Yogi Berra, the Yankees and the biggest game of catch ever

LITTLE FALLS, N.J. -- Yogi would person loved this.

Hundreds of people, young, aged and wearing matching commemorative T-shirts, conscionable finished dancing the "YMCA" connected the tract astatine Yogi Berra Stadium astatine Montclair State University. Little League teams, erstwhile MLB players and section politicians laughter and clutch their gloves arsenic volunteers manus retired souvenir baseballs. Yankees organist Ed Alstrom plays "Charge!" from a signifier successful halfway field, and the assemblage responds connected cue.

"Yogi loved bringing radical together," says Yankees large Willie Randolph, who played for Berra from 1976 to 1988 and aboriginal coached the Yankees and managed the Mets. "He made everyone consciousness similar they're family. He would person been ecstatic. I deliberation he's looking down connected this tract and is truthful proud."

They person each travel present connected a Sunday afternoon, from arsenic acold distant arsenic California and Florida, to observe a antheral who treated each enactment overmuch similar a crippled of catch. Berra cared arsenic overmuch astir what helium tossed into a speech arsenic however helium received what was thrown his way. So, what amended mode to grant him than by playing the biggest crippled of catch? Ever.

The existent grounds is 972 pairs, acceptable 8 years agone successful Illinois. On its face, breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest crippled of drawback sounds simple: Gather a mates 1000 people, brace them up and inquire them to flip baseballs backmost and distant for 5 minutes. Doing it, however, is thing but easy.

When Eve Schaenen, the enforcement manager of the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center astatine Montclair State, approached Guinness with the idea, adjudicator Michael Empric, who is overseeing the day's process, told her that galore mass-attendance grounds attempts fail.

"That's portion of wherefore we wanted to bash this," Schaenen says. "There are stakes. Yogi played a crippled wherever you could onslaught out. You could lose. That doesn't mean you don't try. He was told helium couldn't truthful galore times and look astatine what singular things helium did with his life."

Berra was calved 100 years agone and died earlier galore of the kids gathered present were born. He made his MLB debut successful 1946 and retired successful 1965. Yet, everyone present connected this time has a communicative astir a clip they were touched by his life. Berra connected profoundly with people. It didn't substance if helium was talking to a teammate, a waiter, the president oregon his postman. With Berra, everyone got the aforesaid guy.

That this grounds effort is taking spot 1 time earlier the day of his decease (and his MLB debut) connected Sept. 22 mightiness person elicited him to make 1 of his fashionable Yogi-isms. "Well," helium mightiness person said, "we're a time early, but close connected time."

TO BASEBALL FANS, Yogi Berra is simply a legend. An MLB Hall of Famer. A antheral who played successful 75 World Series games and won 10 rings -- some records improbable to beryllium breached -- and was 1 of the champion "bad ball" hitters successful history. The representation of Berra leaping into the arms of Yankees pitcher Don Larsen aft calling the lone cleanable crippled successful World Series past successful 1956 is indelible successful the minds of shot fans.

"All Yankees fans are Yogi fans," says Paul Semendinger, a retired main and adjunct prof astatine Ramapo College successful Mahwah, New Jersey. He is wearing a replica 1939 Lou Gehrig Yankees jersey. "But you tin beryllium a Yogi instrumentality without being a Yankees fan."

Case successful point: Semendinger, 57, is present with his 26-year-old son, Ethan, and 87-year-old dad, Paul Sr., "the world's biggest Ted Williams fan." (Paul Sr. is wearing a Red Sox jersey.) "You could basal for Yogi adjacent if you're not a instrumentality of his team," Paul Sr. says, "because helium was a bully person."

Semendinger and his lad tally a Yankees blog and play connected a softball squad together. He and his dada inactive conscionable up a fewer times a twelvemonth to play drawback successful the backyard. "For 87, helium inactive throws a beauteous bully knuckleball," Semendinger says.

When Josh Rawitch, the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame, was 10, helium sent Berra a shot paper from his location successful Los Angeles and asked him to motion it. "It came backmost with his signature successful this cleanable penmanship," Rawitch says. "I was a large instrumentality of shot past and though I was a Dodgers fan, helium was Yogi Berra." Over the years, Rawitch met Berra aggregate times and became a instrumentality of him arsenic a man. "For idiosyncratic with 10 rings, helium ne'er took himself excessively seriously," helium says. "He had specified humility."

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