Lindsay Berra is a former ESPN journalist, executive producer of the documentary It Ain't Over, and yes, Yogi Berra's granddaughter. But before all that, she was a kid playing shortstop who booted a ground ball at 10 years old and never heard the end of it.
We sat down with Lindsay to talk about her work with Mustard Technology, what it was like growing up as a Berra, and the lessons from her grandfather's life that every sports parent should hear.
What She's Up To Now: Making Elite Coaching Accessible
These days, Lindsay spends most of her time working with Mustard, a company co-founded by legendary pitching coach Tom House. If you don't know the name, you should. Tom House coached Nolan Ryan, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Drew Brees, and Tom Brady. He's been doing biomechanical motion capture analysis of pitchers since the late 1970s—before most MLB teams were even thinking about it.
When Tom was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, he didn't want 40-plus years of elite-level data to disappear. So he partnered with engineers and entrepreneurs to build an AI engine that analyzes pitching mechanics using his decades of expertise.
Here's how it works: you take a two-dimensional video of any pitcher—kid, college athlete, or pro—and Mustard overlays Tom's data to give you an 11-variable mechanical analysis. But unlike most biomechanical assessments that spit out technical jargon you don't know what to do with, Mustard simplifies it. It tells you what you're doing well, what needs work, and gives you a personalized improvement plan.
"It's like having an elite pitching coach in your pocket," Lindsay says.
The best part? Mustard now offers coach and team packages, so entire organizations can use it without hiring a pitching coach for every single team. For youth programs working with limited budgets, that's game-changing.
Lindsay loves hearing from parents whose kids were terrified to get on the mound because they couldn't throw strikes. After cleaning up their mechanics with Mustard, those same kids are excited for their next outing. "At this point in my career, it's really gratifying to be doing something that's actually helping kids," she says.
Growing Up Berra: The Pressure (and the Nickname)
Lindsay grew up surrounded by professional athletes. Her grandfather Yogi played in the big leagues. Her dad played minor league baseball for the Mets. Her Uncle Dale played 13 years of professional baseball, and her Uncle Timmy was a running back for the Colts and Giants.
But Lindsay doesn't remember feeling much pressure about the family name. "I think there was more pressure on boys at that time to be good at sports," she says. "I just didn't care. I was going to run around the field because it was fun."
She played soccer, ice hockey, and softball growing up—eventually becoming captain of the boys' hockey team in high school before playing varsity softball and men's club hockey at the University of North Carolina.
Her introduction to hockey came from Grandpa Yogi himself, who loved the sport. His best friend, John McMullen, brought the New Jersey Devils to New Jersey from Colorado when Lindsay was about five. Around the same time, her parents had gotten divorced, and her mom would drop Lindsay and her brother at the local rink during public skate sessions—unsupervised, because apparently that was a thing you could do in the early '80s.
"I learned to skate at the same time I was introduced to professional hockey, and I just totally fell in love with it," she says.
But let's talk about that nickname.
Lindsay was playing shortstop in a little league game when she was 10 years old. Her dad showed up just as she booted a ground ball, and he started yelling "E6! E6!"—the scoring notation for an error by the shortstop.
Embarrassing? Absolutely. But it stuck.
From that moment on, her dad announced his presence at every single one of her games—regardless of sport—by yelling "E6" from the stands. Hockey, softball, soccer, didn't matter. He'd walk into the rink or up to the field and just start yelling "E6."
He still does it. Lindsay is 46 years old, and when she showed up at her nephew's basketball game recently, her dad looked at her and said, "E6."
"It gave me some thick skin," Lindsay laughs. "As Grandpa Yogi would say, I'd literally thumb my nose at my dad."
It Ain't Over: A Tribute to Yogi Berra
If you haven't seen It Ain't Over, the documentary Lindsay executive produced about her grandfather, stop what you're doing and go watch it. Seriously.
Yogi Berra was an 18-time All-Star and won 10 World Series championships as a player—more than any other player in MLB history. He had a career batting average of .285, hit 358 home runs, and drove in 1,430 runs. He won the American League MVP Award three times. And he took both the Yankees and the Mets to the World Series, losing Game 7 with both teams.
But Yogi was more than just a great player. He was a first-generation Italian immigrant, a D-Day veteran who was on the beach at Normandy during World War II, and a man who had a beautiful 65-year love story with his wife, Carmen.
"It's an immigrant story, a veteran story, a love story—in addition to being a baseball story," Lindsay says.
The documentary came together because Lindsay wanted to keep her grandfather's legacy alive. She connected with producer Peter Sealey and director Sean Mullen, who knew how to make movies while she focused on logistics—sharing everything she knew about her grandfather, gathering materials, and creating a list of people to interview.
That list included Yogi's roommate Bobby Brown, Vin Scully (who was 95 at the time), Audrey Grolla (also 95), Hector Lopez, and Bobby Richardson. "These were not young men, and we wanted to get to them as quickly as possible," Lindsay says.
At some point, the director decided to make Lindsay the narrator of the film. "Against my wishes," she jokes. "But I think it turned out all right."
The movie has struck a chord with audiences of all ages. Older fans get transported back to a simpler time in America when they watched baseball with their dads and grandfathers. Younger kids learn about Yogi for the first time. And people in the middle—who mostly knew him as the funny guy who said quirky things—are reminded of just how incredible he was as a player.
"I think the best catcher of all time," Lindsay says. "Nobody's won more World Series than he has, and there are still many catching records that will never be broken."
Lessons from Yogi's Life
Beyond the baseball stats and the yogisms, there are lessons in Yogi's story that every sports parent and young athlete should hear.
He was constantly underestimated. People overlooked him. But he kept his head down, worked hard, and let his actions speak for themselves. That's something kids need to learn—that proving people wrong doesn't require trash talk. It requires showing up and doing the work.
He treated everyone with respect. Whether it was the UPS guy, the president of the United States, or someone he met in a parking garage, Yogi treated everyone the same. Lindsay hears stories all the time from people who met him for three minutes and felt like the most important person in the world.
"Your actions ripple away from you in ways you will never know," Lindsay says. "The way my grandfather lived his life—all the love he put into the world has come back to him in spades."
He tried to do a little better every day. Yogi wasn't perfect. But he tried. And that's what Lindsay impresses upon kids when she teaches character education programs at the Yogi Berra Museum: "You don't have to be the best every day. But do a little better every day. Do the best you can. Be nice to people. That effort will make the world a better place."
The Bottom Line
Lindsay Berra has spent her career telling stories—first as a journalist at ESPN, now as a producer and advocate for youth sports. Whether she's helping kids improve their pitching mechanics with Mustard or keeping her grandfather's legacy alive through It Ain't Over, the message is the same: sports should build character, not break it.
And if your kid boots a ground ball at shortstop? Maybe don't give them a nickname they'll still be hearing 36 years later. Just a thought.
Want to learn more about Mustard Technology? Visit their website. Want to watch It Ain't Over? Find it streaming now. And if you're ever in New Jersey, stop by the Yogi Berra Museum. You won't regret it.
About Lindsey Berra:
Lindsay Berra is a freelance sports journalist based in Montclair, NJ. At MLB.com from January 2013 through January 2018, she established herself as an authority on baseball fitness and injuries and appeared frequently on MLB Network to discuss her stories. From 1999 through 2012, she was a senior writer for ESPN Magazine, covering primarily ice hockey, tennis, baseball, and the Olympics. Lindsay received her undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she played varsity softball and men’s club ice hockey. She is the oldest grandchild of Yogi and Carmen Berra and is a board member at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in Little Falls, NJ.
Ian Goldberg is the CEO of Signature Media and the Editor of the largest and fastest growing sports parenting newsletter. He’s been recognized as an industry expert by the National Alliance for Youth Sports, the US Olympic Committee’s Truesport, and the Aspen Institute's Project Play. Ian is also a suburban NJ sports dad of two teenage daughters and has over 2,000 hours of volunteer time coaching them (which he calls the most fun form of R&D for his newsletter content). Ian and his team provide players, coaches, parents and program directors with the articles and content they need to have a great sports season. Ian has spent most of his career in digital product development and marketing and got his start at the White House where he worked for the economic advisors to two US Presidents.
