You Can Observe a Lot by Watching: What I've Learned about Teamwork from the Yankees and Life

by Yogi Berra

Overview

The most valuable team player in sports shows you what "teamwork" really means
What does it take to be a real team player, especially in a society that glorifies selfishness and a corporate culture that often uses "team player" as a buzzword but rewards only the showboaters and prima donnas? Well, You Can Observe a Lot by Watching. In this happy and hilarious guide to teamwork, sportsmanship, and winning, Yogi Berra draws on the timeless wisdom handed down by example from ballplayers who came before him to inspire you to make the right choices and become not only a better team player—at sports, at work, and in life—but a better person.
Filled with colorful stories from his life and career, not to mention the down-to-earth wit and insight that Yogi fans love, You Can Observe a Lot by Watching shows you how to make a bad team good and a good team great.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470079928
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	05/01/2008
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	715,359
Product dimensions:	5.96(w) x 8.68(h) x 0.95(d)

About the Author

YOGI BERRA is one of baseball's greatest catchers, the Yankees' greatest players, and the game's greatest ambassadors.

DAVE KAPLAN, a former editor and reporter for the New York Daily News, is the director of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center. He has cowritten Yogi's last three books.

Table of Contents

Team Player.

My Bad.

The Essence of a Teammate.

The Yankee Way.

Catching Perfection.

What Were They Thinking?

Stirring with Reggie.

Find Your Role.

Hard to Change.

Making Everyone Better.

Quiet Leaders.

Respect Your Team.

Not Over Till It’s Over.

Uniform Policy.

You, a Manager?

Index.

Editorial Reviews

* Notorious for his run-ins with the English language, baseball great Berra has become an improbably prolific author. He and coauthor Kaplan follow up 2002’s What Time Is It? You Mean Now? with this charming, if meandering, book about teamwork. In anecdote after anecdote about his legendary career with the Yankees, his not-so-legendary career as a manager, and his days growing up on the streets of St. Louis, Berra shows how respect and cooperation made him a success on the field and in life. Lessons include the importance of punctuality, owning one’s mistakes, and a positive attitude. For better or worse, nuggets of wisdom (“Never give an opponent added motivation”) are buried beneath a mountain of less-than-insightful sports ephemera (Derek Jeter is “a good leader because he always knows and does what’s right”). Still, Berra’s optimism and wry, absurdist sense of humor make it a fast read that should resonate with fans; as one would expect, Berra includes plenty of well-meaning advice in his signature, well-near-meaningless style: “Unless you have an excuse, there’s no excuse.” (May) (Publishers Weekly, June 2008)

"...[it] offers nearly half a century's distilled wisdom on the subject of teammates and the value of team play from the biggest winner (14 pennants and 10 World Series rings) in baseball history..." (YouCanObserveSyn, April 13, 2008)

"...[it] offers nearly half a century's distilled wisdom on the subject of teammates and the value of team play from the biggest winner (14 pennants and 10 World Series rings) in baseball history..." (Post Dispatch (St Louis), April 6, 2008)

From the Publisher

Notorious for his run-ins with the English language, baseball great Berra has become an improbably prolific author. He and coauthor Kaplan follow up 2002's What Time Is It? You Mean Now? with this charming, if meandering, book about teamwork. In anecdote after anecdote about his legendary career with the Yankees, his not-so-legendary career as a manager, and his days growing up on the streets of St. Louis, Berra shows how respect and cooperation made him a success on the field and in life. Lessons include the importance of punctuality, owning one's mistakes, and a positive attitude. For better or worse, nuggets of wisdom ("Never give an opponent added motivation") are buried beneath a mountain of less-than-insightful sports ephemera (Derek Jeter is "a good leader because he always knows and does what's right"). Still, Berra's optimism and wry, absurdist sense of humor make it a fast read that should resonate with fans; as one would expect, Berra includes plenty of well-meaning advice in his signature, well-near-meaningless style: "Unless you have an excuse, there's no excuse."
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Publishers Weekly

Enjoyable, sometimes humorous, and occasionally revealing love fests to American sports' most storied franchise, these two volumes present the observations of the great former pinstriper Berra and near-great Murcer. The two ex-Yankees agree about what makes a truly successful team: concern for one's teammates and a largely selfless dedication to the task of winning. No player was more successful in that regard than Berra, whose Yankees won 14 pes and ten World Series championships during his career, in contrast to the ill-timed Murcer, who just missed out on the resurgent Yankees of the late 1970s and barely made a dent on the 1981 pennant-winning team. Berra praises star players Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle for setting an example by working "through tough times," making no excuses, striving for excellence, and passionately caring most about the well-being of the Yankees. He shares stories about Bill Dickey teaching him the art of catching, Jackie Robinson's burning desire to win, Derek Jeter's devotion to the team, Mantle's determination to be "a great teammate," Joe McCarthy and Joe Torre's confidence, DiMaggio's insistence that others play as hard and intelligently as he did, and Reggie Jackson's work ethic. Murcer, projected to be the next Mickey Mantle, never quite reached such heights but felt he had become part of the Yankees when Mick decided Murcer belonged. After exploring the ups and downs of his playing days, Murcer describes his all-Yankee team, the cancer that afflicted him, and issues ranging from steroids and asterisks to Marvin Miller, longtime union leader who devised the game's initial collective bargaining agreement. Both books are recommended for generallibraries.
—R.C. Cottrell

Library Journal

Former New York Yankees great Yogi Berra offers one message in this book: Putting one’s team first is imperative for success. It’s comforting to know that Berra’s work is being read by his son, Dale, also a former Major Leaguer. His delivery is perfect for anything written by Yogi. Slightly rough around the edges though always clear, Dale Berra’s voice brings home the book's theme, which is punctuated by many pithy anecdotes. Listeners won't find too many "Yogi-isms" here but will enjoy the stories and examples, which cover several sports (though Yankees memories figure prominently). Yogi's conviction that there’s no “I” in “team” comes through loud and clear, thanks to dad's experience and son's narration. M.B. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2009 - AudioFile