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If you live long enough, time wears off the rough edges. Simplifies the complicated parts. Turns one’s struggle and the uncertainty one faces into a story of inevitable triumph. It’s a reward, really. A nice perk for living a long, good life and bringing happiness to people. But it also, perversely and quite unintentionally, robs one of the credit for the totality of one’s accomplishments. Yogi Berra may be one of the greatest examples of this in baseball history.
There is not a single person reading this who first became aware of Yogi Berra as anything other than a baseball legend. Given the demographics of those who get their news on the Internet, most of you were born into a world in which Yogi Berra was already considered something of an immortal. It is certain that a majority of you reading this were born after he was already inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1972. A greater majority of you were born after he retired as a player with ten World Series championships. One could likely count the number of people reading this who were engaged and knowledgable baseball fans before Berra was considered one of the best in the game on one hand.
There is not a single person reading this who first became aware of Yogi Berra as anything other than a baseball legend. Given the demographics of those who get their news on the Internet, most of you were born into a world in which Yogi Berra was already considered something of an immortal. It is certain that a majority of you reading this were born after he was already inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1972. A greater majority of you were born after he retired as a player with ten World Series championships. One could likely count the number of people reading this who were engaged and knowledgable baseball fans before Berra was considered one of the best in the game on one hand.
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