There were not many engagements or obligations, family or otherwise, that Yogi Berra could politely decline or turn down if his wife Carmen had any say in the matter during the couple’s 65 years of marriage.
“What Carmen wanted, Yogi did,” says former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, a longtime friend of the Berra family. “I remember seeing Yogi at the Metropolitan Opera one night, in line for a ticket. I said, ‘Yogi, what are you doing here?’ He looked up at me and said, ‘Carmen.’ ”
But there was one ritual that began 25 years ago at the Montclair Golf Club — where Yogi was a member — that was so sacrosanct to Yogi that not even Carmen could sway him.