Mike Scioscia on Yogi Berra: ‘Like talking to your next-door neighbor’

Mike Scioscia was on his way out of a Palm Desert hotel to attend a speaking engagement after the 2009 season when he heard a voice summoning him from across the lobby.

“It was this little man saying, ‘Mike! Mike!’” Scioscia said. The voice belonged to Yogi Berra, the Hall of Fame catcher and 10-time World Series champion with the New York Yankees who died Tuesday at age 90.

“I was late for the thing. Man, we talked for probably 40 minutes. He was just a nice man.… And he was up on the game. We talked for a long time. He was talking as if he was in the dugout managing.”

Yogi Berra’s Most Memorable Quotes

As decorated a playing and managing career as Berra had and as memorable as his funny quips were, Scioscia, who had a chance to speak with Berra on a number of occasions over the years, admired him for so much more.

“As simple a person as Yogi is, he was really diverse,” Scioscia said. “It wasn’t just baseball that drove him. He was a great humanitarian, he went to fight for the [military]. A very humble man for accomplishing probably more than anybody who ever played the game when you think about the World Series appearances, World Series titles, managing a team to the World Series.

“And when you got a chance to talk to him, it was like you were talking to your next-door neighbor. He was so down to Earth. Just a great man.”