- 11 months ago
YOGI DOCUMENTARY INTERVIEW
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00:00welcome everybody here to fox sports on the road i'm your host michael cohen and we have a really
00:25really special show for you today we are going to speak to lindsey barra the granddaughter of
00:32yogi barra as well as the director of it ain't over this is a sony pictures classics documentary
00:39about the life of yogi barra and the director of course is sean mullen the log line an intimate
00:45and revealing portrait of a largely misunderstood american icon this emotional engaging documentary
00:50about yogi barra takes us beyond the characters and yogi isms and into the hearts of the sports
00:55legend whose unparalleled accomplishments on the baseball diamond were often overshadowed by his
01:00off-the-field persona before we talk more about the the documentary itself i just want to welcome
01:06both of you to fox on the road and uh again congratulate i want to congratulate you both
01:11on this incredible documentary about yogi it is really a stirring and emotional documentary as
01:18it says after viewing it i think it's going to be something that's going to be an award winner i
01:23really do whether it's be emmys oscars i think it has a chance to get that really do as far as
01:28documentary is concerned well from your lips to god's ears yeah all right are you a voter
01:33but uh first of all before just tell me more about how this project came about how did the two of you get
01:43a chance to meet and come together on this idea for this project uh yeah lynn do you want to jump
01:49in or sure so so the idea for for for us so i i full credit goes to our producer peter sobaloff
01:57who in the summer of 2018 went with his wife to see the mr rogers documentary and he really enjoyed it
02:06and he is friendly with my uncles he's played in my grandfather's museum uh golf outing for a number
02:11of years and the next time he saw my uncles tim and dale he said guys how come there's no mr rogers
02:17documentary but about your dad and they said i don't know no one's ever made one and peter said well
02:23can i and they said sure so that was how the ball got rolling peter had uh produced another of sean's
02:30movies um prior to that so he kind of brought sean into the picture and when my uncles and my father
02:37met sean uh they thought he was a great fit talk about him for a second he was an athlete at west
02:44point he was in the army he is a lovely human being and i think they all thought that my
02:50grandpa yogi would have really liked him a lot um so they said okay let's get going with sean and then
02:56i met him uh we started talking shortly thereafter that but i didn't meet him until the following spring
03:02um and then i got involved uh helping them kind of set up interviews and stuff and it all went on
03:08from there until covid blew up the whole thing and we had to stop for a while and then we started again
03:14and then suddenly we were premiering at tribeca but there's obviously a lot in in there and sean and
03:19our director julian robinson our editor julian robinson they did amazing work in that and a lot in that
03:24covid time and really brought the whole project together absolutely sean what did what did putting this
03:30this project together mean for you i mean yogi bear is you know american icon you know one of the
03:35all-time great baseball players of all time and really one of the most unique people of all time
03:41did that really stick to you because in watching the documentary there's a real focus on not just the
03:46player but the person can you speak about that no absolutely i mean i'm drawn to projects where
03:51there's some sort of tension between perception and reality and when it came to yogi i jumped right at
03:55that opportunity because there there might be no greater disparity between perception than in
04:00reality and with anyone you know um on the level of yogi bear so i i jumped at it and um yeah i had
04:06something you know as a director too you need to have some personal ins to the story and i you know
04:10yogi was somebody who's really difficult to put into a box and i felt like i had that a lot of my life
04:14as well i was kind of always a the comedy guy in high school that you know hosting you know all
04:19doing stand-up and and sketch comedy and i end up at west point right and so it doesn't really
04:23not really known for its comedy um you know curriculum and then uh you know then i um you know i'm out in
04:29the army and i'm down at ground zero i was a first responder ground zero but i was doing stand-up
04:33comedy at night there and that didn't quite fit into most people's perception then i go to columbia
04:36and i'm a veteran and nobody at columbia really heard of the military so you know i everywhere i
04:40fit in uh you know everywhere i've gone i've never really fit in and so i think yogi had a lot of that
04:44as well and then you know then just the connection i'm you know in in the film as well of him you know
04:49being a veteran him him being at um you know d-day uh was it was a big deal for me i wanted to make a meal
04:55out of that you know when you have 90 minutes to compress someone's incredible 90 year life into
