Yogi Berra Presents the Cup for “A Great, Heartfelt Game”

Montclair’s two great high school baseball teams!

The blue and green jerseys of the boys were equally bright under the sunny skies of May 22. That was the day that Montclair’s Mounties baseball team played the first-ever Yogi Berra Cup game with Montclair Kimberley Academy, beginning what many hope will be a long and positive tradition between the schools.

Yogi Berra presents the trophy in his name to the Mounties' co-captain Marlon Calbi.

At the end of the game, the players in blue went home with the trophy, winning 1-0 over the green-clad MKA team. But in the words of MKA coach Todd Smith, both teams played “great, heartfelt” baseball as their coaches, families and friends cheered from the stands at Yogi Berra Stadium.

Yankees legend Yogi Berra, a Montclair resident and long-time supporter of both the public school district and MKA, watched the game and posed for photos afterward. Because his sons played for both MKA and MHS when they were in high school, his was the natural choice for the name of the new, good-sportsmanship game launched this spring.

Directly following the game, a reception was held at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center. Players from both teams filed past the buffet table where sandwiches and drinks were on offer prior to assembling for post-game presentations.

	“Ideally, we’ll trade this cup back and forth over time,” said the Superintendent of the winning trophy.

Superintendent Alvarez, who conceived of a friendly game between the two long-time rivals earlier this year, was the first to speak.

“I’m glad we won the first game, but ideally we’ll trade the trophy back and forth over time,” he smiled from the podium. He commended both teams for their athletic skill as well as their sportsmanship, and thanked Mr. Berra for “always being such a special friend, and for graciously joining us tonight.”

The schools’ athletic directors spoke next, with Todd Smith of MKA taking the microphone first. “Our two school communities have a great and healthy relationship. Our athletes go head to head in several sports throughout the year and always find one another worthy competitors … This was a great heartfelt game, and a great start to a new tradition.”

He added to audience laughter, “And hopefully we’ll get the cup next year.”

John Porcelli, Montclair High School’s Assistant Principal of Athletics and Student Activities reinforced the theme of the day – and what the new tradition is all about – saying, “We feel that this annual game is something that can only build on the relationship between our two schools.”

He too thanked Mr. Berra, and praised both teams for giving their all to the game.

“It’s nice we got the trophy today but we’ll see what happens next year,” Mr. Porcelli said.

Both the MKA and MHS teams gave the game their all, playing hard under a sunny springtime sky.

Because the concept behind the Yogi Berra Cup Game is combining good sportsmanship with a healthy drive to win in competition, the next speaker to address the crowd discussed these two seemingly contradictory ideas.

“We want to change the focus in sports to competing against the game, not the opposing team,” explained John McCarthy, an MSU professor and former coach who conducts sports leadership retreats for the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center throughout the year.

He explained that an emphasis on “beating the other team” can lead to an unhealthy degree of competitiveness, and cited the example of two schools in a neighboring community who “can’t even play each other anymore, the level of animosity is so high.”

Instead, he proposed, teams and coaches should focus on how to develop techniques that win games by using the opportunities within the game itself.

“The most important number in baseball is 21,” he said. “That’s the number of outs each team gets, no matter what.” Therefore, he suggested, each team should go up to bat thinking about how many outs are left in the game, rather than on what the other team is doing.

While he acknowledged that “You can’t make players become good sports by saying, ‘be a good sport’ – it’s not in our culture,” he advocated using the inherent competition element in sports to a positive end, rather than a negative one.

“No one’s saying we can’t be emotionally involved [in sports],” he said. “I’m saying, channel the energy.”

At the end of the day, the historic first baseball game played in honor of Yogi Berra and good sportsmanship proved to be a good time for all – and perhaps an athletic milestone as well.

“Montclair has always been a town that supports all of its student athletes,” Dr. Alvarez said. “That’s one tradition we hope will continue indefinitely.”

Below, At the conclusion of the first-ever Yogi Berra Cup Game, both teams shook hands for a game well played.