Yogi Berra

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Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra (born May 12, 1925) is a former catcher and manager in Major League Baseball who played almost his entire career for the New York Yankees. He is one of only four players to be named the Most Valuable Player of the American League three times, and one of only six managers to lead both American and National League teams to the World Series.

Born in an area of St. Louis called the Hill, Berra was originally nicknamed Lawdie, a bastardization of his name Lawrence. He picked up his nickname from a friend who said he resembled a Hindu holy man (yogi). (The Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Yogi Bear was named after Berra.) He began playing baseball in local American Legion leagues, where he learned the basics of play as a catcher. After rejecting an offer from the St. Louis Cardinals, he signed with the Yankees in 1942. He is generally considered to be one of the best catchers in history. In two recent (2004) approaches by sabermetricians Berra is ranked first by the Bill James Win Shares method and third by the Total Baseball Total Player Rating method.

Berra is also quite famous for his tendency toward malapropism and fracturing the English language in highly provocative, interesting ways; see Yogiisms.

Playing career

Following a spell in the US Navy during World War II, he played minor league baseball with the Newark Bears before being called up for 7 games in the major leagues in 1946. The following season he played 86 games for the Yankees, and he would play 100+ for each of the following 14 years. During his 19-year career as a Yankee the Bronx Bombers dominated baseball, appearing in 14 World Series and winning ten championships. Berra himself was a 15-time All-Star, and won the league's MVP award in 1951, 1954 and 1955). He also caught Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 Series, the only no-hitter ever thrown in postseason play.

In 1946, he wore uniform number 38 on the Yankees, switching to 35 the next year. In 1948 he changed to number 8, which was to be made famous as his number for the rest of his career on the Yankees and Mets. The number 8 was retired in 1972 by the Yankees, jointly honoring Berra and Bill Dickey, his predecessor as the Yankees' star catcher.

In 1972 he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Managing career

Yankees - Mets - Yankees - Fired by Steinbrenner - Astros,

Career statistics

Books

Four books by Yogi Berra (with co-authors):

• ISBN 0761110909; (April 1998) The Yogi Book: 'I Really Didn't Say Everything I Said'
• ISBN 0786867752; (May 2001) When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It! Inspiration and Wisdom from One of Baseball's Greatest Heroes
• ISBN 0743237684; (October 1, 2002) What Time Is It? You Mean Now?: Advice for Life from the Zennest Master of Them All
• ISBN 0070969477; (April, 1989) Yogi: It Ain't Over

Trivia

Berra has a Hanna-Barbera cartoon character named after him. See Yogi Bear.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about Yogi Berra.

• Baseball Hall of Fame biography
• Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
• Baseball-Almanac.com - career statistics
• Yogi Berra Museum
• A list of Yogi-isms

ja:ヨギ・ベラ