“How would you like to hang out with Yogi Berra and Ron Guidry during spring training? Funny and sweet, Driving Mr. Yogi transports you there.” — Jim Bouton, author of Ball Four
It happens every spring. Yankees pitching great Ron Guidry arrives at the Tampa airport to pick up Hall of Fame catcher and national treasure Yogi Berra. Guidry drives him to the ballpark. They watch the young players. They talk shop. They eat dinner together and tease each other mercilessly. They trade stories about the greats they have met along the way. And the next day they do the same thing all over again.
As every former ballplayer can appreciate, in that routine, every spring, there emerges a certain magic.
Driving Mr. Yogi is the story of how a unique friendship between a pitcher and catcher is renewed every year. It began in 1999, when Berra was reunited with the Yankees after a long self-exile, the result of being unceremoniously fired by George Steinbrenner fourteen years before. A reconciliation between Berra and the Boss meant that Berra would attend spring training again. Guidry befriended "Mr. Yogi" instantly. After all, Berra had been a mentor in the clubhouse back when Guidry was pitching for the Yankees. Guidry knew the young players would benefit greatly from Mr. Yogi's encyclopedic knowledge of the game, just as Guidry had during his playing days. So he encouraged him to share his insights. Soon, an offhand batting tip from Mr. Yogi turned Nick Swisher's season around. Stories about handling a hitter like Ted Williams or catching Don Larsen's perfect game captured their imaginations. And in Yogi, Guidry found not just an elder companion or source of amusement – he found a best friend.
At turns tender, at turns laugh-out-loud funny, and teeming with unforgettable baseball yarns that span more than fifty years, Driving Mr. Yogi is a universal story about the importance of wisdom being passed from one generation to the next, as well as a reminder that time is what we make of it and compassion never gets old.
Driving Mr. Yogi
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Harvey Araton on Driving Mr. Yogi
Photographs from Driving Mr. Yogi
There have been many books written about and by Yogi Berra. What makes this one different?
The previous books about Berra, or those authored by him, have focused almost solely on his storied career, or on the quirkiness of his personality, his famous "Yogi-isms." This book captures him as never before and in doing so characterizes him as far more multidimensional. In this flung-open window into Berra's octogenarian life, and his incredibly heartwarming relationship with Ron Guidry, he occasionally is stubborn, cranky, vulnerable and ultimately endearing--in the manner of most aging folks we know. This is as real as Yogi Berra gets.
How did the book come about?
First, our beloved 14-year-old black Labrador died. Then our friends, the Kaplans, took us out for dinner. Dave Kaplan is the longtime director of the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center. I mentioned that I was going down to spring training the following week and wondered if and when Yogi would be there. Knowing that he had recently had some health issues, I asked if Yogi's wife Carmen always stays with him in Tampa. Dave said, "Actually, Carmen usually only goes down for a few days. Believe it or not, Ron Guidry looks after Yogi. He’s been doing it for years." Later that night, a light went on in my head. Might be a story there, I thought. It wound up on page one of the New York Times and the response to it was overwhelming. Fifteen hundred words hardly did it justice. Hence, we now have 70,000.
How did you arrive at the title Driving Mr. Yogi?
Just to be playful, Joni Bronander, who works for the Berras at their museum, made a cap for Guidry with the inscription "Driving Mr. Yogi," playing off the Driving Miss Daisy film. She also had one made for Yogi that says: "Driven by Gator." The title seemed like a natural fit from the beginning, although as I worked through the story I began to realize that "Driving Mr. Yogi" was something of a double entendre. It developed a far deeper meaning than I originally realized.
How so?
As much as this is about generational loyalty and commitment, about honoring everything that has come before, it is also an examination of a man who refuses to surrender to human frailty. And while Yogi Berra may be a household name of historic proportion, he is also really an Everyman, much like our grandfathers and grandmothers and parents, who clings to his identity however he can because it makes him feel not only happy, but vital and alive. Like Guidry, we all have such people in our lives--be it by blood relation or otherwise--who deserve our love and assistance in their struggle to not be pushed into a geriatric corner and left there.
Why is Yogi Berra so beloved?