05:00you know that that that container you have to pick and choose and and i really decided to elaborate
05:04that because you know just him being down there um you know him being you know at at d-day in
05:11normandy you know and and knowing that you know i i had kind of been at ground zero and i i'd been
05:15there in my uniform on the 11th you know that day and and and being able to see all that stuff i had a
05:20connection there as well as idea that you know baseball is not everything to him and and it wasn't and
05:25and uh he was just so much of a better person than a player and he was one of the greatest players so
05:30you know do that math you know yeah one of the one of the players that gets particular emphasis on the
05:34documentary uh you know this little bit of a spoiler for people uh obviously is jackie robinson and of
05:40course we all know about the play in the world series where it looked like whether he was he safe
05:44was he out no instant play i thought he was that looked like he was out but that grandpa would like
05:49you but um a very unique relationship between the two of them and yogi was one of the first to to
05:57really welcome jackie and say hey welcome to major league baseball um and they really became as you
06:01as mentioned the documentary became uh pretty pretty good friends so can you just talk more about that
06:05relationship and uh with robinson family even after jackie had passed grandpa actually met jackie
06:13robinson in 1946 he was playing for the newark bears after the war and jackie was playing for the
06:18montreal royals and they actually faced each other in the playoffs um that season jackie's team beat
06:25grandpa's team and there actually was another controversial play at the plate i'm not sure
06:29about safer out but they so they had they had met already um so when grant when jackie got to the big
06:35leagues in 47 grandpa was already aware of him knew him and was able to say walk over and say hey jack
06:41you know how you doing congratulations he'd already he knew him already um and i think that
06:45you know grandpa was very embracing of a lot of the first black and latin players he was obviously
06:50great friends with helston elston howard and mentored him actually to take his job at catcher
06:54when elston uh became the first black yankee um he was good friends with mini minoso a lot a lot of
07:00those guys and i think grandpa just he didn't you know he looked at jackie as this fast amazing player
07:09that he had to hold on the bases right like he didn't look at jackie as a black guy or a white guy
07:15he he just it was it was uh he knew jackie was this tremendous player and he knew he deserved that
07:21opportunity in the big leagues and you know as claire smith says in the documentary he was
07:26one of the players who didn't say no and made a point of having fans see him talking to jackie
07:33to so they would know that that uh grandpa knew that or felt that he belonged but i don't think
07:38he did it to make a point he did it because he really was excited to have jackie there and he
07:43thought he was a good human being and and and it was you know it wasn't about the right thing to do
07:48from a big civil rights perspective it was just the right thing to do to treat jackie well because he was
07:53another human being um and they did stay friends for a long time uh and even after jackie passed grandpa
08:00and uh rachel robinson and my grammy carmen all remained close rachel robinson was at grandpa's
08:05uh 90th birthday party at the museum in 2015 um and they had this very sort of sweet encounter where
08:12uh rachel walked in and saw grandpa through the crowd and she goes uh like like that or she oh my god
08:18not that way she goes like this and grandpa goes like this and then they uh meet up and give each
08:23other a big hug and a kiss so they stayed very close what was that like for the two of you to
08:29find you know all these great all these great people to interview obviously people like joe tory
08:34bob costas vin scully obviously is the big one uh you know you know he just passed away unfortunately
08:39a couple years ago uh if you could both of you comment about you know putting that together as
08:45far as all the interviews and great interviews in the documentary yeah well i mean definitely a lot
08:50of credit goes to lindsey for setting those up i mean you know to be able to call vin scully and say
08:54hey vin we're making a movie about grandpa i mean not everybody can make that call right and so you
08:58know to be able to to have partnered with lindsey on this and and to have the the buy-in from her
09:03and the family was huge but no those 30 minutes in the owner's box of dodger stadium talking to
09:08vin scully about yogi berra i mean i'll i'll take that day over most of them in my life i'll tell you
09:13that um you know sitting in billy crystal's backyard for 90 minutes just i mean that that 90 minute
09:18outtake interview could be its own movie i mean i think we could just cut that you know it was so good
09:23so um yeah the interviews were incredible i mean some of my favorites hardly made the film i mean
09:27you know like joe madden actually might have been my overall favorite interview right and lynn's
