Yogi stories a good way to spend an evening

I may never hear my favorite craftsman of the English language Yogi Berra speak, or see him, but I may have had the next best thing recently. One of the Yankee great's best friends, Clyde King, spoke at Campbell University and shared some of his favorite Yogi stories. It was almost like sitting in the room with the man himself, and was a great experience for any sports fan.
Mr. King, still a valued consultant to the New York Yankees and the Steinbrenner family, played and coached alongside Berra during their careers with the Yankees. He told numerous stories about some of his favorite Yogi sayings, or Yogiisms as they have come to be known He told of the night he and his wife ate dinner with Yogi and his wife. At one point in the evening Yogi looked at his wife, Carmen, and said “If we don’t start going to some of our friends funerals, they are not going to come to ours.”
On another occasion Mr. King was with Yogi when someone asked him about his opinion of a local restaurant. Yogi said, in all seriousness, that “nobody goes there anymore because it is to crowded.”
Mr. King says Yogi doesn’t know why people think he is funny because he is not trying to be humorous. Maybe that is why he is. His sayings don’t make logical sense but in a weird sort of way they convey a message. If nothing else they have pure entertainment value.
One of the other speakers at Campbell was Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Jim Perry. For whatever reason he didn’t mention his hall of fame brother, Gaylord, but Mr. Perry didn’t need to. He has reason enough to be proud of his own career.
He was brought to the “Legends of Baseball” event at Campbell because of this connection to the school. He is a former standout pitcher for the Camels. Before striking batters out in Cleveland and Minnesota, he was mowing them down in Buies Creek. He also brought some interesting perspectives from a legendary career in the game. He specifically mentioned ties to greats such as Mickey Mantle. He told the crowd the best hitter he ever faced was Stan Musial. He obviously knows much more about hitters of his generations than I do but it would be hard to argue with his choice.
He did something else, which was the point of the night, he promoted Campbell University baseball. The Fighting Camels want to add to Taylor field to make it more suitable for a NCAA regional in the near future. That is a lofty goal for a school that is used to achieving at a high level. I can’t think of a better shot in the arm for the local sports world than Buies Creek becoming a stop on the road to the college world series in Omaha.
Yogi once said if you don't know where you are going you will never get there. Campbell knows exactly where it is going, to a higher level in its athletic endeavors.

Johnson is the best on the track

I have been accused of making The Corner a place where the negative seems to dominate the landscape so here goes something to help my reputation. I can't help but say something positive about NASCAR champion Jimmy Johnson.

If someone wins any sports title four years in a row, they deserve some applause. I think it is particularly true in NASCAR if your name isn't Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt, Jr. The NASCAR fan base has always seemed divided equally among those two camps but I think division is in the air.

What Johnson has done is remarkable. Perhaps, more specifically, I should say what Johnson's team has done deserves our applause. 

Of course it is the driver who wins the title and gets all the glory but like every superstar he has a team behind him. Imagine what he would be like if his pit crew was daydreaming when he pulled in. Even a second can be all that counts when 200 mph speeds are involved. Johnson and his team have my nomination for sportsmen of the year.

That is unless 52 year old Mark Martin takes it from them. To be that old and to finish second in the NASCAR standings is worthy of some kind of recognition. It is another one of those feel good stories we all like so well. It would have been even better if he won it but this is one case where second place isn't so bad.

I would say Martin is the best over the hill story of the year but that is unfair to Brett Favre. That is another story for another day.

Weird

If you haven't seen it yet you need to check out a play I think they are calling the bouquet toss play. I ran into it on Yahoo sports and was impressed enough to check it out again.

It is this crazy pass play where the quarterback lazily lobbed the ball backwards over his shoulder to a waiting receiver, lying on his back in the end zone in a game between Bethel and Sterling Colleges. The quarterback to his credit was facing the goaline, on the other end of the field!

You might call it the modern Statue of Liberty play. It sure caught the opposition off guard. So much so that Brett Favre says he is considering putting it the Minnesota Vikings game plan when his team is near the goal line.

It brought back memories of a day gone by in sports. The flea flickers and reverses are still out there and you still see the occasional fake field goal or punt, but coaches don't seem to be as aggressive in the modern age. Fullback up the middle is a much safer play. A straight drop in the pocket seems more effective.

Neither is as much fun. Here's to the bouquet toss as the next big thing in the NFL!

Who cares

Who cares?

I have to love the comments of a national sports radio announcer earlier this week. He said "Who cares about the third string quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles?"
He was referring to a question on Michael Vick.
I agree. Not really interested in that story until he plays in front of "The Dawg Pound" in Clevelend. Not interested in his complaints about the offense of the Eagles. Don't care what position he plays, or if he plays at all. I will only say that I feel bad for the boys from Philadelphia.
One of my first memories of pro football is crying as a small child when the Eagles lost to the Raiders in the Super Bowl. Ron Jaworski, Harold Carmichael, Wilbert Montgomery and Coach Dick Vermeil helped make the Eagles a life time favorite. Reggie White is one of my favorite defensive players of all time.
The Eagles will always be special and a convicted criminal, now the team's third string quarterback won't change that.

Weird

If you haven't seen pictures of Sammy Sosa's face, you should. My man has gone plain weird. Go to youtube do a search for Sammy Sosa's face and you will see what I mean. 

Even the bleacher bums at Wrigley, who watched Sosa for so many years in right field, wouldn't recognize him. Apparently, he discovered which dermatologist Michael Jackson used and paid him a visit.

Sammy, The King of Pop is gone there is no need to try to imitate him. Supposedly all those "years in the sun" damaged your face. Chicago is known for its powerful sun you know.

Sure the sun caused that damage, and you didn't know that bat was corked before it blew up in front of the world.

One of the game's greats has put a bad face on his legacy, literally. The hope is that some of that color can be put back in place! The corked bat was unethical, this latest stunt is just plain weird!

Yankees

I was in a play earlier this year that is known around the world. It describes my feelings of the day. There is a line in a song in the play that states "Those Damn Yankees!"Exactly. 

If memory serves this is 27 titles for the boys in pin stripes. Congratulations and who cares.

There are only two ways to be when it comes to the Yankees. You either love them or you hate them. I choose the later. I think part of it comes from my blood. Dad was born a Red Sox fan. That makes being a Yankees fan against a house rule. The only good thing about the Yankees was they sent their talent at the corners, Chris Chambliss and Craig Nettles to the horrid Braves teams of the 1980s.

I admit it, part of it is jealousy. I respect what the two Joes, Torre and Girardi have done leading their teams in recent years. I respect the historical dominance of the team. 

I also know my beloved Braves only dream of such success. The boys from Atlanta dominated a decade like no other in the game's history in the 1990s but Bobby Cox got exactly one World Series title out of that.

There were good Braves teams before my time but the Yankees they have never been.

I think I will be a Pirates fan. They are the polar opposite of the Yankees. I am officially forming the North Carolina chapter of ABTY, or anybody but the Yankees. Anything is an improvement.