I think there are obvious reasons--great team ballplayer, ten-time World Series champion, humble yet confident, not physically imposing, approachable, and a grown man nicknamed Yogi. At the same time, Berra has been a celebrity for many decades now, used to having people wait on him--or wanting something from him--and in that regard he can occasionally be demanding, though not in the sense that he wants material things given to him. But he does expect to be driven to the ballpark on a certain day, at a very specific time, and so on. As I came to understand it, those who cater to Berra see him as the most unpretentious famous person in the history of celebrity. They revel in being inside his circle because they plainly see that status has nothing to do with it. It’s not about how important you are; it’s about how real a friend you are.
Photographs from Driving Mr. Yogi
Click on thumbnails for larger images
 |  |  |  |  |
Review
"Harkens back to an era when ball players were teammates because of the uniform they wore, not the games they played. Driving Mr. Yogi is as sweet as the unlikely friendship between Berra and his designated chauffeur Ron "Gator" Guidry who, along with author Harvey Araton, handles this precious baseball cargo with requisite TLC."—Jane Leavy, bestselling author of The Last Boy and Sandy Koufax "Hop in, sit back and enjoy the ride with Yogi and Gator. With grace and humor, Harvey Araton makes certain it will put a smile on your face."—Tom Verducci, bestselling author (with Joe Torre) of The Yankee Years "In Driving Mr. Yogi, one of America's finest sportswriters writes about the magical relationship. Any baseball fan would love to be at spring training, sun shining, smell of mowed grass in the air, and just listen to the stories of those two wonderful men. Harvey Araton lets us do just that."—Joe Posnanski, author of The Machine and The Soul of Baseball "How would you like to hang out with Yogi Berra and Ron Guidry during spring training? Funny and sweet, Driving Mr. Yogi transports you there."—Jim Bouton, former major league player and author of Ball Four "Among the most thoughtful journalists of his time, Harvey Araton delivers one of baseball's greatest stories never told in this poetic tribute to the relationship shared by Yogi Berra and Ron Guidry. A must read for anyone who cares about baseball, loyalty, and love."—Ian O'Connor, New York Times bestselling author of The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter and Arnie & Jack "Spending time with Yogi Berra is a unique pleasure, as Ron Guidry, a special guy himself, can attest. Now thanks to Harvey Araton's delightful book you, too, can get to know one of the world's great treasures and revel in a remarkable relationship."—Tim McCarver, sportscaster, Fox Sports
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A baseball book about its community... and, of course, about Yogi Berra
March 16, 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
A lot of baseball books (and gosh, it seems like I've read a lot of them lately) put a lot of attention on the game itself: balls and strikes, who won, and the mindset that helps a champion (individual or team) deliver a lasting result. The better books are about the people behind the game: the hardships they endure to reach the major leagues (such as Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game), or the conversations that happen on the field (such as Just Play Ball by Joe Garagiola). Araton's "Driving Mr. Yogi: Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, and Baseball's Greatest Gift" falls into this category.
Driving Mr Yogi isn't exactly a biography, but in many ways it reads like one. The framework for the Harvey Araton's reporting is a long-standing tradition wherein longtime Yankee pitcher Ron Guidry picks up Yogi Berra at the airport before spring training, and essentially is his companion during those weeks in Florida. In the process of sharing the story about how _that_ friendship came to be, Araton gives us vignettes into the lives of many well-known baseball personalities and does some sincerely entertaining tale-swapping. (One of them: Berra talking about a game against the White Sox in which the first four batters reached base on four pitches -- single, hit by pitch, double, and home run. "On his way to the mound, manager Casey Stengel met Berra halfway and asked how [the pitcher's] stuff looked. 'How the hell would I know?' Berra said. 'I haven't caught one yet.'") I'm not sure we can feel we are sitting in the locker room listening to Yogi, but at least we can pretend we are.
Yogi Berra is a sterling choice as emblem of baseball because he has, after all, been through so much of it. (As a rookie, he crossed paths with Babe Ruth. He played against Jackie Robinson.) You probably expect the book to be peppered with Yogi-isms, both old ("In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they're not") and new... and indeed there are a _few_ of these. (My favorite: Yogi's at a Yankees Old-Timer's day, saddened by the loss of old teammates. Turning to Whitey Ford, "while the list of that year's deceased scrolled down the scoreboard, Berra had confided, 'Boy, I hope I never see my name up there.'")
