Sunday, March 30, 2008

Columbus Dispatch Reviews YOGI

BATTER UP!
Baseball fans can head for home with books about the game
Sunday, March 30, 2008 3:19 AM
By Bill Eichenberger
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The second-most beautiful words in the English language: Pitchers and catchers report.
The most beautiful words in the English language: Play ball!

It reminds me of something Rogers Hornsby, a Hall of Fame second baseman who played from 1915 to 1937, once said: "People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

Well, spring is nigh because major leaguers are playing spring-training games and book publishers are sending out new baseball titles faster than a Nolan Ryan heater streaking toward home plate.

Here are a few titles to warm you up for the season:
• Yogi: The Life and Times of an American Original, Carlo DeVito (Triumph, 412 pages, $25.95)
Mickey Mantle once speculated that New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra said only about a third of the things attributed to him.
"(St. Louis Cardinals catcher and Berra boyhood pal Joe) Garagiola made up a third," Mantle said, "and the (sports) writers made up the rest."
DeVito proposes in Yogi to cut through the tall tales and the myth to uncover the man "genuinely one of the greatest players ever to pick up a bat and ball. . . . And no matter how humorous his remarks are, his accomplishments were hard-earned and fairly won."

Friday, March 28, 2008

YOGI Appears on The Dan Brady Sports Show


Dan Brady was kind enough to have me on his show as a call-in guest. Dan was great. He was well prepared. He was very interested and it was a lot of fun.

Dan Brady owns two Emmy Awards won in Cincinnati for local broadcast journalism.

According to Rob Anthes, a staff writer for HamiltonSpace.com in New Jersey, "They're the remnants of a sportscasting career that took Brady to metropolises like Tampa, Philadelphia and Washington. All in all, Brady delivered the news in eight cities during a 19-year span.But on this night, Brady takes his increasingly-familiar spot in a chair in front of a black backdrop. It's the 16th week Brady will broadcast his Internet sports show live from the headquarters of New Century Television — better known as Schwartz's Newtown, Pa., basement.There's one stage light. There's one camera." And there were 75 viewers.

According to Anthes, "People have noticed. Sports Illustrated columnist Peter King mentioned Brady and the show in an online column. The show lengthened from 30 minutes to an hour in late January, regularly receives between 50 and 75 viewers and is now "simulcast" on other Web sites that have thousands of viewers."

You can watch his show at: http://nctv3.com/bradysports/index.html

YOGI Featured on SPORTSTALKNY With Mark Rosenman


On March 26th, at 9:30 I appeared on SPORTSTALKNY an internet TV show found on USTREAMTV. Thier website is http://web.mac.com/rosenmans11/site_3/SPORTSTALKNY.html

Mark was very knowledgable and had obviously read the material. We talked about Yogi growing up in St. Louis and about his accomplished career. It was very fun! Mark's a great guy! And the clips from his shows look good - although I was upset to see him wearing a Red Sox jersey during our inerview! Thanks, Mark, for the opportunity.

Mark is no stranger to Sportstalk as he was a long time host on WGLI’S The Mighty 1290S Monday Night Sports.

Mark is a long time Ranger Season ticket holder, who brings his passion and knowledge of the Blueshirts every show. In addition he has had seasons tickets to Mets , and has been a coach to a high level Travel Baseball team for the last 10 years with some of his players now playing and starting on Division 1 teams. He has many contacts within the NY Sports Press.

My clip is preceeded by an interview with Ed Randall. You can watch the clip at either of these urls:


Monday, March 24, 2008

YOGI Author Talks to WFUV's "One on One" Show


Appeared on WFUV's "One on One" call-in sports radio show on Saturday, March 22,2008. They guys were really nice and producer Bob Arhens was very funny and filled with wonderful stories. A great thrill to be on.

WFUV News/Sports:
'One on One' Sports Show
WFUV is the originating home of the longest-running sports call-in show in New York.

Established in 1974 and still going strong - that's One on One, New York's longest-running sports call-in show.

One on One is totally a product of the WFUV Sports 24-member student staff, under the supervision of Executive Sports Producer Bob Ahrens. The show is hosted by nine of the students on a rotating basis, with the rest of the staff producing, engineering, writing, and airing the sports updates.

