If The World Were Perfect, It Wouldn't Be

Yogi Berra was one of baseball's greatest players. He played in 14 World Series, was a fifteen-time All Star, and won the AL MVP three times, in 1951, 1954 and 1955. Yogi also hit the first pinch hit home run in World Series history in 1947. When he managed, he holds the distinction of being one of the only managers to win both NL and AL pennants.

When he played catcher, he liked to talk behind the plate. A lot. He had a knack for saying crazy sayings like, "When you get to the fork in the road, take it," or, "It gets late early out here."

In 1942, the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, Branch Rickey, offered Berra $250 to play for the team, but Yogi turned him down. Rickey reportedly said, "He'll never make anything more than a Triple A ballplayer at best."

There Is No Joy In Wrigleyville

There is no sorrow in the world of sports like being a Cubs fan. Chicago is one of the greatest cities not just in the Midwest, or United States, but in the world. But the invisible fence around Wrigley Field seems to prevent joy from ever entering the friendly confines.

Maybe it gets lost in the ivy. Or blown into the tiny whitecaps of Lake Michigan on its way to the North Side of the Windy City. Maybe the goat ate it. At any rate, fans are kept on pins and needles from that first pitch on opening day to that moment when the Cubs have lost their last game. The real reason Cub fans are blue? It's from holding their breath all the time.

Carlos Zambrano, who not long ago pitched a no-hitter after concerns he had a tired arm, couldn't get the win needed last night against Torre's Dodgers. Cubs defense was sloppy, the offense quiet, and the fans sat pale-faced, patiently waiting for a moment to cheer about something. The strange part is that the Chicago Cubs have a rockin' team this year. I mean, they're really good. It should at least be good baseball, not the slaughters we witnessed Wednesday and Thursday. Manny doesn't need another World Series ring.

Revisiting History: Don Larsen's Perfect Game

We've all seen it: Yogi Berra leaping into Don Larsen's arms after the final out of the pitcher's perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

For decades, it also was considered one of the few images that survived from that day, with footage from the original broadcast of the entire game assumed to be lost forever.

Enter Doak Ewing, an Illinois sports film collector and founder of Rare Sports Films, Inc. He revealed last year that in the early 1990s he had acquired a kinescope - made by using a movie camera to film a television broadcast directly off the screen - that featured all but the first inning of Game 5 between the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees.

Apparently, an Alaska man acquired the recording while serving overseas. It was a common practice in the 50s for networks to send kinescopes of the World Series to U.S. forces to watch, with the condition that they be destroyed afterward.