Mainly, though, it's about Yogi's life, as measured by the lives he has touched. The book talks about the time that Yogi spent with Jorge Posada, "to take on the job of making Posada *want* to catch, of making him believe he could contribute behind the plate as much as he could while standing alongside it with a bat in his hands," such as calling fewer fastballs. We find out about the 14-year period during which Yogi refused to go to Yankee stadium (which I missed, as it was before the time I cared about baseball). We get quite a bit of insight into Guidrey, too, and snippets of others' background. Just about everybody comes across as a Nice Guy.
But primarily this is how Yogi _is_, and what he means to the Yankees and to baseball. It's sweet and entertaining... though a little goes a long way. I read this book in spurts (actually I have a chapter or two left) because, however WayCool Berra is, at times the admiration is just a little too deep. It feels as though I'm reading a very long eulogy, and I refuse to acknowledge that Yogi Berra can leave us.
If the book seems a little heavy-handed towards the Yankees... Well, who can blame it? But as a fervent Diamondbacks fan, I can tell you it's just as enjoyable a book if you wear Sedona Red rather than pinstripes. I liked the book, and I think you will, too.
Driving Mr Yogi isn't exactly a biography, but in many ways it reads like one. The framework for the Harvey Araton's reporting is a long-standing tradition wherein longtime Yankee pitcher Ron Guidry picks up Yogi Berra at the airport before spring training, and essentially is his companion during those weeks in Florida. In the process of sharing the story about how _that_ friendship came to be, Araton gives us vignettes into the lives of many well-known baseball personalities and does some sincerely entertaining tale-swapping. (One of them: Berra talking about a game against the White Sox in which the first four batters reached base on four pitches -- single, hit by pitch, double, and home run. "On his way to the mound, manager Casey Stengel met Berra halfway and asked how [the pitcher's] stuff looked. 'How the hell would I know?' Berra said. 'I haven't caught one yet.'") I'm not sure we can feel we are sitting in the locker room listening to Yogi, but at least we can pretend we are.
Yogi Berra is a sterling choice as emblem of baseball because he has, after all, been through so much of it. (As a rookie, he crossed paths with Babe Ruth. He played against Jackie Robinson.) You probably expect the book to be peppered with Yogi-isms, both old ("In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they're not") and new... and indeed there are a _few_ of these. (My favorite: Yogi's at a Yankees Old-Timer's day, saddened by the loss of old teammates. Turning to Whitey Ford, "while the list of that year's deceased scrolled down the scoreboard, Berra had confided, 'Boy, I hope I never see my name up there.'")
Mainly, though, it's about Yogi's life, as measured by the lives he has touched. The book talks about the time that Yogi spent with Jorge Posada, "to take on the job of making Posada *want* to catch, of making him believe he could contribute behind the plate as much as he could while standing alongside it with a bat in his hands," such as calling fewer fastballs. We find out about the 14-year period during which Yogi refused to go to Yankee stadium (which I missed, as it was before the time I cared about baseball). We get quite a bit of insight into Guidrey, too, and snippets of others' background. Just about everybody comes across as a Nice Guy.
But primarily this is how Yogi _is_, and what he means to the Yankees and to baseball. It's sweet and entertaining... though a little goes a long way. I read this book in spurts (actually I have a chapter or two left) because, however WayCool Berra is, at times the admiration is just a little too deep. It feels as though I'm reading a very long eulogy, and I refuse to acknowledge that Yogi Berra can leave us.
