Background

Yogi Berra was born on May 12, 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. He was the youngest son and one of five children born to Pietro Berra, a factory worker, and Paulina Longoni, a homemaker, who were first-generation immigrants from northern Italy.

Education

Yogi Berra grew up wanting to be a ballplayer, but first had some serious obstacles to overcome. He left South Side Catholic School (now St. Mary's High School) after the eighth grade and worked in a coal yard, drove a delivery truck, and pulled tacks in a shoe factory. But the Berra boys (Yogi and his older brothers) also found time to play baseball, roller hockey, soccer, and football together. With others from the "Dago Hill" neighborhood, they formed a YMCA team called "The Stags." Since Yogi and his brothers had improved the family's economic situation, he was able to get his father's permission to try for a baseball career.

In 1996, Berra received an honorary doctorate from Montclair State University.

Career

Berra polished his skills on the diamond playing for the Stockham Post American Legion Junior team beginning at the age of fourteen. He most often played left field for the team. In 1942, he tried out for the St. Louis Cardinals, who were then managed by Branch Rickey. Joe Garagiola, his friend, was signed, but Berra turned down a $250 signing bonus, half of what his friend had been given. When Berra signed with the New York Yankees, he received $500 to play for the Norfolk, Virginia Tars in 1943. During his first season playing catcher, he made sixteen errors but showed promise as a hitter. In one two-day period, the left-hand hitting and right-hand throwing novice batted in twenty-three runs. Berra's season average, however, was just .253.

The next year Berra was advanced to the Yankees' Kansas City farm team, but did not play. At eighteen, he joined the Navy and trained as a gunner. During the D-Day invasion of Normandy, Berra was part of the fighting for fifteen consecutive days serving as a Seaman 1st Class on the Coast Guard transport Bayfield. When he returned to the United States, Berra played on a Navy baseball team in Connecticut. He showed exceptional batting skills in an exhibition game against the New York Giants, which led to that team offering the Yankees $50,000 for his contract. The Yankees refused the offer, despite the fact that Yankee General Manager Larry MacPhail didn't know who Berra was. After his discharge from the Navy, Berra was assigned to the Bears, the club's Newark, New Jersey farm team. In 1946, Berra batted .314 and hit fifteen home runs for the Bears before being called up to the majors at the end of the season. He made a big impression in a short period of time, hitting a home run in his first major league at-bat, and another in his second game.

During his first years with the Yankees, Berra struggled with his habit of swinging at bad pitches and a wild arm behind the plate. When Casey Stengel began managing the team in 1949, he put Berra to work with former catcher Bill Dickey, who found fault with the young player's flatfooted style of throwing but also valued his speed, strength, and agility. Soon his student was showing improvement on offense and defense. In 1949, Berra became the starting catcher for the Yankees, a position he would hold until 1959. Behind the plate, he earned a reputation as a talker who tried to distract batters from the task at hand. Berra said that Ted Williams was the only player who told him to shut up, which he declined to do. Berra also gained greater ease when he was at bat. While he would still go for pitches outside the strike zone, Berra proved to be hard to strike out; in 1950, he was called out on strikes only twelve times in 597 at-bats.

Playing for Stengel, Berra became a star on the Yankees team and was, in the manager's opinion, second only to Joe DiMaggio among the best players he had ever managed. His best season at the plate was 1956, when he hit .298, had thirty home runs, and batted in 105 runs. Berra played in fourteen World Series and accumulated several championship records, including the most games as a catcher, at sixty-three; most hits, at seventy-one; appearances on a winning team, at ten; and the distinction of hitting the first pinch-hit home run in World Series history.

After retiring as a player at the end of 1963, Berra was introduced to the tumultuous existence of major league managers as head of the Yankees. He took the team to the 1964 world championship, but was fired after losing the seven-game series to the Cardinals. He then accepted a coaching job with the New York Mets under Casey Stengel, who called Berra his "assistant manager." In 1972, he was promoted to manager, replacing Gil Hodges. The next year, he led the team to a National League pennant, but would not last through his three-year contract.

Berra quickly went back to coaching, taking a job with the Yankees before year's end. In 1984, he was again elevated to manager, this time under the supervision of owner George Steinbrenner. Berra had reportedly turned down the job twice before and was now replacing the temperamental Billy Martin. He was surely entering rocky waters here: Steinbrenner had made eleven management changes in the last eleven years.

