Showalter on Berra: "He's as much as everything we try to be about in America"

WASHINGTON - Orioles manager Buck Showalter spent the majority of today's pregame media session reflecting on the life of Yankees great Yogi Berra, who passed away early this morning at 90.

This is a rough day for Showalter. He lost a friend and mentor, and today would have been his father's 92nd birthday.

Showalter learned of Berra's passing from the Hall of Famer's granddaughter, Lindsay Berra, who called him with the news. He didn't sleep much last night.

I'll pass along Showalter's comments after sharing his updates on a few injured players.

Miguel Gonzalez felt good after throwing three innings in a simulated game. He's lined up to start at Camden Yards during next week's series against the Blue Jays, with Tuesday a strong possibility.

"It went good. It was a good step for him," Showalter said. "See how he feels tomorrow, see how he feels on his work day. Probably take a work day, give him two days and come back on Saturday. Think that's the plan. That was encouraging like we hoped.

"He could make a couple starts and hopefully a playoff start. So he's got a shot at a couple starts, at least."

Adam Jones is missing his second game in a row with back spasms.

"Adam's getting better every day," Showalter said. "Making improvement. Day-to-day, inning-to-inning, but he's getting a little better every day. He'll rejoin us at some point. We had it checked out and nothing structurally wrong. Just trying to get that problem out of there. Will take a little time.

"He's not a very good watcher. He's a participator. That's the biggest difference with these guys and a lot of people. They want to participate. They'll go to their share of games and sporting events and stuff in the offseason, but they want to participate. They watch a golf tournament and go, 'I want to go play that.' They watch, maybe not hockey. I don't know, they might. They want to participate, they want to be one of the contestants instead of one of the watchers."

Showalter didn't have much to say about closer Zach Britton, who's bothered by a sore left lat muscle.

"Nothing new," Showalter said.

As I reported earlier today, Britton could play catch on Thursday and hopes to be available this weekend, though he might have to wait until the Blue Jays series.

Showalter grew close to Berra from his days in the Yankees organization, and the three-time MVP's passing this morning hit him hard.

"Where do you start? Sad day," he said. "I got a call from Lindsay last night around 12:30, 12:45 in the morning, and I think she had just come from there. She had a list of people she knew that Yogi would want her to call and I really appreciated that. She said, 'He wouldn't have wanted you to read or hear about it other than (from) somebody with the family.'

"He always had time for me. He treated everybody the same. We'd all love to have the things that are going to be said about Yogi said about us, but the difference is we were saying those things about Yogi when he was alive and when he was playing and when he was coming up. He's as much as everything we try to be about in America. You think about all the people that he impacted, and he impacted them because of the way he treated them. And he had such common sense. He could say things in less words. He'd say something and you'd stop and really start thinking about what he was trying to tell you, and he was exactly right. Just words of wisdom every time. And very competitive. I got to see him compete a lot in different ways other than playing. Some meetings with him with the Yankees. He'd stand his ground. He was a special man. I'm going to miss him.

"As good as a player he was, hopefully some young people will look at his statistics that will make you shake your head, like 10-12 strikeouts in a year, OK? You can do that in three days. He was as good a person as he was a player. With all the fame and fortune the game afforded him, he was always trying to give back. I know it sounds cliche, but he always had time. Every time I'd see him, he was always asking about, he kept up with us. All the people he knew, he always kept up with how they were doing. He loved the competition. He just loved it. He was such a special man. I'm going to miss him."

Berra became just as famous for his malaprops and witticisms as those statistics.

"Yogi was never trying to make you laugh, but he took himself so unseriously," Showalter said. "I never thought Yogi was a funny guy. When I was around him, it was serious and it was competition. It was play better. He was always positive about players. He wasn't afraid to like players. Yogi talked about what people could do, and as good as he was, that's a rare trait. Usually, it becomes a negative feeding frenzy. Yogi wanted no part of that. He was always thinking good things about people.

"He had asked me to go to his museum. They had a fundraiser or something. (Jim) Leyland was there, Joe Girardi was there. It's one of those things where, if Yogi asks if you'd mind, you just got on a plane. It was an honor for him to ask you. He had a great time that night. You could tell. It was baseball, talking about it. He didn't want to talk about himself."

Berra caught both ends of 117 doubleheaders, which is impossible to imagine in this day and age. Though he stood only 5-foot-7, he hit 358 home runs in 19 seasons and made 15 consecutive All-Star teams. Berra also earned 10 World Series rings.

"Take a look at his stats sometime. They're almost like somebody played in a Wiffle ball league," Showalter said. "I was looking at the bat he used, how big it was. He was so strong. People don't realize how good a catcher he was. He caught some pretty good pitchers.

"You know how you remember where you were when you heard certain news? I think I'll always remember that last night. You look at his military and everything that went on in his life. I don't know how you draw it up any more deserving of a good life than Yogi."

I relayed the stat from 1950 when Berra struck out only 12 times in 656 plate appearances. Try wrapping your head around that one.

"It's a joke. Come on, man," Showalter said. "I thought I was pretty good one year with 20 or 30, but my gosh. Twelve? I don't think he looked at his left-on-left numbers, do you? Wow."