If the book seems a little heavy-handed towards the Yankees... Well, who can blame it? But as a fervent Diamondbacks fan, I can tell you it's just as enjoyable a book if you wear Sedona Red rather than pinstripes. I liked the book, and I think you will, too.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I don't care if you are a baseball fan, a Yankee fan or neither....if you like books about human beings, that's all you need to love this book. Great storytelling - funny, warm, touching, insightful. Two great Yankee icons sharing time together and you're right there. Two human beings from different generations sharing time together - and you're right there. Classy.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
"Driving Mr. Yogi", by Harvey Araton, tells of the friendship that developed between former Yankees greats Yogi Berra and Ron Guidry. Guidry first met Berra while Guidry was a player for the Yankees and Berra was a coach. While Berra helped Guidry as a player at that time, it wasn't until much later, after they had both retired, that the friendship began. Both former players were coming to Florida as Spring Training instructors when Guidry volunteered to pick Berra up at the airport. Little did he realize that taking care of Berra during the spring would become an annual labor of love.
The relationship between Guidry and Berra is written primarily through Guidry's eyes. Although there are also anecdotes in both men's lives that don't involve the other, such as when George Steinbrenner apologized to Berra for the way he fired him, ending 15 years of estrangement between the two, the meat of the book revolves around Guidry and the aging Berra. Yogi comes off as a gentle curmudgeon, fixed in his ways and somewhat demanding of his friends, although a good man with a gentle heart. In my opinion, Guidry is actually the "star" of the book, looking out for Berra and asking nothing in return but Yogi's friendship.
The book is well written, and a quick, easy read. While baseball is the common denominator between the two and the backdrop of the story, the rapport between the two men is the real heart of the book. Five stars.
The relationship between Guidry and Berra is written primarily through Guidry's eyes. Although there are also anecdotes in both men's lives that don't involve the other, such as when George Steinbrenner apologized to Berra for the way he fired him, ending 15 years of estrangement between the two, the meat of the book revolves around Guidry and the aging Berra. Yogi comes off as a gentle curmudgeon, fixed in his ways and somewhat demanding of his friends, although a good man with a gentle heart. In my opinion, Guidry is actually the "star" of the book, looking out for Berra and asking nothing in return but Yogi's friendship.
The book is well written, and a quick, easy read. While baseball is the common denominator between the two and the backdrop of the story, the rapport between the two men is the real heart of the book. Five stars.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
More Yankee Lore
Harvey, thanks for taking the time to provide unique insight on one of America's treasures. All star players from those bygone eras basically provided the foundation blocks of so... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Fredrick S. Hartman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hey Boo Boo!
Great insight into a couple of great baseball players from different generations. It gives you an understanding of what it means to be a Yankee and why they historically have been... Read more
Published 2 days ago by Moonlite
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Read
Driving Mr. Yogi gives insight into the life of baseball legend, Yogi Berra. It is the moving story of his relationship with the Yankee organization, the players with whom he... Read more
Published 3 days ago by kittylover
5.0 out of 5 stars
the book was fantastic
i could not stop reading it at all untill I finished the book, it was a very interesting book about frendship between two men
Published 6 days ago by Frederick J Schaudel
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must Read for Yankee Fans...
and baseball fans alike. Yogi Berra is the last of the old time iconic, hall of fame Yankees. Ron Guidry tells of his time driving Yogi during Yogi's trips to the Yankees spring... Read more
Published 6 days ago by James
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not just for Yankee fans
Tremendous human interest story for any baseball fan or anyone interested in understanding the nature of friendship at its best. Recommended for all ages! Simply a fine read.
Published 10 days ago by Linda Neilson
4.0 out of 5 stars
Baseball is America favorite sport.
It is a wonderful story.
All Yankee fans should read it. It is part of the American way of life; you could see your life in this book.
All Yankee fans should read it. It is part of the American way of life; you could see your life in this book.
Published 10 days ago by Caroll Garcia
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read even if you are not a baseball fan
I havwe never been a baseball fan but my brother is, so I grew up hearing about Yogi Berra. I don't know what first attracted me to this book but it is a very interesting read --... Read more
Published 10 days ago by SoCal_reader
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Love Story
If you know nothing about baseball, but have experienced a great friendship....you will love this book
Nd if you do know about baseball then even better
Nd if you do know about baseball then even better
Published 10 days ago by Donnie Owens
2.0 out of 5 stars
Boring
How can an author make a book about Yogi Berra boring? By continually repeating the same basic story over and over. Plus, 25% of the book is the index.
Published 11 days ago by J. Gregg Henderson
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
