Yogi Berra's legacy transcends the baseball diamond

Forty years ago, New York Yankee baseball legend Yogi Berra was an honored guest of Lansford to help dedicate a new Little League complex on the east end of town.

The Rev. Emil Sopoliga, then pastor of St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church, used his chaplain connections with the Yankees to help arrange the visit with Berra, who was then managing the New York Mets.

The Yankee icon died of natural causes during his sleep at an assisted living facility in New Jersey last Tuesday. The Berra obituaries are of course dominated by the 19-year baseball career of the Hall of Fame catcher.

But his deeds as an American citizen outside of baseball are equally noteworthy.

For the record, Berra's real first name was Lawrence. He received his famous nickname from a friend, Jack Maguire, who felt Berra resembled a Hindu yogi whenever he sat around with arms and legs crossed waiting to bat or the sad look he carried after a losing game.

After the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, propelling American into World War II, the response of Americans, including major league baseball players, was remarkable. Nine out of 10 big league players saw wartime service during the next four years, and a number of them, like Yogi, volunteered and saw combat.

Years later, veterans would tease Berra by asking, "Didn't anybody ever tell you, never volunteer?" But this was a time in America when everyone rallied behind the Allied efforts to defeat Germany in Europe and Japan in the Pacific.

Berra was playing minor league ball in Norfolk when he volunteered for the Navy. He was on an attack transport or rocket boat, firing machine guns and launching rockets at the German defenses at Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion of France.

He once likened the noise and hot action during the Normandy landing to the Fourth of July, but on June 7, 1944, American soldiers were facing real bullets. As a gunner's mate on a six-man crew, Berra said their job was to keep the skies clear of German fighter planes, and they had orders to shoot anything that moved.

It was far from a July Fourth atmosphere during the attack on Normandy, but after the beach was secured, Berra recalled that like magic, young and old French citizens, who had been under Nazi occupation, came out of nowhere, waving and carrying flowers and bottles of wine for the American liberators.

The fact that Berra took time out from his duties as a major league manager four decades ago to dedicate a Little League field in a small anthracite mining town does not surprise us. Through his life, he had a special affinity to youth activities. The Boy Scouts of America even awarded him the Silver Buffalo Award, their highest adult award.

In retirement, Berra was especially proud of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, and Yogi Berra Stadium, which opened in 1998 on the campus of Montclair State University in New Jersey.

He accepted the invitation to Lansford in 1975, realizing that the focus of Little League was to teach children important values such as sportsmanship and dedication on and off the baseball diamond.

By JIM ZBICK | tneditor@tnonline.com