The lively, engaging and moving documentary It Ain’t Over is primarily outlined more or less first by the friendly but somewhat resentful Lindsay Berra, the granddaughter of its subject, baseball player Yogi Berra. is stated in
She remembers watching the 2015 All-Star Game with her grandfather. The Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati that day was attended by four special guests considered the greatest living players: Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Sandy Koufax and Willie Mays. All legends, indeed. But Bella, a humble person in important ways, felt as disrespected as Lindsay. Because the film makes a very credible claim that Bella was as great a player as any of them.
Lindsey believes that the reason he wasn’t on the list was that Yogi’s boyish and generous personality overshadowed his prodigious skills. As a catcher for the New York Yankees, Berra won MVP three times during the team’s remarkable dominance in the 1950s, as Sean Mullin’s documentary points out. He was named an All-Star for 15 straight seasons and collected 10 World Series rings.
But Berra portrayed a different persona than the baseball hero of his time. He was reading comic books in the locker room, laughing lightheartedly. He was only 5 feet 7 inches tall, not as big and beefy as Joe DiMaggio. “Everything about him was round,” says Roger Angell, one of several sportswriters interviewed here, of Bella. (Many players echoed, including Derek Jeter, who echoed Berra’s seemingly simple advice: “If you see a strike, hit it.”)
And despite that, he was a phenomenal player. He didn’t become a catcher until he joined the Yankees, but his mental strength, discipline, and rigorous training from coach Bill Dickey, along with his own relatively low center of gravity, made him ideal for the position. target. Yes, you read “mental power” correctly. A good catcher must have the entire game in mind. A film description of Game 5 of the 1956 World Series, in which Berra captures Don Larsen’s perfect game, the only no-hitter in World Series history until last year, and a more recent accomplishment by three different players. It was a pitcher, but a thrilling demonstration. Bella’s baseball genius.
He was also a devoted family man and was married to Carmen Vera for 65 years. Here is read aloud the love letter he wrote to her, which he repeated with great affection and charm. He was also a war hero. He was on a rocket boat off Normandy on his D-Day in World War II. He was injured but did not apply for his Purple Heart because he did not want to worry his mother.
Bella’s exemplary life is animated by a trot that inevitably breaks out of his folk irregularism known as yogiism. The film’s title comes from the phrase ‘it’s not over until it’s over’, but no one seems to believe Bella uttered it. But the best of them are actually as deep inside out as the Zen koan, “If you can’t imitate, don’t imitate.” Only an original like Bella can come up with that.
it’s not over
PG designation. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. at the theater.
