“If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.”
– Yogi Berra (1925 – 2015)
Today happens to be the one-year anniversary of the death of baseball’s beloved, Yogi Berra. I was a kid from Jersey who was a huge Yankees fan, and I seem to remember that not far from where I lived, Yogi Berra owned a fitness club with racquetball. I always loved racquetball, but by the time I got a driver’s license and could seek it out, I moved out of state. Ah well.
This drawing, however, is NOT of good ol’ Yogi. I just felt that if an old baseball coach was being posted for a Drawn & Quoted post, who better to quote than the most quotable old baseball player. Yogi was the natural choice.
I like the nostalgia of baseball. I used to play in high school, and still have a love for baseball despite not keeping up with the current status of the game. Old photos of America’s pastime, and even better, illustrations that immortalize the essence of the sport from days gone by always make me recall the smell of the glove, the buzzing of the bugs, and the wafting scent of freshly cut grass from my position in the outfield.
I was doodling in my sketchbook the other day, and as this face emerged, it just made me think of an old, grizzled baseball coach, wise beyond his years with the science, psyche, and feel of the game, so the hat and suggestion of a uniform were added.
Then, of course, the quote from Yogi.