Berra released from hospital after fall

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- CC Sabathia sat in a chair in the clubhouse Thursday after talking to reporters about his outing against the Phillies.

"Hey," Sabathia said to a small group of writers still straggling by his locker. "Yogi come back from the hospital yet?"

At that point in the afternoon, Yogi Berra -- taken by ambulance to the hospital after tripping and falling in the clubhouse before the game -- had not yet been released. That changed at 4 p.m. when the Hall of Famer was discharged from Morton Plant Hospital in downtown Clearwater.

It was a positive end to what began as a scary episode when Berra, 85, fell in the Bright House Field visitor's clubhouse at about 11:20 a.m. He tripped on the carpet while getting a bowl of soup, according to general manager Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi.

As paramedics tended to Berra, it became apparent that he was OK, but the team insisted he be taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons. Berra, who passed a battery of tests administered by the paramedics, was put into the ambulance in the loading dock area at 11:57 a.m. as Girardi, Cashman and executive Gene Michael looked on.

"He landed on his rear end, which is probably the best place you can land," Girardi said. "He did not want to go to the hospital, but we wanted to make sure. When he left, he was in good spirits and he was laughing . . . If he wouldn't have fallen and I saw him when he left here, you would have thought nothing had happened."

Cashman said Berra spoke to his wife, Carmen, before departing for the hospital. Sabathia saw Berra as he was being wheeled to the ambulance. "He was saying, don't tell his wife, she'll make him come home," Sabathia said with a smile.

Sabathia's original query, meanwhile, illustrated the regard with which Berra -- who missed last summer's Old-Timers' Day at Yankee Stadium after falling outside his Montclair, N.J., home the previous night -- is held by current players and the organization.

Nick Swisher rushed from the indoor batting cage when he heard that Berra had fallen.

"That's scary, especially a guy like that," Swisher said. "But when I talked to him as they were taking him out, he was smiling and laughing . . . That's a living legend."

Jorge Posada, 39, has known Berra for nearly 20 years. "He looked OK before going to the hospital," he said. "I just hope that everything's fine. It was scary when I heard about it."

"Scary'' was the operative word early in the day. It was replaced by another word to describe what Berra's presence at camp, and throughout every season, means -- "awesome.''

"Wisdom, class, character, about anything you can imagine," Girardi said. "I love just sitting and talking baseball. He'll go watch people's at-bats on tape, he'll watch a guy catch on tape, and he'll make suggestions. It's just awesome having him around."

Said Cashman: "He's a special man. He's as good as they come . . . one of the game's most humblest people. Quality person. As great a player as he was, he's that great of a person. It's awesome to have him around."