When Berra was sacked sixteen games into the 1985 season, it was a bitter parting. He had butted heads with Steinbrenner, including a 1984 squabble over the roster that ended with him throwing a pack of cigarettes at the owner. Lou Piniella, Berra's replacement as manager, asked him to return as dugout coach but was refused. Instead, Berra accepted a job with the Houston Astros, a team owned by his friend John McMullen. The switch and Berra's model behavior during it were considered news-worthy.

Berra reported for duty with the Astros after he took his first summer vacation in forty-three years. In 1985, he looked forward to managing Dale, an infielder who had been traded to the Yankees. But the situation soured with Berra's firing and with Dale's involvement in a drug trial in Pittsburgh.

In 1989, Berra retired from the Astros. From that time on, he was involved in several major projects, including the creation of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center at Montclair State University.

In his later years, namely in 2009, Berra appeared in the documentary film A Time for Champions, recounting his childhood memories of soccer in his native St. Louis.

Achievements

• 

  Berra epitomized the winning tradition of the New York Yankees from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s. He was an 18-time All-Star and won 10 World Series championships as a player - more than any other player in MLB history.
  
  Yogi 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 was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.
  
  The Yankees honored Yogi with a plaque in Monument Park in 1988. Berra was also named to the MLB All-Century Team in a vote by fans in 1999. He was a recipient of the Boy Scouts of America's highest adult award, the Silver Buffalo Award. In 2015, Berra was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously by then-President Barack Obama.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Yogi: It Ain't Over

    (Packed with rousing anecdotes and vintage Yogi-isms, this...)

    1989
  • The Yogi Book

    (The Yogi Book is the New York Times bestseller filled wit...)

    1998
  • What Time Is It? You Mean Now?: Advice for Life from the Zennest Master of Them All

    (The author of When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take I...)

    2001
  • When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It!: Inspiration and Wisdom from One of Baseball's Greatest Heroes

    (Three-time MVP and Hall of Famer Yogi Berra hit home runs...)

    2001

Politics

Yogi Berra's political views were not a major subject of his interviews, but he did make one political contribution reported to the Federal Election Commission - to New Jersey Republican William L. "Bill" Gormley's primary campaign for the United States Senate.

Views

Berra was well known for his impromptu pithy comments, malapropisms, and unintentional witticisms, known as "Yogi-isms," which took the form of either an apparent tautology or a contradiction, but often with an underlying and powerful message that offered not just humor, but also wisdom. Examples include statements such as "It's déjà vu all over again," "You can observe a lot by watching," "The future ain't what it used to be," and "Baseball is 90 percent mental; the other half is physical."

Quotations: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

"A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore."

"Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours."

"You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six."

"Slump? I ain't in no slump… I just ain't hitting."

"How can you think and hit at the same time?"

"I tell the kids, somebody's gotta win, somebody's gotta lose. Just don't fight about it. Just try to get better."

"If the people don't want to come out to the ballpark, nobody's going to stop them."

"We have deep depth."

"Pair up in threes."

"Why buy good luggage, you only use it when you travel."

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

"All pitchers are liars or crybabies."

"Even Napoleon had his Watergate."

"It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much."

"I can see how he (Sandy Koufax) won twenty-five 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?"

"It ain't the heat, it's the humility."

"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."

"Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets."

"You don't have to swing hard to hit a home run. If you got the timing, it'll go."

"I'm lucky. Usually, you're dead to get your own museum, but I'm still alive to see mine."

"If I didn't make it in baseball, I won't have made it workin'. I didn't like to work."

"A lot of guys go, 'Hey, Yog, say a Yogi-ism.' I tell 'em, 'I don't know any.' They want me to make one up. I don't make 'em up. I don't even know when I say it. They're the truth. And it is the truth. I don't know."

Personality

Berra's ebullient personality made him a favorite of fans and sportswriters, who delighted in his trademark aphorisms that made him the most-quoted athlete in history.

Berra also attracted attention with his love of comic books, movies, and ice cream.

Physical Characteristics: Yogi Berra was 5 ft 7 inches (170 cm) tall and weighed 185 lb (83 kg).

Berra died in his sleep of natural causes.

Quotes from others about the person

• Roy Campanella: "Sure, his control wasn't perfect, but he didn't make all the mistakes he seemed to make. Berra hit that first home run off his chin. It was two strikes and Newk was just wasting one. I guess you have to hit Yogi to keep him from hitting you. You can't throw it bad enough by him. [...] Man, that Berra is a killer. All Newcombe has to do is get a third strike past him and he's probably pitching yet. Mantle? You saw how big Newk threw those strikes past him. Struck him out twice, didn't he?"
  
  Jimmy Cannon: "A remark once attributed to Sam Goldwyn will be attributed to Yogi Berra."
  
  Del Crandall: "Well, we heard he was a high-ball hitter. All that means is his strength is a little stronger on high pitches than on low. We knew there wasn't much we could do."
  
  Bob Friend: "Yogi is the most relaxed hitter I ever saw or faced. What a guy! In spite of all the great things he's accomplished over the years, he's lost none of his humility and none of his niceness. He's truly one of nature's noblemen."
  
  Joe Garagiola: "Fans have labeled Yogi Berra "Mr. Malaprop," but I don't think that's accurate. He doesn't use the wrong words. He just puts words together in ways nobody else would ever do."
  
  Hector Lopez: "Yogi had the fastest bat I ever saw. He could hit a ball late that was already past him, and take it out of the park. The pitchers were afraid of him because he'd hit anything, so they didn't know what to throw. Yogi had them psyched out and he wasn't even trying to psyche them out."
  
  Paul Richards: "After the seventh inning, when runs count the most, he's the most dangerous hitter who ever lived."
  
  Phil Rizzuto: "He's smart, all right. There's no one in baseball smarter than Yogi."

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  New Jersey Devils; golf

• Athletes

  Joe Medwick

• Music & Bands

  Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong

Connections

On January 26, 1949, Yogi Berra married Carmen Short. The couple had three sons - Dale Anthony Berra, Timothy Thomas Berra and Lawrence A. Berra.

Father:

Peter Berra

(March 28, 1886 - May 11, 1961)

Mother:

Pauline (Longsoni) Berra

(September 28, 1894 - January 29, 1963)

Son:

Lawrence A. Berra

Lawrence A. Berra played for three minor league teams in the New York Mets organization.

Son:

Timothy Thomas Berra

(born September 23, 1951)

Timothy Thomas Berra is a former American football player who played for the Baltimore Colts in 1974.

Son:

Dale Anthony Berra

(born December 13, 1956)

Dale Anthony Berra is an American former Major League Baseball player who primarily played as an infielder from 1977 to 1987.

late spouse:

Carmen Short

(September 24, 1925 - March 6, 2014)

Friend:

Joe Garagiola Sr.

(February 12, 1926 - March 23, 2016)

Joe Garagiola Sr. was an American professional baseball catcher, later an announcer and television host, popular for his colorful personality.

Friend:

Jack Maguire

(February 5, 1925 - September 28, 2001)

Jack Maguire was an American professional baseball player whose career lasted for eight seasons.

References

• Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask The definitive biography of Yogi Berra, the New York Yankees icon, winner of 10 World Series championships, and the most-quoted player in baseball history.
  2020
• Driving Mr. Yogi: Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, and Baseball's Greatest Gift Driving Mr. Yogi is the story of how a unique friendship between a pitcher and catcher is renewed every year.
  2012
• Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee In this revelatory biography, Allen Barra presents Yogi's remarkable life as never seen before with nearly one hundred photos and countless "Yogi-isms," and offers hilarious insights into many of baseball's greatest moments.
  2009
• The Wit and Wisdom of Yogi Berra Phil Pepe takes readers along on Yogi Berra's journey from St. Louis to New York's Yankee Stadium, including all the stops along the way - from his days as a tack-puller in a women's shoe factory, to a pre-game tribute in St. Louis, when he coined the phrase, "I want to thank all those that made this night necessary," to his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Pepe explores Yogi Berra as a boy, player, hero, coach, manager, husband, father, and jokester, including all of the "Yogi-isms," in an absorbing treatment that is simultaneously comical, thoughtful, and biographical.
  1974