The list of show alumni reads like a "who's who" and includes play-by-play announcers, sportscasters, broadcast executives, team management, and sports journalists. They all have been hosts of the show since its inception in 1974, following in the tradition set by Vin Scully.

Malcolm Moran of USA Today was WFUV Sports Director at the time, and the originator of the 'One on One' name. "The show was created," he said, "because at the time there was a need for it. There was no sports call-in show in New York City on a regular basis." Beginning with one hour on Sunday nights, the show grew to three hours on Saturday and Sunday evenings and eventually to its current spot on Saturday afternoons from 1-4pm.

As part of a 30th Anniversary celebration, the summer of 2005 featured special guest shows as we brought back some of the hosts dating back to the beginning of the show.

Now more feature-oriented than before, One on One utilizes a broad range of guests and offers in-depth analysis of all sports. Documentaries on Jackie Robinson, on the Mets' 40th Anniversary and on the Yankees' 100th Anniversary are among 15 WFUV Sports programs and four series in the Baseball Hall of Fame archives. Ten of the One on One features have won awards in regional, national and international broadcast competitions.

The afternoon airtime has enabled One on One to go on the road, broadcasting live from Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, Cooperstown (on Hall of Fame Weekend), both the golf and tennis U.S. Opens, the NFL Draft and Belmont Park on Racing's Triple Crown Saturday.

You can hear One on One Saturday afternoons from 1-4pm.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Sports Business Journal


Sports Business Jounral

by John Genzale

March 17, 2008


When Carlo DeVito began writing the biography “Yogi” (Triumph), he thought that Yogi Berra, the former Yankees catcher and American icon, and his friends would be eager to participate. The Mara family did when DeVito wrote Wellington Mara’s biography. And DeVito’s take on Berra is glowing. But during his second conversation with Yogi’s old St. Louis friend, Joe Garagiola, he said he was asked: “Why are you doing this? Why do you want to hurt Yogi?” DeVito came away with the belief that Berra family and friends are “protective of Yogi as a brand.” DeVito, who owns a Vermont winery and makes maple syrup, finds similarities with Yogi’s history with the soft drink Yoo-Hoo and his Italian-immigrant family history. DeVito said he was driven to write the biography because of Berra’s universal appeal. As a demonstration, he tells of a business lunch with the late David Halberstam and Gay Talese. “Halberstam insisted on hearing about Berra before he would talk business.”

MSNBC Rave Review of YOGI: The Life and Times of an American Original



YOGI Taking A Serious Look At
Tampa Bay Online

updated 12:50 a.m. ET, Fri., March. 21, 2008

By BOB D'ANGELO

Fans of Yogi Berra should thank Carlo DeVito for making his biography necessary.

Berra's fractured language sometimes overshadowed his Hall of Fame baseball career. In "Yogi: The Life and Times of an American Original," (Triumph, $25.95), DeVito strips away the cartoon character and digs deeper into the real person. The result is a well-balanced, serious look at one of the game's all-time greats.

Berra did not get to Cooperstown because of his earthy (but generally insightful) sayings. He wielded a dangerous bat during his career, hitting 358 homers, and was one of the game's best clutch hitters. He played in 14 World Series and won 10 titles. He also managed the Yankees (1964) and Mets (1973) to the World Series before losing in seven games each time.

"He is as much a part of New York as dirty-water dogs and cheesecake," DeVito writes.
With plenty of detail and anecdotes, DeVito traces Berra's burning desire to succeed in baseball from his childhood in St. Louis. He reveals a canny businessman who was not afraid of tough negotiations in contract talks with the Yankees' front office.

While his teammates threw their money into frivolous schemes, Berra became wealthy through his involvement with Yoo-hoo chocolate drinks. He enjoyed the boom in bowling and got out before that market crashed.

Berra also was savvy enough to play off his reputation as a malapropism master, much to the dismay of the AFLAC duck.

"On the one hand, they media created a character that didn't exist; on the other, he cashed in on it," DeVito writes.

DeVito looks at Berra's signature phrases: "It ain't over till it's over," "When you get to a fork in the road, take it" and "I want to thank everyone for making this night necessary," sifts fact from fiction and puts them in their proper context.

DeVito's research is thorough and his prose, while not glittering, is workmanlike. It reflects his subject perfectly.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

KTRS 550 Radio, St. Louis Features YOGI


Mike Clairborne at KTRS St. Louis, MO featured an interview with the author Carlo DeVito on Thursday night, March 6.

