Yogi and Me
HERE'S AN OP-ED I WROTE FOR OUR LOCAL PAPER AFTER YOGI BERRA DIED.... When you grew up in New York in the 50’s and 60’s you rooted for one of the major league teams at the time in that area: the Giants, the Dodgers or the Yankees. There was no such thing as switching loyalties and God forbid you should even whisper that you might have sympathy for one of the other two. To do so was to cause a firestorm of derision from your friends. This, in NY at that time, was absolute treason. When you greeted new kids you met on the playground, someone perhaps who had moved into the neighborhood, you did so with only one question: “Giants, Dodgers, Yankees?” The words clearly a question of importance and the answer all you had to hear to determine if the new friend was indeed to be a friend or foe. And if the poor kid happened to come from Boston or St. Louis and had the guts to say he still rooted for the Red Sox or Cardinals, it might take ten or twelve years before any