The Post’s Steve Serby sat down for a couple of priceless moments with Hall of Fame Yankee catcher Yogi Berra, chatting about everything from Berra’s role in the Normandy Invasion to his legendary quotations.
Q: Today is the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
A: I was in the invasion of Normandy in southern France.
Q: Talk about that.
A: I’m glad I was in the Navy. I just saw “The Longest Day” the other day what them Army guys go through … we were lucky, we had a bed to sleep in, the right food. They’re the ones that get the hell.
Q: You were in a support landing craft?
A: We stayed off the beach about 300 yards, if they ran into anything, we fired rockets and everything. We only had five men and an officer on our boat. I was on a 36-footer. I was on the water there for 11 days.
Q: Your favorite Yogi-ism?
A: It ain’t over ’til it’s over … Nobody goes there, it’s too crowded … When you come to the fork in the road, take it (chuckles). I didn’t even know I say ’em, that’s the funny part about it (laughs).
Q: When you were catching, who was the best guy to talk to at home plate?
A: Ted Williams I could talk with. Ted used to get mad at me.
Q: What would you say to him?
A: “Where you going fishin’?”
Q: You did it to distract him?
A: No, I didn’t do it to distract him. Just to find out what he does during the winter.
Q; What did Ted Williams say to you?
A: He said, “Shut up.”
Q: What did you say?
A; I said, “If you don’t talk to me, I’ll never talk to you again.”
Q; Who do you think could play you in a movie about you?
A: [Danny] DeVito?
Q: Did they used to tease you about your ears at all?
A: Oh yeah, they still do. I could hear good with ’em. (laughs).
Q: What would they say about your ears?
A: George Susce used to say I made the All-Ugly team. He used to coach for the Red Sox. That don’t bother me. You don’t hit with your face.
Q: Favorite Whitey Ford story?
A: I guess when the White Sox got four runs on four pitches. First guy got a single, next guy got a single, he hit the next guy and (Ted) Kluszewski hit a home run. Casey (Stengel) came out and said, “Has he got anything?” I said, “‘I don’t know, I haven’t caught one yet.”
Q: Did you ever have a slump like Derek Jeter’s 0-for-32?
A: Yeah, I went 0-for-32. I told him that.
Q: What was like that for you?
A: It’s one of them things. Casey wouldn’t bench me. He said, “You never know when you’re gonna break out of it.” I told him, “I’m not in a slump, I’m just not hitting.”
Q: You liked managing, didn’t you?
A: It’s a challenge. Look how many catchers are managers.
Q: Why is that?
A: They see everything.
Q: Was it was easier back then?
A: We had more fun. Casey was great. He never let us go in the hotel bar. He said, “That’s mine.” He said, “You can come in if I tell you to come in.” He’d keep you there all goddamn night. As long as you talk baseball with him.
Q: What would he drink?
A; He drank pretty good (chuckles).
Q: Beer?
A: Bourbon, I think.
Q: And you?
A: Vodka.
Q: Are you in touch with Phil Linz?
A: Yeah he’s playing in our (June 14) golf tournament.
Q: Is he bringing his harmonica?
A: Yeah, he brings one along. He makes me sign a couple of ’em, too.
Q: Was that the angriest you were as a manager, when you told Linz to stick it up his bleep on the bus?
A: Linz asked Mickey, “What’d he say?” Mickey said, “Play it louder.”
Q: And the angriest you were as a player was when Jackie Robinson stole home in Game 1 of the 1955 World Series?
A: He was out.
Q: Word association: George Steinbrenner.
A; He’s been good to me. What the heck, we made up, and so far, everything’s fine.
Q: If you were not a major-league baseball player, what would you have been?
A: I might have been in a shoe factory.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Mrs. Miniver.”
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Greer Garson.
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Gregory Peck; Clint Eastwood.
Q; Favorite TV show?
A: “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Seinfeld.”
Q: You won five straight World Series with the Yankees (10 in all) and wear No. 5 (in 1953) on your right hand. Do you and Jeter talk about that?
A: Oh yeah, he came close. Now I told him you gotta start over again (chuckles).
Q: What has it been like being Yogi Berra?
A: I really don’t know, I couldn’t tell you.
Q: What do you mean you don’t know? You are Yogi Berra?
A: (Laughs) Not bad, I guess. I get a kick, when you go to the airport, they look at ya and say, “You’re not Yogi Berra, are you? You look like Yogi Berra.” I said, “Yeah a lot of people tell me that.”
Q: You’ve been married 55 years to Carmen. What’s the secret?
A: It mighta helped because we played ball; we were gone two weeks and you come back two weeks. We have a good time together even when we’re not together.
