Outside of Babe Ruth, Yogi Berra, in my opinion, had the most recognizable face in sports history.
Yogi, who passed away in September at age 90, did not say all the cute and clever things attributed to him, and he was the first to admit it. Our paths crossed several times on the baseball beat and I’ll always see him in the television of my mind on a clubhouse stool clad in white T-shirt, shorts, and high baseball socks.
I found him to be quiet and withdrawn most of the time and he seemed to be shorter than the 5-8 listed in the back of his baseball cards. He looked like an average guy you’d find working in a stockroom of a neighborhood store.
Berra broke into pro baseball in 1943 at the age of 18 with the Norfolk club in the Yankees’ minor league chain.
In the Navy the next two years, Berra earned a Purple Heart, Distinguished Unit Citation, and two Battle Stars and a European Theatre of Operations ribbon for his participation in the Normandy Invasion.
After batting .314 with 15 home runs in 77 games for Newark in 1946, Berra was given a late season trial with the Yankees. He hit .364 in seven games and worked to improve his defense under Hall of Fame Yankees catcher Bill Dickey.
“He taught me to get out in front of the plate quicker to field bunts,” Yogi once related from a clubhouse stool. “Bill taught me to be more alert and how to move quicker. He showed me how to get down on pitches in the dirt and block them from getting by me. And he helped me to have my feet placed right so I could get more leverage on throws.”
Yogi gets credit for being the first catcher in memory to place the forefinger outside the mitt to reduce the wear and tear on his catching hand. Today many catchers and infielders copy it.
Yogi went on to become an all-time baseball great, and his domestic life with his beautiful wife, Carmen, was equally blessed. Like the fans, she adored him. By the time his career as a player, coach, and manager ended, Yogi had collected 21 World Series rings. Berra’s great moments include hitting, in 1947, the first pinch-hit home run in World Series history and catching, in 1956, the only perfect game in World Series history (thrown by Don Larsen).
His big league playing career spanned from 1946-1965 and resulted in a .285 batting average with 358 home runs in 2,120 regular season games. Yogi also played in 15 consecutive All-Star games and managed both the Yankees and the Mets to pennants.
To me, the greatest game Yogi ever caught was on Sunday, June 24, 1962, when he was 37 years old. A crowd of 35,638 paid their way into Detroit’s Tiger Stadium for the game, which started a few minutes after one on a beautiful afternoon.
The game ended seven hours later when the Yankees’ Jack Reed hit a two-run homer in the 22nd inning (his only homer in the major leagues).
Yogi caught all 22 innings and had three hits in 10 trips to the plate.
Fast forward to Yankee Stadium on July 18, 1999.
After a 14-year estrangement from the Yankees because Yogi felt he’d been mistreated by team owner George Steinbrenner, Berra attended the game with his World Series perfect game battery-mate Don Larsen. The pair watched David Cone pitch baseball’s 16th regular-season perfect game, giving Yankees manager Joe Torre a present on his 59th birthday.
Things happened when Yogi was around.
I’m glad I got an autographed ball from one of the greatest sports figures in history.