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

by Yogi Berra (Author), Dave H. Kaplan (With)

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.

Front Jacket

Long before Yogi Berra became world famous for his inimitable use of the English language, he was loved by millions of baseball fans as one of the greatest catchers in the history of the game and a fierce competitor who would do anything to help his team and his teammates win.

In "You Can Observe a Lot by Watching," Yogi offers good-natured reminiscing with a serious purpose in mind: to deliver a thoughtful and instructive account of the single most important factor in creating a winning team in any sport, business, or other venture--teamwork.

Over his seventeen years as a major-league player, Yogi and his Yankee teammates won fourteen pennants and ten World Series. Sharing hundreds of telling stories from those golden years, Yogi demonstrates that the secret of the team's fabulous success was not merely the stellar play of Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford, and Yogi himself; it was the way they and everyone else on the roster worked together, on and off the field. DiMaggio gave a rookie named Berra a tip that changed his career. Mantle's good humor kept the whole team loose when things were going badly. And, in 1960, Maris surprised everyone by bunting a runner in from third rather than swinging away for his 55th homer.

In this heartfelt tribute to qualities that often appear to be fading from professional sports, Yogi shows you how to be a better teammate and contribute all you can to your team's quest for excellence. You'll learn why even the greatest players have to put the team's welfare before their own, protect their teammates, and take responsibility for their actions. You'll discover the secret of being a good teammate to someone you don't really like; the importance of controlling your emotions in every situation; and how even the least talented player can make outstanding contributions to the team.

Complete with colorful tales about Don Larsen's perfect game, the twelve Yankees who played on all of the teams that won five consecutive championships, and how Phil Linz's harmonica turned a tough season into a trip to the World Series, "You Can Observe a Lot by Watching" gives you the most fun you'll ever have while learning something, too.

Back Jacket

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.

Author Biography

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.