'It Ain't Over' is a loving look at New York Yankees great Yogi Berra

To a lot of people, even baseball fans, Yogi Berra is remembered more for his malapropisms than his mastery of the game.

“It Ain’t Over,” a loving, entertaining and at times moving documentary written and directed by Sean Mullin, sets out to correct that — even as it takes its title from perhaps the most-famous “Yogi-ism” of them all (and one that he actually might not have said).

The film is a spin through baseball history, but also an examination of how media-molded personas can overtake genuine accomplishments.

This isn’t particular to Berra — a generation of NBA fans think of Charles Barkley, and rightly so, as a great shoot-from-the-hip TV personality. While it’s widely known that he is a former player, what some don’t realize is that he was in fact one of the greatest players of all time.

But the gulf between a player’s off-the-field persona and on-the-field greatness is probably more pronounced in Berra’s case than in any other.

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The New York Yankees catcher was a three-time Most Valuable Player and won 10 World Series rings. Yet, he’s more likely known as the guy who said things like, “It ain’t over till it’s over” — we learn there’s apparently no evidence that he said those exact words, just something like them — than as one of the dominant players on one of the most-dominant teams in the history of sports.

Or as Billy Crystal, a friend of Berra's, says, "“I think it’s quite evident that his personality overshadowed his talent as a ballplayer.”

That slight is what drives the documentary.

It begins with Berra’s granddaughter, Lindsay Berra, talking about watching the 2015 baseball All Star Game with him. The four greatest living baseball players, determined by fan vote, were recognized: Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Sandy Koufax and Willie Mays.

Lindsay Berra says she was stunned, and turned to her grandfather and said, “Are you dead?” He said, “Not yet.”

Berra would in fact die a few months later, but the dig clearly burned at his granddaughter — and other students of the game.

Berra's is an all-American story

Berra’s is one of the classic American stories. He grew up in an Italian neighborhood in St. Louis in an athletic family, but his father didn’t think baseball was a career for his son.

Berra had a major-league contract in hand when he enlisted to fight in World War II, and wound up offshore at Normandy during the D-Day invasion. He was wounded but didn’t file the paperwork to receive a Purple Heart — he didn’t want to worry his mother.

Baseball was the biggest, most-important sport in America when Berra finally got to the Yankees, where he wasn’t exactly greeted with open arms.

Journalists were brutal, making fun of his appearance — one story said he looked like an ape — and his predilection for reading comic books in the clubhouse. Some of his teammates weren’t much more welcoming.

But he quickly proved to be a genius at baseball. The film makes this clear through former players, some of whom Berra managed, and teammates, like Al Downing, Tony Kubek, Don Mattingly and Willie Randolph, as well as media figures like Bob Costas, Roger Angell and Vin Scully. (Archival footage is used extensively, as many of those interviewed have died.)

Not that it takes much convincing. Berra’s statistics speak for themselves.

Or should.

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After he retired, Berra eventually became manager of the Yankees, but was fired after taking the team to the World Series in his first season. He was rehired a few years later by new owner George Steinbrenner, who would eventually sour on Berra and send an underling to fire him.

Berra vowed never to return to Yankee Stadium as long as Steinbrenner owned the team. Years later, however Steinbrenner apologized in person and Berra came back.

It was when he was away from baseball that Berra became a popular pitchman, leaning into his goofy personality. That eventually took over the public’s perception of him.

And of course there were the “Yogi-isms,” which took on a life of their own. At one point a publicist goes through a list of them, trying to remember which he said and which she came up with.

His best include, “It’s deja vu all over again,” “When you come to a fork in the road, take it” and, talking about a popular restaurant, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

The Yogi Berra documentary is a celebration of the man on and off the field

Make no mistake, the film is a pure celebration of Berra, and not just on the field.

We see his lifelong love affair with his wife, Carmen, including snippets of the love letters he wrote her from spring training, with his daily statistics sometimes sprinkled in.

His son Dale was a good player who developed a cocaine addiction; he recalls Berra leading an intervention that led to his sobriety.

It’s not a warts-and-all treatment because, at least in this telling, there are no warts. It’s more about securing Berra among a new generation of fans as one of the greatest players who ever lived. And on that front, it more than succeeds.

'It Ain't Over' 4 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: Sean Mullin.

Cast: Bob Costas, Derek Jeter, Billy Crystal.

Rating: PG for smoking, some drug references, language and brief war images.

How to watch: In theaters May 19.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'It Ain't Over' review: Yogi Berra documentary goes beyond one-liners