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Casey Stengel’s "Man" was not Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris or Whitey Ford, but Hall of Famer Yogi Berra, whose 17-year tenure with the Yankees defined the team player. Whether in familiar pinstripes behind the plate or in the outfield in the house that Ruth built – or later as a player-coach with the Mets under Stengel’s quizzical grimace – Yogi Berra’s team ethic was a benevolent steroid that pumped the camaraderie of all around him. When just 17, and already a power hitter in the Peidmont Class B League – who drove in 23 runs in a single game – Berra’s call to the greater team came first. With victory or defeat in World War II still in the balance – and too young for the draft – Berra left the promise of baseball and volunteered for the duty of the US Navy. His hitch took him to North Africa, Europe and the D-Day landing on the beaches of Normandy. Who could expect such sacrifice and selflessness even in a passing fancy with the likes of a Barry Bonds or a Roger Clemens or a dozen other prima donas of the contemporary national pastime? Yogi Berra lived not only during a different time in the nation’s history but also during a different era of baseball.  The picture says it all for Yogi: Jackie Robinson was out – but called safe. Such is the central thesis of You Can Observe A Lot By Watching: What I've Learned About Teamwork From the Yankees and Life by Yogi Berra with Dave H. Kaplan . The third book on which Kaplan has teamed with Yogi, the read is smooth, yet with all the Berra bumps of language we’ve come to expect and savor.
Dave Kaplan has ample practice with Berra-speak. A former editor and reporter for the New York Daily News, he’s also the director of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center on the campus of Montclair State University. Like genuine teamwork, retaining that authentic voice is a rarity in today’s quick, make-a-buck, ghost-written sports books by such literary icons as Johnny Damon.
You Can Observe A Lot By Watching draws on the wisdom handed down by example from ballplayers who came before Berra, whose inspiration for him became the tools for being not simply a better team player – at sports, at work, and in life – but a better person. As a foil, again, without specifically mentioning them by name, the echo of the chemical boys returns with even more stridency than ever in the pages of You Can Observe A Lot By Watching.
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