Mike Claiborne has been part of the St. Louis Sports Community since 1981. After a ten year stint that at KMOX that saw him host and co-host Sports Open Line, Sports on a Sunday Morning and also radio sales. He moved on to be part of the first show of the then new All Sports format. During that fifteen year run he served a tour of duty in every day part including a eleven year run in afternoon drive. A program director on two different occasions he also served as pre and post game host for baseball, football and hockey programming for that station. In addition he has served as color analyst for St. Louis University Basketball on radio for four years as well as MUSK basketball ball on cable TV for four years.

Thanks Mike!

Monday, March 3, 2008

Bookreview of YOGI from Alan Caruba of Bookviews


I have always been a fan of Winston Churchill and he has been most fortunate to have Martin Gilbert as a biographer. Happily, Churchill and America is now available in a softcover edition ($18.00, Free Press) and it is a thoroughly enjoyable story of this great man who was half-American by virtue of his mother’s nationality, but attained immortality as the leader of Great Britain during the perilous years of World War II. Gilbert puts his ties to America in historical context for a very readable biography. Few people are more American than the wonderful baseball player, Yogi Berra, and the sports historian, Carlo DeVito has told his story in Yogi: The Life and Times of an American Original ($25.95. Triumph Books, Chicago). I last encountered DeVito when he wrote about the Marra family who owned the Giants and I know that any lover of the national game will just love this biography, even if they were born after 1964 when Berra last swung a bat. This son of Italian immigrants grew up to become one of the game’s greatest ambassadors. This is, to my knowledge, the first truly comprehensive biography. A great Yankee player and later a manager of the Mets, Berra is a great American success story participating in ten World Series championships.

- Bookviews by Alan Caruba, March 2008
for more reviews go to: http://www.bookviews.com/

Yogi Episode of "Beyond the Game" Airs Twice In February


Carlo DeVito's interview on John Vorperian's "Beyond the Game" aired twice in the last week of February. The showed aired Tuesday, February 26, 2008, and re-aired on Friday, February 29, 2008.

(photo: Warner Wolff and John Vorperian)
Thanks John!

Yogi Berra Holds Forth in Tampa at Spring Training


Kat O'Brien
excerpted from the Stamford Advocate
March 3, 2008

Yogi Berra held court in the clubhouse, sharing stories of his playing days and much more. Berra, 82 and the proud owner of 10 World Series rings, is a staple at Yankees camp. Berra has taken a special interest in Melky Cabrera and talked with him for some time at the batting cage.

"He's a good player, a good kid," Berra said. "I like to have fun with them."

Cabrera listened closely, saying: "He always talks to me. It's great to have someone like him who played so many years in the big leagues and with the Yankees talk to me. He tells me to keep working hard, that I can play a lot of years in the big leagues because I'm young and he's old."

YOGI In Stores


Here's a photo of YOGI available in the Borders at Crossgates Mall, in Albany, New York

Sunday, March 2, 2008

New York Times' Tyler Kepner Writes About Yogi at Spring Training

February 28, 2008, 11:08 pm
The Greatest Living Yankee, Right Across the Hall
By Tyler Kepner

So I was coming back to my hotel room early this evening, and who’s in the lobby but the great Yogi Berra? He said he was just coming in from a round of golf. Turns out he’s in the room right across the hall. There’s just something neat about that. The greatest living Yankee is sleeping just a few feet away. Sounds like the start of a novel.

Yogi is a real treat to have around. I find it charming that he relies on Ron Guidry, a Yankee great in his own right, to take care of his spring training needs. Guidry, the former pitching coach who is back as a spring instructor, picks Yogi up at the airport and takes him wherever he wants to go.

Read the entire article at: http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/the-greatest-living-yankee-right-across-the-hall/

Eli Manning Intercepts Yogi Berra

Eli intercepts Yogi Berra
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 02/15/2008 09:39:02 AM MST

Super Bowl hero Eli Manning still gets starstruck. When he spotted legendary Yankee Yogi Berra a few tables away at Rao's in New York, Manning made a beeline to the Hall of Famer's table to introduce himself.

The conversation soon turned to Berra's stellar career. "Eli asked Yogi how many championships he'd won," one diner told The New York Post's Braden Keil.

