Driving Mr. Yogi: Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, and Baseball's Greatest Gift

Yes, this is a book about baseball and Yogi Berra and his longstanding Odd Couple Spring Training friendship with Ron Guidry. As such, it is pleasant enough and sometimes very touching. It certainly delivers what its title would lead one to expect. But it is a better book than that. It unblinkingly focuses upon very serious subjects and that is what distinguishes it from more common sports book fare.First, this is not your typical Yogi Berra book, full of accounts of his long ago on-field heroics and enumerations of amusing Yogi-isms. Yes, Yogi is presented for the most part as a good guy, a fun guy, and even as a hero of sorts, but Harvey Araton goes beyond all that. Yogi Berra emerges as a flesh and blood human being who, for all his better-known and more lovable traits, is simple and complicated, humble and proud, gregarious and private, charming and irritable, and sometimes terribly demanding and grumpy. He is presented as a man in his eighties, a once vital man in inevitable physical decline who suffers on that account and yet, is determined to live as full a life as he can - a life worth living. In this, he both gratefully and reluctantly accepts the help of his family, his friends, and during Spring Training, his special friend, Ron Guidry.Guidry, as much as Yogi, emerges as the subject of this book and he comes off extremely - almost unbelievably - well. His grounded lifestance sets him apart. Araton does not have to say it, he shows his reader that Guidry is an exemplary human being possesed of a bewilderingly various array of virtues. Guidry emerges as more than Yogi's Spring Training driver and chef. One soon realizes that Guidry's tireless devotion to Yogi, his skill in helping Yogi through the physical and emotional challenges facing an octogenarian trying to make himself useful to men two or more generations younger than he, is only one indication of his own exemplary character. Everyone should have a friend like Ron Guidry. I doubt that many do.In the final analysis, this is a book about aging, friendship, marriage, family, loyalty, cooking, and pride - both its value and its dangers. In Yogi, it presents a lovable but vulnerable and sometimes difficult man who has earned his iconic status in ways that transcend his athletic feats. In Guidry it presents a still vital man, a man with his own measure of iconic status, who recognizes who and what Yogi is and treats him with the same kindness, respect and understanding that characterizes his approach to others and to life. It is perhaps the ultimate tribute to Guidry that, in a book in which he and Yogi share the spotlight, that he arguably comes off as the more endearing of the two.

I read this "Mr. Yogi" a few years ago, and I sent this copy of "Mr. Yogi" to a friend who is going through a difficult time. It's full of stories that are sweet, poignant, and laugh-out-loud funny. I wanted her to find something to laugh about while she's feeling down.Anyone who you likes baseball even a little bit will thoroughly enjoy these reminisences about Yogi Berri (a man almost nobody didn't like). Written by Ron Guidry, the Yankeers pitcher for whom Yogi was catcher near the end of his career, the stories are told with both tender affection and knee-slapping humor. He must have been paying attention when Yogi said "You can observe a lot just by watching."

This book surprised me. It was so much more than I expected. I was anticipating some humorous Yogisms but what I found was how little I knew about the man. While some think Mr. Berra is just foolish, there is so much wisdom in his unique expressions. For instance, given what this economy has been during the past 4 years, can't everyone agree "the future ain't what it used to be?" And one of my favorites is "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Ever been frustrated by someone who can't make a decision? On the other side Ron Guidry writes a very warm book that shows what a benevolent man Mr. Berra is. Even though I grew up in the Yogi years, I had no idea what a great ball player he really was. I walked away with a deep respect for both men. And the baseball history that is portrayed is priceless. The book is well written and an easy read. I've read other baseball books but I enjoyed this one the most by far. I will never think of Mr. Berra the same way again. Nor will I think of the Yankees and their organization the same way again. And I'm not a big Yankees fan. But I appreciate them so much more now.

I highly recommend this book for fans of colorful baseball stories or just stories on humanity and relationships. This is a quick, easy and pleasant read. Very entertaining and would make for a fantastic Father's Day gift - baseball fans or not.What makes this special and different is that Araton saw a story in the day to day relationship with Berra and Guidry during spring training. I think it would be easy to just make this a book of more Yogi-isms or funny Yogi stories, but it's beyond that. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this and how much I learned about two Yankee greats.A few of my favorites in this book: (1) "discovering" Don Mattingly, (2) the mutual respect and commitment with Berra and Nick Swisher, (3) the character of Ron Guidry, (4) the Florida Spring Training arrangements, (5) the softer sides of Steinbrenner over the years, and the (6) unspoken rules of how to treat people with class, humility and dignity. It was fascinating to see how a third party noticed how all the chairs of the Yankee coaches were pointed towards Yogi when seated around a table; different locations, different scenarios, but that display of respect remained constant. Araton writes a compelling story that gives a peak into the personalities of Yogi and Guidry. Not your typical locker room tales.

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Enjoyed it for the behind story very interesting