Yogi Berra

Background

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra (May 12, 1925 – September 22, 2015), an American professional baseball catcher, who later took on the roles of manager and coach. He played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) (1946–1963, 1965), all but the last for the New York Yankees. He was an 18-time All-Star and won 10 World Series championships as a player—more than any other player in MLB history. Berra had a career batting average of .285, while hitting 358 home runs and 1,430 runs batted in. He is one of only six players to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award three times. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest catchers in baseball history, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.

Yogi Berra, Catcher and poet, sorta.

Quotes

• “It ain't over till it's over”
• “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
• “It's like déjà vu all over again.”
• “You can observe a lot by just watching.”
• “No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.”
• “The future ain't what it used to be.”
• “Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.”
• “Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.”
• “I usually take a two-hour nap from 1 to 4.”
• “Never answer an anonymous letter.”
• “We made too many wrong mistakes.”
• “You can observe a lot by watching.”
• “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”
• “It gets late early out here.”
• “If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.”
• “Pair up in threes.”
• “Why buy good luggage, you only use it when you travel.”
• “All pitchers are liars or crybabies.”
• “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
• “Bill Dickey is learning me his experience.”
• “He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.”
• “I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.”
• “I can see how he (Sandy Koufax) won 25 games. What I don’t understand is how he lost five.”
• “I don’t know (if they were men or women fans running naked across the field). They had bags over their heads.”
• “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.”
• “I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.”
• “In baseball, you don’t know nothing.”
• “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?”
• “I never said most of the things I said.”
• “It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.”
• “I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house.”
• “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.”
• “So I’m ugly. I never saw anyone hit with his face.”
• “Take it with a grin of salt.”
• (On the 1973 Mets) “We were overwhelming underdogs.”
• The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase.

Insights

Berra was a native of St. Louis and signed with the Yankees in 1943 before serving in the United States Navy as a gunner's mate in the Normandy landings during World War II, where he earned a Purple Heart. He made his major-league debut at age 21 in 1946 and was a mainstay in the Yankees' lineup during the team's championship years beginning in 1949 and continuing through 1962. Despite his short stature (he was 5 feet 7 inches tall), Berra was a power hitter and strong defensive catcher. Berra played 18 seasons with the Yankees before retiring after the 1963 season. He spent the next year as their manager, then joined the New York Mets in 1965 as coach (and briefly a player again). Berra remained with the Mets for the next decade, serving the last four years as their manager. He returned to the Yankees in 1976, coaching them for eight seasons and managing for two, before coaching the Houston Astros. He was one of seven managers to lead both American and National League teams to the World Series. Berra appeared as a player, coach or manager in every one of the 13 World Series that New York baseball teams won from 1947 through 1981.Overall, he played or coached in 22 World Series, 13 on the winning side. Berra caught Don Larsen's perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series. He also holds the all-time record for shutouts caught, with 173.

The Yankees retired his uniform number 8 in 1972; Bill Dickey had previously worn number 8, and both catchers had that number retired by the Yankees. The club honored him with a plaque in Monument Park in 1988.

Berra was named to the MLB All-Century Team in a vote by fans in 1999. For the remainder of his life, he was closely involved with the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, which he opened on the campus of Montclair State University in 1998.

Berra quit school after the eighth grade. He was known for his malapropisms as well as pithy and paradoxical statements while speaking to reporters. He once simultaneously denied and confirmed his reputation by stating, "I really didn't say everything I said."