Experience is the best teacher...

November 13, 2018

I heard it this way first, from Daniel: “Experience is the best teacher.” Why? “You get the test first, and the lesson later.”

But the quotation is attributed to Vernon Law, a baseball player. Vern Law is arguably the baseball player with the second greatest impact on modern philosophy, the first being Yogi Berra.

Law’s version:

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.”

But no one compares to Yogi, even though he says:

“I really didn’t say everything I said.”

Here are some classics:

  • “90 percent of baseball is mental; the other half is physical.”

  • On why he no longer went to Rigazzi’s, a St. Louis restaurant: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

  • “It ain’t over till it’s over.” In July 1973, Berra’s Mets trailed the Chicago Cubs by 9½ games in the National League East. The Mets rallied to clinch the division title in their second-to-last game of the regular season, and eventually reach the World Series.

  • When giving directions to Joe Garagiola to his New Jersey home, which was accessible by two routes: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

  • At Yogi Berra Day at Sportsman Park in St. Louis: “Thank you for making this day necessary.”“It’s déjà vu all over again.” Berra explained that this quote originated when he witnessed Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris repeatedly hitting back-to-back home runs in the Yankees’ seasons in the early 1960s.

  • “You can observe a lot by watching.

  • “Always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise they won’t go to yours.”

  • “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore”

  • “If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him.”

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