Yogi Berra

May 12, 1925 – September 22, 2015

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Baseball lost one of its most famous personalities Tuesday night. Yogi Berra died at the age of 90.

Berra is most known for his interpretation of the English language. His quotes have become knows as “Yogiisms,” and he had become more well-known for them than he was for being one of the best catchers of all time.

Before he made his debut as a baseball player, Berra was in the Navy. He served proudly from 1944-1945. He was there on June 6, 1944, when U.S. troops invaded Normandy. He was on a landing craft support small boat providing support to the Allied forces on the beach.

MLB Career

Berra made his Major League debut on September 22, 1946, 69 years to the day before he died. He spent almost his entire 19-year playing career as a catcher with the New York Yankees, with just four of his 2,120 games coming as a member of the New York Mets. He managed to get eight hits in seven games that fall, and thus began a legendary career.

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Berra had joined a team that featured such names as Phil Rizzuto and Joe DiMaggio. They finished in third place that year, 17 games behind the Boston Red Sox. The very next year, the Yankees finished in first place and won the World Series in seven games over the Brooklyn Dodgers.

That was the first of a Major League record 14 World Series appearances by Berra, who also holds the record by being on 10 World Series winning teams. Berra had one of his best World Series in 1956. He batted .360 with three home runs, 10 RBI, and five runs scored in the Yankees’ four games to three win over the Dodgers. Berra was the catcher in game 5 when Don Larsen became the only pitcher in World Series history to throw a perfect game.

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Berra played well during the regular season as well. He was a 3-time American League MVP while playing on teams with DiMaggio, Larson, Mickey Mantle, and Whitey Ford. He was an All-Star in 15 consecutive seasons, from 1948-1962. He was a career .285 hitter who hit more than 20 home runs 11 times while never striking out more than 38 times during a season. Berra led the Yankees in RBI for seven consecutive years, from 1949-1955.

Berra was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1972 with 85.6% of the vote. It was his second year on the ballot and he joined the class that included Sandy Koufax and Early Winn. Also in 1972, the Yankees retired his number 8. In 1988, the Yankees honored Berra with a plaque in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium that cited one of his Yogiisms, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

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Yogiisms

In spite of all of that, he is best known for his Yogiisms. In 1961, when Mantle and Roger Maris were in their home run race, Berra watched them hit back-to-back home runs and quipped, “It’s like deja vu all over again.” When he was asked how he was able to maintain his endurance throughout the season, he replied, “I usually take a two hour nap from one to four.” And when he was managing the Mets in 1973, when they were 9.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs, he uttered his famous, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” And it was not over until the last day of the season, when the Mets won the division title.

Profound Yogiisms

“You can observe a lot by watching.”

“Never answer an anonymous letter.” That one can apply to today’s social media culture.

“The future ain’t what it used to be.”

“You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.”

“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.”

“Love is the most important thing in the world. Baseball is pretty good, too.”

Classic Yogiisms

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

“No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.”

“Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical.”

“You better cut the pizza into four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.”

“Slump? I ain’t in no slump. I just ain’t hitting.”

“I never said most of the things I said.”

“You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.”

“A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”

And finally, “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise, they won’t come to yours.” You must have gone to many funerals, because I am sure that there will be a lot of people at yours. Unless it’s too crowded.

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