We're near the end of the first half of the baseball season in the year 2024, and sure I can recommend Fear Strikes Out, but this was one of these movies or documentaries where I felt that I needed to recommend personally because it's great and it's also informative especially when it comes to a former baseball player that was overlooked by a lot of people. It Ain't Over is a sports documentary that tells the story of all time Yankee great Yogi Berra, who has more World Series rings than any baseball player combined, just like Bill Russel when it comes to Basketball and Henri Richard who has more Stanley Cup rings aka the hardest trophy to win in sports but we're talking about Baseball so let’s stick with that.
The story of Yogi Berra's life is somewhat fascinating and more importantly an understanding of one of the greatest players of all time when it comes to Major League Baseball. The guy started out in St. Louis and Branch Rickey didn't think he would make it until the Yankees came calling, then went off to WWII moreover was part of D-Day which was a huge surprise and then had without a doubt one of the greatest MLB careers in baseball history.
I've always been familiar with Yogi Berra in fact I always have a hunch on Yogi being the basis behind the cartoon character of Yogi the Bear upon which I don't believe he really enjoyed the cartoon, nor did he really have his own kids watch the show so really can't blame the guy. Back to seriousness, What really makes this Documentary great is that it goes a lot in depth of Yogi Berra's life in terms of his services during the War as well as his involvement in D-Day for which I was surprised because he couldn't write to anyone of his family members nor anyone and I know a lot of famous baseball players back in the forties fought in World War II but the fact that he was involved with D-Day on Normandy was crazy because it was a unbearable sight to see and I probably bet he didn't mentioned it throughout his whole life but yet he was still able to play baseball in the highest rate possible. I'm not going to argue that the guy was underappreciated by all of baseball fans in fact his records on most World Series Rings, catching Doubleheaders will never be matched but here's the thing, America and Baseball has always been a Democracy it's how things should work in a way of life and yes it's flawed but when a mount Rushmore of Baseball greats don't include a player like Yogi doesn't mean he's not lost his greatness. It's like the Oscars just because an Actor/Actress has won an Academy Award means he or she is the greatest, it basically a popularity contest for these types of things and later they're going to go back to those bad or chewing the scenery movies. Look the point that I'm trying to make here is, if you ever see the great granddaughter of Yogi Berra in the documentary and she complains about her grandfather never making the Mount Rushmore of Baseball with Koufax, Aaron, Mays and Johnny Bench just keep your cool because I'm not sure she has her baseball facts checked, because if she did? She would know the impact Mays would have as a five tool player, Aaron being the first Black superstar to break Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record, Sandy Koufax being the first power Pitcher ever in the Golden Age of baseball and Johnny Bench re-creating what the modern day catcher should really do when it comes to baseball today moreover should come to accept the fact that those types of popularity contests (like the Mount Rushmore of Baseball) is deep down meaningless in terms of popularity also it can’t always be about the American League all the time. Even though Berra has been dead for a long time, the thing I respect him the most is that after his firing from the 84 season as Yankee Manager he vowed to never go back to Yankee Stadium as long as George Steinbrenner was owning the team, for which really is awesome because that guy was a complete narcissist of an a**hole and making Steinbrenner apologize to him I just have to clap my hands for the guy for many reasons that always gives me a gleam of hope that I can do that. I don't want to spoil any more topics but as a Cardinals fan and a Baseball fan I would most certainly recommend watching this great documentary on Netflix because you'll get to know a lot about Berra's life and his quotes and really that's the most important part of any sports documentary is not understanding the baseball player but understanding the man.
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