09:31wasn't that one incredible i mean he's just hysterical everybody who works for it knows how
09:36funny joe is i mean joe madden i mean he needs his own documentary i'll tell you that because that guy
09:41i mean i was enthralled i was just like in that and that one lasted almost two hours too and we just
09:45in his house members in his house in west hazelton so that was incredible but no i mean you know bob
09:50costas is just i mean just actually absolutely amazing and just everybody was really really
09:54wonderful but you know the people who played with yogi i think were some of the you know the
09:58ralph terry's and the you know you know bobby richardson's and and and tony kubex and you know
10:03um hector lopez i mean some of those guys those were invaluable invaluable interviews to to get for
10:08the doc to really paint this you know authentic rich picture of this man that was just so so revered
10:14and and oftentimes so misunderstood yeah i remember seeing billy crystal's uh 700 sundays a couple years
10:21several years ago i mean it was it i couldn't you can't stop laughing it was hard to breathe it was
10:26so good yeah it opened that that show opened with the yogiism right didn't it i believe it did yeah
10:31yeah yeah yeah um as far as one thing i noticed very early in the documentary you mentioned
10:38comic books and how your grandfather liked to read comic books and that was kind of his
10:43you know it was mentioned kind of like what his thought was about going to war is kind of like
10:47you mentioned the comic book uh you know buck rogers so i look at his life i look at what he
10:53was able to accomplish you know the 18 to 18 time al all-star 10 world series titles doing things that
11:00catchers today you know couldn't even dream of i mean in a career let alone one season and then to
11:05obviously have the decorate decorations they had as a soldier in war do you do you kind of look at him
11:12as kind of or maybe even uh some of your siblings have looked at him as kind of like a a captain
11:17america figure you know this this large journal life figure is that fair i think it's fair to say
11:23that i look at yogi bera as that i don't know that i look at my grandpa yogi as that and even as a 45
11:29year old person who knows full well that those are the same people grandpa yogi and yogi bera in my head
11:35when i think of grandpa yogi he's the guy that i like made meatballs with you know at christmas and
11:41thanksgiving and decorated the tree with and he burned all the hot dogs at our family barbecues and
11:45we watched the seinfeld reruns and i grew up watching fights with him and he was taking me to
11:50hockey games you know he was just a grandpa for me so it's hard for me to think of grandpa yogi as
11:55the captain america type but when i talk about his stats and what he did on the baseball field and you
12:02know like you said some catching things that catch that players today couldn't even dream of doing
12:08catching 117 double headers 18 innings 117 times i physical challenge anyone in baseball to do that
12:15once and walk down the stairs the next day um you know only 12 strikeouts in all of 1950 like those
12:22are captain america stats that's amazing so yeah yogi bera for sure but the grandpa yogi is just it's
12:28a you know they're both they occupy a lot of space in my heart but the grandpa yogi and the yogi
12:33they're kind of in different parts i i do want to throw out one stat that didn't make the film
12:38that's probably my favorite yogi bera stat that's not in the movie is that there are only two players
12:42in the history of baseball to finish in the top four in mvp voting for seven years in a row and so
12:47if you i mean you think about the sustained excellence it takes to finish top four of mvp
12:52voting seven years in a row it's it's yogi bera and mike trout and think about the space the decades
12:58that went by before someone was able to do that again between grandpa and mike trout like that's
13:03incredible i mean it's just incredible a number of great players that have come through the sport
13:08and it's hard to find anybody who comes close everyone talks about like oh you know what about
13:13you know hitting 400 which of course will never happen but just just the idea of what your
13:17grandfather did you know as you mentioned in 1950 you know playing you know 658 plate appearance
13:24656 plate appearances hitting 322 while catching every single day and only striking out 12 times
13:30uh i mean and hitting 28 home runs with 144 rbis that's nuts it's nuts i mean in today's row
13:38sarah metrics and launch angle and all these other stats they come up with and reasons to you know
13:43hey we got to arrest guys because we got to make sure we're ready for september it's no one is ever
13:47going to come close to what he did ever again no that that durability is something that's incredible
13:52too he was only he was 5'8 192 195 pounds depending on the on the day and he was catching 110 120 games
14:00a year and putting up those numbers and you think today all the bigger stronger faster you know for
14:06all they talk about with the advancements of strength and conditioning and whatnot guys don't do that today
14:10well they just don't
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