NJ's 'overlooked' icon: Why Yogi Berra's family pushed for a movie about Yankees legend

Can a Hall of Famer who won 10 World Series championships and three Most Valuable Player awards be overlooked?

That's the argument presented in the new documentary, "It Ain't Over," which looks at the life and career of Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra, the famed New York Yankees catcher and longtime Montclair resident (he moved there in the late 1950s).

The film from Sony Pictures Classics, which will open in theaters starting May 12, makes its case starting early on with footage of Major League Baseball's 2015 All-Star Game in Cincinnati.

The film opens with Lindsay Berra, Yogi's oldest grandchild and executive producer of the documentary, who recalls watching the pregame ceremony with her grandfather. That's when four former major league players − Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Sandy Koufax, and Willie Mays − walked onto the field and were recognized as the "greatest living baseball players," as determined by fan votes.

"I'm thinking, 'wait a second,'" recounts Lindsay, who now lives in Clifton. "He's got more MVPs than these guys. He's won more World Series rings than all four of them combined. And I look at him, and I said, 'Are you dead?' And he said, 'Not yet'."

"It Ain't Over" will debut on more than 100 screens in the New York area and Los Angeles on its opening day (which is also Yogi Berra's birthday). In North Jersey, that includes the AMC Clifton Commons 16, AMC Ridgefield Park 12 and The Clairidge in Montclair. There are no plans to stream at this time.

'It Ain't Over:' Yankees greats remember Yogi

The documentary looks at what made Berra, who died in 2015, overlooked and the qualities that often left him a target of ridicule by the press: his height (Berra stood only 5 feet 7 while playing alongside giants like Mickey Mantle), his looks (Joe DiMaggio said Berra reminded him of a fire hydrant the first time he saw him) and an affability that could be taken for simpleness (Berra liked to talk up opposing batters while he squatted behind the plate.) Then there were his one-of-a-kind pronouncements, the famously mangled turns of phrase that came to be appreciated as "Yogi-isms."

The documentary assembles new and archival interviews with Berra's three sons, former teammates like Bobby Richardson and Don Larsen, later Yankees he managed such as Don Mattingly and Willie Randolph and celebrity fans including Billy Crystal and Bob Costas. They paint a well-rounded portrait of a man who should be better known and respected for his accomplishments on and off the field.

"He was the most overlooked superstar in the history of baseball," Crystal says in the movie.

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Berra's peers note the incredible plate coverage and bat control that allowed him to record more home runs than strikeouts in five of his 18 seasons with the Yankees, the managerial skills that steered the Bronx Bombers in 1964 and Mets in 1973 to World Series appearances and the endurance that enabled him to catch an unfathomable 117 doubleheaders. Berra, the film establishes, also had an innate ability to bring out the best in teammates, as evidenced by his work behind the plate calling pitcher Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

The documentary also captures a man who welcomed Black ballplayers who came into the league after integration in 1947, including Jackie Robinson and Berra's longtime Montclair neighbor, Larry Doby. Berra, a St. Louis native, was a World War II Navy veteran who survived D-Day and a devoted husband of 65 years to his wife, Carmen. Despite his fame, he was a genial man, though the film notes he also could hold a grudge when he felt disrespected, as he did when he boycotted Yankee Stadium for 14 years after George Steinbrenner fired him.

"I just hope they learn a little bit more about the complete picture of my grandfather as a human being. I think that he would have been an absolutely incredible person if he had never set foot on a baseball field," Lindsay Berra said in an interview. "Just the way he lived his life, treating everyone with just kindness, compassion and decency, I think it's a really great example for everyone today."

Film's inspiration: Mr. Rogers

The idea for the documentary came from a family friend, film producer Peter Sobiloff.

"In the summer of 2018, he went to see the Mr. Rogers documentary with his wife. The next time he saw my uncles, Dale and Tim, he said, 'How come there's no documentary like the Mr. Rogers doc about your father'," Berra said. "And they were like, 'I don't know, no one has ever made one.' Then he said, 'Can I?'"

His query would get the ball rolling on the production. Sobiloff retained filmmaker Sean Mullin to direct the project. Lindsay Berra, who's built her own career as an accomplished sports journalist, would soon come on as executive producer.

Filming began in the spring of 2019 with interviews of Berra's former teammates such as Hector Lopez and Tony Kubek and longtime baseball announcer Vin Scully. Production was halted temporarily by the COVID pandemic in the spring of 2020 but then resumed a year later. The documentary premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2022 and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics a few months later.

Berra said she was proud of the finished product. She gets emotional when she watches the film, despite having viewed it multiple times.

"Even knowing what's coming, it still makes me laugh and cry and just gives me a very warm and fuzzy feeling, and I think it's doing that for a lot of people who see it, whether you're a Yankees fan or not," Berra said.

What would Yogi think about the documentary? Berra thinks her grandfather would have greeted it with both enthusiasm and puzzlement.

"My grandfather obviously was a very humble person and I'm sure that he would think the movie was good, but I also think he would be saying, 'Why is everyone talking about me?'"

Ricardo Kaulessar is a culture reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Atlantic Region How We Live team. For unlimited access to the most important news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com

Twitter: @ricardokaul

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Yogi Berra movie: Family pushed for Yankees icon documentary