Sometimes, there are coincidences in nature that are wondrous to behold and to ponder.

Mark Twain was said to have been born when Haley's Comet made its appearance over his Missouri home sometime in 1835. By coincidence, it has been said that Haley's Comet appeared in the horizon while he lay on his death bed in 1910.

Dick Cheney came into office as Vice President worth a couple of million dollars and left office a hundred millionaire.

Tiger Woods' bride almost killed him with a nine iron.

Anyway:

For twelve magical seasons, two great Americans and two of the best thinkers of our time, were employed by the same organization. Casey Stengel was manager for the New York Yankees from 1949 to 1960. During that same 12 years, Yogi Berra was the Yankee catcher.

Between 1949 and 1953 the Yankees were World Champions with these two giants in their employ. The Yankees won the World Series two more times during this 12 year period.

Few men have repeated Stengel's success, ever. And I mean in any sport.

Yogi was one of the greatest catchers who ever lived. And catchers are like the mini-manager on the field, giving the signals not only to the pitcher but directions to other players on the team.

Due to space constraints I am not going to get into the stats involved in this monumental pairing.

Suffice it to say that the former Yankee catcher has a stadium named after him and the former manager has a bus depot.

But its not athleticism that is at issue in my little post today; it's the philosophy.

That's right, as far as I am concerned; these two Americans were giants in the field of philosophy far outshining their accomplishments in the field of the field.

We all say things from time to time, write things from time to time, that are recognized as gems. It matters not that most of these gems were uttered accidentally. I think the reason that I write so much at my age is that I am hoping to accidentally come up with a gem from time to time.

I mean, you will never know unless you try.

But so many gems of wisdom were uttered by these two team mates over the years that it just cannot be coincidental. I mean God had to have something to do with all of this.

CASEY STENGEL (1890-1975)

I became a major league manager in several cities and was discharged. We call it discharged because there is no question I had to leave."[1]

Stengel was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and originally nicknamed "Dutch", a common nickname at that time for Americans of German ancestry. After his major league career began, he acquired the nickname "Casey", which originally came from the initials of his hometown ("K. C."), which evolved into "Casey", influenced by the wide popularity of the poem Casey at the Bat. In the 1950s, sportswriters dubbed him with yet another nickname, "The Old Professor", for his sharp wit and his ability to talk at length on anything baseball-related.

AND HEEEEEEEEEEEEERE'S CASEY:

All right everyone, line up alphabetically according to your height.

Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional baseball player. It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in.

Good pitching will always stop good hitting and vice-versa.

I don't like them fellas who drive in two runs and let in three.

If you're so smart, let's see you get out of the Army.

Never make predictions, especially about the future.

The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided.

There comes a time in every man's life, and I've had plenty of them.

They told me my services were no longer desired because they wanted to put in a youth program as an advance way of keeping the club going. I'll never make the mistake of being seventy again.

You gotta lose 'em some of the time. When you do, lose 'em right. 

YOGI BERRA (1925--

Berra was born in a primarily Italian neighborhood of St. Louis called "The Hill" to Italian immigrants Pietro and Paulina Berra. Pietro, originally from Milan in northern Italy, arrived at Ellis Island on October 18, 1909, at the age of 23.[2] In a 2005 interview for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Yogi said, "My father came over first. He came from the old country.

AND HEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE'S YOGI:

All pitchers are liars or crybabies.

He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious

I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.

I never said most of the things I said.

I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house.

I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did. 

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

It ain't the heat, it's the humility.

Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.

The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my travel bag.

You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.

You should always go to other people's funerals, otherwise, they won't come to yours.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/y/yogi_berra.html

I have to end with Casey though: