Yankees Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra dies at 90

[webfact]

Yankees Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra dies at 90
By MIKE STEWART

NEW YORK (AP) — The lovable legend of Yogi Berra, that ain't ever gonna be over.

The Hall of Fame catcher renowned as much for his dizzying malapropisms as his record 10 World Series championships with the New York Yankees, died Tuesday. He was 90.

Berra, who filled baseball's record book as well as "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," died of natural causes at his home in New Jersey, according to Dave Kaplan, the director of the Yogi Berra Museum.

Berra played in more World Series games than any other major leaguer, and was a three-time American League Most Valuable Player.

For many, though, he was even better known for all those amusing "Yogi-isms."

"It ain't over 'til it's over" is among eight of them included in Bartlett's.

"When I'm sittin' down to dinner with the family, stuff just pops out. And they'll say, 'Dad, you just said another one.' And I don't even know what the heck I said," Berra insisted.

Short, squat and with a homely mug, Berra was a Yankees great who helped the team reach 14 World Series during his 18 seasons in the Bronx.

"While we mourn the loss of our father, grandfather and great-grandfather, we know he is at peace with Mom," Berra's family said in a statement released by the museum. "We celebrate his remarkable life, and are thankful he meant so much to so many. He will truly be missed."

Berra served on a gunboat supporting the D-Day invasion in 1944 and played for the Yankees from 1946-63. His teammates included fellow Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford.

"No! Say it ain't so. He was a good man, my former manager and friend! RIP Yogi," former Yankees star Dave Winfield tweeted.

Lawrence Peter Berra, the son of Italian immigrants, got his nickname while growing up in St. Louis. Among his amateur baseball teammates was Jack McGuire, another future big leaguer.

"Some of us went to a movie with a yogi in it and afterwards Jack began calling me Yogi. It stuck," Berra told the Saturday Evening Post.

He was a fan favorite, especially with children, and the cartoon character Yogi Bear was named after him.

Until recent years, he remained a fixture at Yankee Stadium and in the clubhouse, where the likes of Derek Jeter, Joe Torre and others in pinstripes looked up to the diminutive old-timer.

In 1956, Berra caught the only perfect game in World Series history and after the last out leaped into pitcher Don Larsen's arms. The famous moment is still often replayed on baseball broadcasts.

After his playing days, Berra coached or managed the Yankees, New York Mets and Houston Astros. He led both the Yankees and Mets to pennants.

In 1985, his firing as manager by the Yankees 16 games into the season sparked a feud with George Steinbrenner. Berra vowed never to return to Yankee Stadium as long as Steinbrenner owned the team.

But in 1999, Berra finally relented, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch of the Yankees' season-opener.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of a Yankees legend and American hero, Yogi Berra," the Yankees posted on Twitter.

Berra, who played in 15 straight All-Star Games, never earned more than $65,000 a season. He died on the same date, Sept. 22, as his big league debut 69 years earlier.

Growing up, he was anything but a natural.

Chunky and slow, Berra was rejected by his hometown St. Louis Cardinals after a tryout in 1943. But a Yankees scout recognized his potential and signed him.

He reached the majors late in the 1946 season and homered in his first at-bat. The next year, he continued to hit well, but his throwing was so erratic he was shifted to the outfield, then benched.

His breakthrough season came in 1948, when he hit .315 with 14 homers and 98 RBIs while improving his fielding. In 1949, he compiled a .989 fielding percentage and did not make an error in the All-Star Game or World Series.

"I don't care who the hitter is," Yankees Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel told the New York Journal-American, "(Berra) knows just how he should be pitched to."

Berra was the AL MVP in 1951, 1954 and 1955. He holds World Series records for most hits (71) and games (75).

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1972.

"You never think of that when you're a kid," Berra said. "But egads, you gotta be somethin' to get in."

Among his boyhood friends was Joe Garagiola, who went on to a career as a major league player and broadcaster. In rejecting Berra at the 1943 tryout, the Cardinals signed Garagiola, another catcher, instead.

Berra was born in St. Louis on May 12, 1925, the son of Pietro, a laborer in a brickyard, and Pauline Berra. He grew up in "The Hill," or Italian district, with three older brothers and a younger sister.

Berra was forced to drop out of school in the eighth grade and go to work to help support his family. He took jobs in a coal yard, as a truck driver and in a shoe factory.

He continued to play amateur baseball, which brought him to the attention of major league scouts.

In 1943, his first professional season with the Yankees' farm team in Norfolk, Virginia, was interrupted by World War II.

Berra married his wife, Carmen, in 1949. The couple met in their native St. Louis. Carmen died in 2014. Yogi is survived by their three sons.

Dale Berra, a major league infielder, who briefly played for his father on the Yankees in 1985; Tim, who played one season for the NFL's Baltimore Colts, and Lawrence Jr.

Berra published three books: his autobiography in 1961, "It Ain't Over ..." in 1989 and "The Yogi Book: I Really Didn't Say Everything I Said" in 1998. The last made The New York Times' best seller list.

In 1996, Berra was awarded an honorary doctorate from the state university in Montclair, N.J., where he and his family lived. The university also named its baseball stadium for Berra. The adjoining Yogi Berra Museum opened in 1998.

The museum houses Berra memorabilia, including what he said was his most prized possession, the mitt he used to catch Larsen's perfect game.

He tickled TV viewers in recent years by bringing his malapropisms to a commercial with the AFLAC duck. ("They give you cash, which is just as good as money.")

His wife once asked Berra where he wanted to be buried, in St. Louis, New York or Montclair.

"I don't know," he said. "Why don't you surprise me?"


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-09-23

[Mango Bob]

RIP Yogi. You were a great part of the game. Still have your Tops Baseball Card.

[Pinot]

I'm old. I remember him playing in the world series with some of those great Yankee teams. Whitey Ford on the mound with Maris and Mantle hitting back to back, old Casey Stangle the manager. My team was the Red Sox so I hated the Yankees, but how do you hate Yogi Berra?

And then there is Yogi Bear. Hey Boo Boo.

[chickenslegs]

His wife once asked Berra where he wanted to be buried, in St. Louis, New York or Montclair.

"I don't know," he said. "Why don't you surprise me?"

He was smarter than the average Berra.

[chuckd]

A good read by George Will about Yogi. I grew up a fan. RIP

-------------------------------------------------------------------

George Will: Baseball Legend Yogi Berra — Only In America

BY GEORGE F. WILL

09/23/2015 06:20 PM ET

The 18-year-old U.S. Navy enlistee, thinking it sounded less boring than the dull training he was doing in 1944, volunteered for service on what he thought an officer had called "rocket ships."

Actually, they were small, slow, vulnerable boats used as launching pads for rockets to give close-in support for troops assaulting beaches.

The service on those boats certainly was not boring. At dawn on June 6, 1944, that sailor was a few hundred yards off Omaha Beach. Lawrence Peter Berra, who died Tuesday at 90, had a knack for being where the action was.

Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-viewpoint/092315-772442-george-will-on-baseball-legend-yogi-berra.htm#ixzz3mfLBDcFc

[Publicus]

Our grade five teacher Miss Burke was a Brookyln Dodgers fan-atic so when in September the 1955 baseball World Series began against the Yankees who played in the Bronx she brought a small b&w tv to tuck into a cabinet in the back of the room to watch every pitch and play. She assigned us work while she sat at her desk to watch. We kids never said anything to other students or to our parents but the whole school knew about it right up to the principal, Miss Booth, another old maid.

Dem Bums finally won one in the NYC subway series competition, but the Dodgers had to overcome Yogi Berra's magnificence in the 7-game set after Yogi's second consecutive regular season Most Valuable Player award of the American League and yet another glittering performance in the annual All-Star game against the National League stars.

