When you come to a fork in the road, take it” and “It’s déjà vu all over again.”
Born Lorenzo Pietro Berra to an Italian immigrant family that in St. Louis, Yogi, who stood at a squat-framed height of 5 feet, 7 inches, certainly didn’t fit the mold of the conventional baseball player. But the clutch hitter would go on to collect three MVP awards and 10 World Series championship rings as a New York Yankee.
He’d follow his catching career with two stints as a Yankees manager — the second of which ended 16 games into the season with his abrupt firing by George Steinbrenner. Berra once summed up his not-alwayscordial relationship with the controversial Yankees owner as “We agree different,” prior to a resulting 15-year rift during which Berra refused to set foot in Yankee Stadium.
But even baseball non-fans of a certain age likely recall Berra as a lovable commercial mascot, memorably pitching everything from Yoo Hoo to Miller Lite to Aflac.
It’s all enthusiastically and endearingly documented by writer-director Mullin, who relies upon Berra’s three sons, Tim, Larry and Dale, and granddaughter Lindsay to set the record straight, as well as a passionate cheering section including Billy Crystal, Derek Jeter, Bob Costas, Don Mattingly, Joe Torre and Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully.
Of course, it would be impossible to mention Berra without references to those classic Yogi-isms. The film finds room for many of them, including the one that started out as “You’re not out of it until it’s mathematical” and eventually morphed into “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
Witnessing Berra’s colorful life play out alongside Carmen, his wife of 65 years who predeceased him by a year, it’s entirely understandable why more than one of those assembled start to choke up while paying their respects.
No matter how he said it or played it, there was never anyone in baseball quite like Yogi Berra.