You Can Observe A Lot By Watching: What I've Learned About Teamwork From the Yankees and Life [Paperback]

Yogi Berra (Author), Dave H. Kaplan (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 27, 2009

"The most valuable team player in sports" shows you what "teamwork" really means

What does it take to be a real team player, especially in a society that glorifies selfishness and a corporate culture that often uses "team player" as a buzzword but rewards only the showboaters and prima donnas? Well, You Can Observe a Lot by Watching. In this happy and hilarious guide to teamwork, sportsmanship, and winning, Yogi Berra draws on the timeless wisdom handed down by example from ballplayers who came before him to inspire you to make the right choices and become not only a better team player--at sports, at work, and in life--but a better person.

Filled with colorful stories from his life and career, not to mention the down-to-earth wit and insight that Yogi fans love, You Can Observe a Lot by Watching shows you how to make a bad team good and a good team great.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Notorious for his run-ins with the English language, baseball great Berra has become an improbably prolific author. He and coauthor Kaplan follow up 2002's What Time Is It? You Mean Now? with this charming, if meandering, book about teamwork. In anecdote after anecdote about his legendary career with the Yankees, his not-so-legendary career as a manager, and his days growing up on the streets of St. Louis, Berra shows how respect and cooperation made him a success on the field and in life. Lessons include the importance of punctuality, owning one's mistakes, and a positive attitude. For better or worse, nuggets of wisdom ("Never give an opponent added motivation") are buried beneath a mountain of less-than-insightful sports ephemera (Derek Jeter is "a good leader because he always knows and does what's right"). Still, Berra's optimism and wry, absurdist sense of humor make it a fast read that should resonate with fans; as one would expect, Berra includes plenty of well-meaning advice in his signature, well-near-meaningless style: "Unless you have an excuse, there's no excuse."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Notorious for his run-ins with the English language, baseball great Berra has become an improbably prolific author. He and coauthor Kaplan follow up 2002's "What Time Is It? You Mean Now?" with this charming, if meandering, book about teamwork. In anecdote after anecdote about his legendary career with the Yankees, his not-so-legendary career as a manager, and his days growing up on the streets of St. Louis, Berra shows how respect and cooperation made him a success on the field and in life. Lessons include the importance of punctuality, owning one's mistakes, and a positive attitude. For better or worse, nuggets of wisdom ("Never give an opponent added motivation") are buried beneath a mountain of less-than-insightful sports ephemera (Derek Jeter is "a good leader because he always knows and does what's right"). Still, Berra's optimism and wry, absurdist sense of humor make it a fast read that should resonate with fans; as one would expect, Berra includes plenty of well-meaning advice in his signature, well-near-meaningless style: "Unless you have an excuse, there's no excuse." "(May)" ("Publishers Weekly," June 2008)

.,."[it] offers nearly half a century's distilled wisdom on the subject of teammates and the value of team play from the biggest winner (14 pennants and 10 World Series rings) in baseball history..." ("YouCanObserveSyn," April 13, 2008)

.,."[it] offers nearly half a century's distilled wisdom on the subject of teammates and the value of team play from the biggest winner (14 pennants and 10 World Series rings) in baseball history..." ("Post Dispatch" (St Louis), April 6, 2008)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470454040
• ISBN-13: 978-0470454046
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #817,455 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yogi again surprise with his insight and real wisdom, September 24, 2008

By 

Michael R. Chernick "statman31147" (Holland PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: You Can Observe A Lot By Watching: What I've Learned About Teamwork From the Yankees and Life (Hardcover)

This book is a little different. It is not filled with Yogi quotes like in the book "I Never said half the things I said" but it does have his typical humor. It is a great book for a Yankee fan like me who followed and watched the great Yankee teams of the 50s and 60s that Yogi played on. The theme of the book is that too many modern players are selfish and that no matter how great an individual player might be it takes team work and unselfishness by the whole team to make a champion. Yogi describes this in players like Mantle, Ford, Reynolds and DiMaggio from his era but he also sees it in guys like Paul O'Neill and Scott Brosius from the 1998 Yankees, perhaps the best baseball team ever! I wasn't expecting it but Yogi also saw it in the 2004 Red Sox and pointed to an unselfish act by Tim Wakefield that he thought was the key to their comeback against the Yankees. It was not something that many fans or broadcasters would have noticed but Terry Francona and his Red Sox teammates did.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is true Yogi!, July 31, 2008

By 

Ronald W. Belscher (Centre, AL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: You Can Observe A Lot By Watching: What I've Learned About Teamwork From the Yankees and Life (Hardcover)

We need to have every young ballplayer read, and hopefully understand the message that Yogi is passing on based on his years of experience! Team work is as important now as it was back "in the day" and the young individuals of today need to understand that.

It is a great book, well worth the time to read.

2.0 out of 5 stars You can observe a lot by waching, August 25, 2011

By 

drzeta - See all my reviews

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This review is from: You Can Observe A Lot By Watching: What I've Learned About Teamwork From the Yankees and Life (Paperback)

I hoped more of the book.It's too much about baseball names and less than I expected about the Y. Berra's well known wittiness.