Dear Bank of Prairie Village Community~
Going into a New Year also means dealing with January. Here in Kansas City, the excitement of Football playoffs and College Conference Basketball beginning assists in this transition.
One could argue it is also a time to relax after the “Holiday Rush.” The problem being the fine line between relaxing and being bored.
As I mentioned in my previous letter, December is a monthly of “Family Christmas Movies.” Having a month of “Family Christmas Movies,” is terrific, but leaves one with an agitation sense, in January as the family disperses into different rooms and onto different devices to watch different movies of their more individual tastes.
Such individual movie viewing is unfortunate, as the relaxed/boring January long evenings could use “just a touch” over the over-indulged family time of December.
I think one problem is, the lack of ubiquitous family movies capable of capturing the diverse attention of elementary school children, teenagers, parents and grandparents ~ in say the fashion of It’s a Wonderful Life or Home Alone.
One movie I may suggest addressing the “January Movie Time Blues” is It Ain’t Over on Netflix ~ which is the story of Yogi Berra.
Even the It Ain’t Over movie references the Jimmy Stewart It’s a Wonderful Life quality to Yogi Berra’s career journey.
The movie begins with a celebration of what many considered the four greatest living American Baseball players. Yogi Berra, who at the time was still living was not included in this greatest living final four.
Given the vastly superior statistics of Yogi’s career, compared to the “The Final Four,” the movie analyzes how understanding how Yogi Berra was overlooked.
To understand the “Final Four” oversight, requires an in depth look into Yogi Berra’s remarkable “American Dream Life.”
The reality is that Yogi Berra’s wonderful contributions to our country, society and, yes lexicon, somehow eclipsed his stratospheric baseball career propelling him into not just being an American Baseball Treasure, but to simply an American treasure.
The “Final Four” judges could be forgiven for their oversight of not simply judging Yogi as baseball player, like the other four greats, but as a category entirely his own. Yes, Berra, can only be judged under the Yogi category.
Yogi Berra’s story is the American Dream. Growing up on the “Italian Hill” in St. Louis, his best friend and neighbor across the street was famed major league catcher, Joe Garagiola. Yogi pointed out he and Joe spent hours playing stick ball with “bottle caps” as the older neighborhood boys would not let them play with real balls.
His father made him drop out of school at the Eight Grade to work, only allowing him to play on the American Legion Team.
Although signing with the New York Yankees, at 18, Yogi dropped out of baseball to become a Navy’s Gunner’s Mate during the D-Day landings. Berra should have been awarded the Purple Heart because of a being wounded by shrapnel in his hand. He commented he turned down the medal as he did not want his mother to worry about his being in the fighting. He told her he had a “safe cushy” Navy job.
As far as on the field Yogi Berra played or coached in 21 World Series and collected 13 World Series Championship Rings. He called and caught Don Larsen’s perfect World Series game in 1956. The number of shutouts he called and caught remains a major league record.
For the Yankee’s he started his career with Joe DiMaggio and ended it with cultural icon owner Carl Steinbrenner. Thus, for generations, from my grandfather to my own boys, the name Yogi Berra when mentioned always brings a smile.
I could go on as to the reasons why the Yogi Berra movie, It Ain’t Over, should be a must family January watch ~ but then I would spoil it. Suffice it to say, Yogi Berra, is the only Great Baseball player to inspire his own beloved Carton ~ Yogi Bear ~ a staple of my youth.
January is the hard month, where we must convince ourselves the wonders of “Christmas Magic” must be sustained throughout the year.
For those who wonder if Jimmy Stewart and his character George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life, simply fade when the calendar turns over in January, let’s hold up to our family Yogi Berra as an American Hero example of someone who cannot only sustain George Baily’s new found optimism not only throughout the year but for decades and successive decades.
Yours in sharing the insight, wisdom and positivity of Yogi Berra through 2024. Yours in making it a wonderful year to remember!
~ Dan Bolen
God Bless You Yogi
~ It ain’t over till it’s over ~ I never said most of the things I said. ~When you come to a fork in the road, take it ~You can observe a lot by just watching ~It’s like déjà vu all over again. ~No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded. ~ Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical. ~ A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore. ~Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours. ~We made too many wrong mistakes. ~Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken. ~You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six. ~You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you. ~I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four. ~Never answer an anonymous letter. ~Slump? I ain’t in no slump… I just ain’t hitting. ~How can you think and hit at the same time? ~The future ain’t what it used to be. ~I tell the kids, somebody’s gotta win, somebody’s gotta lose. Just don’t fight about it. Just try to get better. ~ It gets late early out here. ~ If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them. ~We have deep depth. ~ Pair up in threes. ~Why buy good luggage, you only use it when you travel. ~You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.
Berra had a career (19 years) batting average of .285, while hitting 358 home runs and 1,430 runs batted in. He also established records for catchers of his era: he held the benchmark for most home runs hit by a catcher (313), most consecutive errorless games (148), and most consecutive chances handled (950).
