IT AIN’T OVER – Review

It doesn’t get any more delightful than the surprising, warm documentary about beloved baseball legend Yogi Berra, IT AIN’T OVER. Surprising? Yes, as this well-made bio documentary looks back at Yogi’s outstanding baseball career as player, something overshadowed and even forgotten by fans, as he became best known as a lovable pop culture icon and for his “Yogi-isms,” quotable phrases like “it’s deja vu all over again,” “when you come to a fork in the road, take it” and “it ain’t over until it’s over.” Yet Yogi Berra was a baseball player whose record put him among the greats of the game, As actor and baseball fan Billy Crystal put it, Yogi was “the most overlooked superstar in the history of baseball.”

The numbers are impressive, jaw-dropping even, considering what we might think we know about Yogi Berra. With 10 World Series rings (still a record today for a player), three MVP awards in the American League, 18 All-Star Game appearances, Yogi Berra was a Hall of Fame catcher who caught the only – still the only – perfect game in a World Series in 1956. He was a powerhouse slugger who could turn balls that were not even over the plate into home runs.

IT AIN’T OVER starts with Berra’s baseball-playing childhood and his career as a big leaguer. There are plenty of thrilling moments with other baseball greats, including Jackie Robinson and Joe DiMaggio, as well as how Berra was treated by the press who had trouble giving credit to a player who did not look like the tall, blonde baseball ideal. The stats are impressive. In 1950, Berra had 597 at-bats, hit .322 with 124 RBI and 28 home runs and struck out only 12 times. A factoid from the record books, and the film’s notes, in 1950 “Berra hit 2.33 home runs for every strikeout. He drove in 10.33 runs for every strikeout. When Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in 1927, he hit 0.67 home runs for every strikeout and batted in 1.85 runs for every strikeout…In MLB history, there are only two players with more than 350 home runs and fewer than 500 strikeouts: Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra.” As a catcher, Berra still hold the record for most RBI for players primarily at that position, and he caught a record 184 shutouts in his career, followed by Cardinals great Yadier Molina at 175. And there are more records and firsts in this should-be-storied career.

How could this be? Yogi’s baseball career should have made him a legend. Instead, we tend to remember him as a clownish figure, a lovable fellow with a knack for managing the English language. Somehow, Yogi Berra’s impressive baseball career got overshadowed, as he became a manager, then an advertising pitchman, even a cartoon character, and a beloved pop culture figure known for his memorable if puzzling sayings. IT AIN’T OVER goes a ways towards setting the record straight, while providing audiences an entertaining cinema experience.

This excellent, entertaining, even heartwarming documentary goes a long ways to giving us a fuller picture of the man and the athlete, with interviews from former Yankee greats Derek Jeter, Joe Torre, Mariano Rivera, Willie Randolph, Don Mattingly, Tony Kubek and Ron Guidry. along with interviews with Whitey Herzog, Bob Costas, Vin Scully, Billy Crystal and Yogi’s childhood neighbor and friend Joe Garagiola. There is plenty of archival footage, on and off the baseball diamond, and lots of family stills, along with interviews with his granddaughter (and producer) Lindsay Berra, and his sons Tim, Larry and Dale. The documentary covers Berra’s career as a player, his personal life with his wife Carmen, his career as a coach and later an ad pitchman and of course those famous “Yogi-isms,” not all of which he actually said. Even that famous “It ain’t over until it’s over” actually started as “It ain’t over until it’s mathematical” which makes more sense but is less memorable. Real Yogi-isms have a strange kind of logic that the fakes don’t.

The documentary gives us a glimpse into the real Yogi. A kid from an Italian immigrant family, Yogi grew up in the working class Italian neighborhood in St. Louis known as the Hill. Yogi was born Lawrence Peter Berra (the Americanized version of the Italian name his parents gave him). As a kid, he loved playing baseball, as did his older brothers, and earned the nickname “yogi” for his tendency to sit cross-legged on the ground while waiting for his turn to bat. Across the street in his old neighbor was his pal Joe Garagiola, the second best baseball player on the street. A die-hard Cardinals fan, Yogi hoped to play for the home team but while Joe became a Cardinal, Yogi ended up with the New York Yankees. Yogi met and fell in love with his wife Carmen when she was working as a waitress at the legendary Hill restaurant Biggies. The documentary tells in better, with plenty of colorful baseball details but it doesn’t get any more classically St. Louis than that.

The story of Yogi Berra is so fascinating because he is a figure people think they know but in fact are missing whole aspects of his real life, of the man himself and his amazing accomplishments. There is great fun, and plenty of “wows” as this doc peels back the layers on this accomplished but modest man, a big personality who made others feel welcome and included, as he did for Jackie Robinson. While Jackie faced discrimination and racism from some other players, Yogi reached out to make Jackie feel welcome and part of the gang.

Lots of these tales are told by the people who were there or the people who knew Yogi personally, giving this documentary both warmth and the ring of truth. Funny stories abound but so do those that are touching, including of slights, towards a kindhearted, down-to-earth man who was smarter that people assumed. Yogi did not look like the era’s ideal of tall, blonde, handsome baseball player. At a mere 5-foot-7 and rather squat, with an odd face with a gap-tooth smile and wingy ears, the press compared him to a gnome and worse. But he was kind of cute, good-natured, and fun-loving, but most of all, a giant on the playing field.

There is hardly a dull moment in this thoroughly delightful film, with astounding revelations, interesting inside baseball facts, heartwarming and even heart-tugging stories, and an unparalleled human warmth, as you gain a deeper understanding of a man you thought you knew. You will leave realizing that Yogi Berra was one of baseball’s all-time greatest players, despite pop culture’s resistance to letting him be who he really was, and not just a funny character it has presented him as.

You can’t spend a more enjoyable and informative 98 minutes, if you are any kind baseball fan at all, than watching this delightful film about the wonderful little baseball giant Yogi Berra. IT AIN’T OVER delivers the goods – just as Yogi did, on the field, and off.

IT AIN’T OVER opens Friday, May 19, in theaters.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars