"It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over"

[Sam Clements]

If you subscribe to the theory(as I do)  that the phrase is a play on "It
ain't over 'til the [fat][church]lady sings," then Berra probably didn't say
it in 1973, or even before 1976 or so.

If you think Berra used it in 1973, then one could assume that the
'fat/church lady' was a play on Berra.  But I doubt it.

Sam Clements

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Shapiro" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 5:31 PM
Subject: "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over"


> On Wed, 24 Dec 2003, Gerald Cohen wrote:
>
> > P.S. His most famous saying is "It ain't over 'til it's over." Is
> > that one of his genuine contributions?
>
> Yes, as far as I know.  But I have had trouble pinning down an early
> source for this; the earliest I have is 1980.  Can anyone provide
> pre-1980 evidence (I know it's supposed to have been said in connection
> with the Mets' great pennant drive of 1973, but contemporaneous citations
> appear to be difficult to come by).
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
> Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
>   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
> Yale Law School                             forthcoming
> e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>