Berra replied, "Ten times." Manning then mused he had just nine more to go. The two were later arm in arm singing along to "New York, New York" on the jukebox.

Read the rest of the article at: http://origin.denverpost.com/celebritybuzz/ci_8271219

4 Star Rating on Amazon.com


Just recieved a 4-Star rating on Amazon.com


**** RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "ANY TRUE BASEBALL FAN WILL ENJOY "YOGI'S" LIFE STORY!", February 29, 2008
By
Rick Goldstein "Rick "Shaq" Goldstein" (Danville, Ca, USA) - See all my reviews ** BASEBALL HALL OF FAME ** 3 MVP AWARDS ** 21 WORLD SERIES (14 AS A PLAYER - 2 AS A MANAGER - 5 AS A COACH) ** 10 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS AS A PLAYER - 3 AS A COACH ** 15 ALL STAR GAMES ** 285 LIFETIME AVERAGE ** 358 HOMERUNS ** 1,430 RUNS BATTED IN **


That is YOGI BERRA!


** "NOBODY GOES THERE ANYMORE; IT'S TOO CROWDED!" ** "IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER." ** "ALWAYS GO TO OTHER PEOPLE'S FUNERALS; OTHERWISE THEY WON'T COME TO YOURS." ** "BASEBALL IS 90 PERCENT MENTAL THE OTHER HALF IS PHYSICAL." This also is YOGI BERRA!


I am not a Yankee fan, but I am an "old-school" baseball fanatic. And any true "die-in-the-wool" baseball fan will enjoy this detailed recollection of when baseball truly was the "National Pastime". This biography covers Yogi and his family's life from the time his Italian parents landed on Ellis Island. It chronicles his growing up in a mostly Italian American neighborhood up on "The Hill" in St. Louis, where one of his best friends was a mediocre future Major Leaguer, who would hit it big in radio and TV Joe Garagiola. Joe's future success was neatly packaged around stories of his youthful days with Yogi on "The Hill". Yogi's Father Pietro was hard working, loving and a stern disciplinarian in the house. He thought playing baseball was a waste of time, and of course no way to make a living. Yogi's three older brothers, Anthony, Mike, and John, were all good baseball players and had been offered tryouts and contracts with professional teams. But Pietro would not hear of it and did not allow it. When Yogi was in the eighth grade he had no use for school and wanted to quit school and go after his dream of playing Major League baseball. Though Yogi feared his Father's wrath he confronted him with his desire and dream. It became a family war that eventually even included the family's priest. Pietro finally relented as long as Yogi got a regular job to contribute to the family's livelihood while he tried to get a baseball contract. Yogi sold newspapers, where his favorite customer was his baseball idol (And my mother's favorite player.) Joe "Ducky" Medwick. He also had a few factory jobs. Then he was signed by the New York Yankees, and the rest as they say is history. When he reached the big leagues, Joe DiMaggio was the undisputed leader of the team but within a few years as Joe's career came to an end the Yankee torch was passed from Joe to Yogi. A lot of baseball revisionists say it went from DiMaggio to Mantle but that isn't so. The history of uncrowned Yankee leadership actually went from Ruth to Gehrig to DiMaggio to Berra to Mantle. Yogi not only became known as one of the greatest clutch hitters in history, but he was also one of the greatest "bad ball" hitters in history, so it was extremely tough to pitch to him in crucial situations. His ten world championship rings as a player is unmatched in the annals of baseball history. One extremely sad part of this story is all the abuse Yogi took because of his looks and "supposed" lack of intellect. Yet he is probably the most successful Yankee in history after his playing days. This story also conjures up many of the old fan rivalries of the 40's and 50's between the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers. Since the Dodgers and Yankees played each other seven times in the World Series during this period there is a lot of information about Yogi's competition with Roy Campanella, another catcher with 3 MVP's right across town in Brooklyn, and some wonderful quotes by Jackie Robinson as to Yogi's greatness. This story covers it all from Casey Stengel to Yogi's refusing to return to Yankee stadium for fourteen years after his firing by George Steinbrenner. Yogi was one hell of a ballplayer and reading about it was "LIKE DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN!"

Yogi: The Life and Times of An American Original Hits Stores


The book is starting to hit stores, although the laydown is not yet complete. Here's a shot from the 86th and Lexington Avenue Barnes & Noble. The book is/will be available wherever books are sold.