Steve with Baseball Personalities
Yogi Berra
Yogi Berra (1925- ) San Francisco journalist Dan Fost and I were in New York City for a Casey Stengel event we organized at the Museum of the City of New York. One of the people we invited to join us on the panel was Casey’s grandniece, Toni Harsh. The day before the museum event, the three of us went out to the Yogi Berra Museum at Montclair State University in New Jersey. The museum was closed for remodeling, but museum director Dave Kaplan and Yogi graciously showed us around. Yogi and Casey had a close relationship. Casey saw the potential of his young catcher and helped nurture him to greatness.
Yogi is as unassuming and modest as he appears to be. His museum emphasizes his personal integrity and decency as much as his on-field exploits. We spent a couple of hours with him, as he and Toni exchanged recollections and stories. George Vecsey wrote a wonderful article about "Uncle Casey" in the New York Times, after he had spent some time with Toni. Check out that article here.