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Bottom of the Ninth
By Riverboat in Flotsam and Jetsam
August 12, 2009

This week I took home a 400+ page book from the library. When I pick up a book this big, I have to know it's going to be worth the commitment. Okay, it's about baseball, AND it's about Yogi Berra. But is it WORTH it?

Yogi Berra is one of America's most colorful and endearing characters. For those aren't baseball aficionados, Yogi is that funny guy on some Aflac commercial. Even for baseball fans Yogi is vastly underrated. For starters, was anyone here aware that in spite of TEN World Series rings and a lifetime of accomplishments in baseball no one has ever written a biography of Lawrence Peter Berra?

The author promises to take great pains to prove just what a great player he was. He didn't just stumble into those championship games. He was an invaluable defensive AND offensive player, with a host of other intangible qualities that made him indispensible.

And never let it be forgotten that he also managed my beloved Houston Astros. In 1986 Houston played the New York Mets for the National League pennant. He was the one who moved - dare I say future Hall-of-Famer? - Craig Biggio from behind home plate to second base.

At the end of summer, I need a book that is serious yet readable to get me over the agony of inservice. In 2003, David McCullough’s biography of John Adams was my lifeline. Maybe this year, Yogi will help me survive the idiocy of educational experts without making me reach for a gun to point to my head.

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