Dodgers lhp Johnny Podres became an undisputed ace that year which he crowned by pitching a shutout in the deciding game 7 to finally give Dem Bums their long sought championship of baseball after having lost to the Bronx Bombers in five previous WS matchups. The Yanks got the nick "bombers" for their many home run hitters, aka "thumpers," of which Yogi was a famous one (see photo below).

When it concluded Yogi spent more time in the champion Dodgers locker room and clubhouse than in his own. Yogi told the Dodgers they had earned the whole of it. Writer Bob Klemper of the National Passtime Museum recently memorialised it:

"Yogi Berra once told me the best times of his professional life took place in the early to mid-1950s, when the Subway Series with the Dodgers felt like one long, beautiful blur. New York City morphed into the baseball capital of the world, hunkering down every October for the sport’s most compelling rivalry.

"Fans in the stadium found themselves applauding their rivals after Game 7 was over, and Berra himself went into the visitors’ clubhouse to offer his congratulations. Good sport that he was, Berra spent nearly a half hour talking to his friends who just happened to be wearing the other uniform.

“We all liked each other,” Yogi would say years later. “Even though we wanted to beat them, it didn’t mean they were our enemies. They played a great game (to win the Series). Podres threw a great game and I told him that.”

Yogi Berra at bat during the 1955 World Series at Yankee Stadium in New York while the Brookyln Dodgers ready a relief pitcher who throws practice pitches on the sidelines. After the Dodgers won game 7 by the shutout score of 2-0 to assert their first WS championship title, Yogi Berra joined the crosstown rival Dodgers in their post game clubhouse celebration to congratulate the team and Podres for a well earned victory over Yogi's Yankees.

http://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/1955-world-series

Throughout that long frigid snow covered New England winter Miss Burke was the happiest teacher I'd ever had.

Edited September 24, 2015 by Publicus

[chuckd]

Yogi was a once-in-a-lifetime baseball player and individual. Following is a collection of 35 of his most famous quotes.

Baseball fan or not, many of these are great.

1. “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

2. “It’s deja vu all over again.”

3. “I usually take a two-hour nap from 1 to 4.”

4. “Never answer an anonymous letter.”

5. “We made too many wrong mistakes.”

6. “You can observe a lot by watching.”

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

8. “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”

9. “It gets late early out here.”

10. “If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.”

11. “Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.”

12. “Pair up in threes.”

13. “Why buy good luggage, you only use it when you travel.”

14. “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

15. “All pitchers are liars or crybabies.”

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

17. “Bill Dickey is learning me his experience.”

18. “He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.”

19. “I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.”

20. “I can see how he (Sandy Koufax) won 25 games. What I don’t understand is how he lost five.”

Modal TriggerJoe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra in 1955.

21. “I don’t know (if they were men or women fans running naked across the field). They had bags over their heads.”

22. “I’m a lucky guy and I’m happy to be with the Yankees. And I want to thank everyone for making this night necessary.”

23. “I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.”

24. “In baseball, you don’t know nothing.”

25. “I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?”

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

27. “It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.”

28. “I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house.”

29. “I wish everybody had the drive he (Joe DiMaggio) had. He never did anything wrong on the field. I’d never seen him dive for a ball, everything was a chest-high catch, and he never walked off the field.”

30. “So I’m ugly. I never saw anyone hit with his face.”

31. “Take it with a grin of salt.”

32. (On the 1973 Mets) “We were overwhelming underdogs.”

33. “The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase.”

34. “You should always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise, they won’t come to yours.”

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

[Usernames]

I remember Joe Garagiola on the NBC Game of the Week back in the 1970s quoting one Yogiism after another during the broadcasts. Wow, just looked. Garagiola himself is almost 90.

[Publicus]

Good for Joe and glad to hear he's still kicking at 90.

One tv game, when the camera showed manager Yogi in the dugout go over and pick up the bullpen phone Joe said the Yog was ordering a pizza. (Joe didn't make it as a comedian either btw.)

Go Sox