“What a house! Nothing but rooms!”
Yankee catcher Yogi Berra (1925-2015) moved into a large house in New Jersey in 1961, and he was asked to describe the place. Berra said:
“What a place it is. Nothing but rooms.”
The quotation has been frequently included with Berra’s other many famous sayings.
Wikipedia: Yogi Berra
Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra (May 12, 1925 – September 22, 2015) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) catcher, manager, and coach. He played almost his entire 19-year baseball career (1946–65) for the New York Yankees. He is widely regarded as one of the best catchers in baseball history. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.
Berra was an All-Star for 15 seasons. He is one of only four players to be named the Most Valuable Player of the American League three times and is one of seven managers to lead both American and National League teams to the World Series. As a player, coach, or manager, Berra appeared in 21 World Series and won 13 of them. He was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in a voting of fans in 1999.
22 March 1961, Overland Park (KS) News, pg. 2, col. 6:
YOGI IN LUXURY
One of the many stories told about Yogi Berra—the popular catcher of the New York Yankees—concerns the time he purchased a huge mansion in New Jersey.
Berra was asked to describe the place. Replied Yogi:
“What a place it is. Nothing but rooms.”
Google Books
The Masked Marvels:
Baseball’s Great Catchers
Edited by Phyllis Hollander and Zander Hollander
New York, NY: Random House
1982
Pg. 77:
For example, when he moved into his first home in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, Yogi said: “What a house, nothing but rooms.”
Sports Illustrated
April 02, 1984
Yogi
As a reincarnated Yankee skipper, Yogi Berra is working for George Steinbrenner. Is Yogi worried about longevity? No. He knows a managing job, like a ball game, ain’t over ‘til it’s over
Roy Blount Jr.
(...)
However. Before I tracked that short story down I discussed Berraisms with Yogi and Carmen. We were relaxing over vodka on the rocks in their nicely appointed parlor in Montclair, N.J. After their three boys grew up, the Berras sold the enormous Tudor house about which Yogi once said proudly, “It’s nothing but rooms,” and moved into a smaller but still substantial gray-shingled house a few blocks away. It’s a home filled with fine antiques, with dropping-by children and grandchildren and with Berraisms, which, however, the Berras don’t preserve as carefully as they do furniture.
Google Books
Baseball Anecdotes
By Daniel Okrent and Steve Wulf
New York, NY: Oxford University Press
1989
Pg. 207 (YOGI):
But the following selections are verifiably on the record:
On his beautiful new house: “It’s nothing but rooms.”
25 April 1994, The Advocate (Stamford, CT), “Fiftysomething,” pg. B9, col. 5:
Describing his new house in New Jersey, he (Yogi Berra—ed.) told a friend: “Whatta house. Nothing but rooms.”
13 June 2002, Daily Telegraph (Bluefield, WV), “Looking at the very best of Hall-of-Fame catcher Yogi Berra” by Jim Nelson, pg. B1, col. 6:
When Yogi used his baseball ability and malapropism-charisma to earn and save quite a bit of money, he bought a spacious new home, and observed, “It’s a great house. It has nothing in it but rooms.”