Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee by Allen Barra (Norton, 2010), 451 pages

Few players in the history of baseball have left a legacy quite as successful and colourful as Lawrence ‘Yogi’ Berra.

Yogi is synonymous with the New York Yankees, as the subtitle and pinstriped cover of this biography by Allen Barra attest  Former Major League pitcher and coach Ron Guidry once even went so far as to say “Yogi is the Yankees”.  Yet it is the measure of the man that despite being so engrained in the Yankee legacy, his popularity extends to baseball fans of all persuasions.  There’s no ‘Evil Empire’ stigma surrounding Berra: he’s the Yankee it’s okay to love.

Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee was released in hardcover in 2009, with this paperback version following earlier this year, and was immediately hailed as the biography that Berra’s outstanding career deserves.  Every great player should have at least one great book documenting their life.  Such books don’t just tell you the story of that individual, they invariably open a window on a whole era of the sport because the great players define their period.  That’s certainly the case with Berra.  Continue reading →