I'm a yogi, not a businessman.
I feel, first of all, very privileged that these people think enough of me that they made me commissioner. And it's almost like, as Yogi Berra said, 'deja vu all over again.'
I'm a Yogi and a tea drinker, and having a gun is the last thing that one would expect of me as a human being.
With acting, I started very young, and I'd performed for a lot of children in boarding schools, late at night after the dormitory lights were out. I'd have a flashlight, and I'd be Count Dracula, or Shakespeare, or Yogi Bear, and leap from bunk to bunk. I loved the laughter; I liked the way it made people feel.
When I was 20-something, 30, I fell down a flight of stairs and hurt my back. I went to a therapist who said don't get out of bed until you do certain stretches, and I've been doing them ever since. I guess I'm the original yogi.
They say Yogi Berra is funny. Well, he has a lovely wife and family, a beautiful home, money in the bank, and he plays golf with millionaires. What's funny about that?
If you are healthy as a yogi all day every day, then a cheeseburger with your kids is not going to undo anything.
What I believe in touches many aspects of religious and spiritual thought. Mainly I'm influenced and inspired by the eastern yogi's aspect of mysticism, Which is, I think, the future.
Playing for Yogi is like playing for your father; playing for Billy is like playing for your father-in-law.
If you mentioned Hanna-Barbera to people, they said, 'Oh yeah, Flintstone, Yogi, Scooby-Doo, Jetsons,' and that was pretty much it. We have characters with very high recognition factors and great films, but no organized plans for really making the most of them and increasing their value.
