This undated photo shows New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra. Berra, who won 10 World Series titles as a player, all with the Bronx Bombers, died on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015. (File/AP)
Baseball Hall of Fame legend Yogi Berra has died Tuesday at the age of 90, the Yogi Berra Museum confirmed in a tweet. Berra, an oft-quoted player of the people, outlived all of his other teammates who were a part of the famed Yankees dynasty that dominated Major League Baseball from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. His cause of death was not immediately disclosed.
It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that Yogi Berra passed away Tuesday night at the age of 90. #YogiBerra pic.twitter.com/0BSctBzhTb
— Yogi Berra Museum (@Yogi_Museum) September 23, 2015
Baseball stat guru Bill James, known for his win shares formula, declared that Berra was the greatest catcher of all time. Berra won three American League MVP awards, was a 15-time All Star, helped his team with 10 World Series Championships, is remembered as a clutch hitter and one of the greatest catchers of all time. In 1957, he became the first World Series pinch-hitter to hit a home run. Berra once went 148 games without making an error and famously caught two no-hitters, both by Allie Reynolds in 1951, and one perfect game, by Don Larsen in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Berra was a household name and beloved national icon. The animated cartoon character–Yogi Bear–was named after him in 1958.
He was born Lawrence “Larry” Berra to Italian immigrant parents in St. Louis, Mo., on May 12, 1925 and acquired the nickname “Yogi” when a childhood friend observed that he resembled a Hindu yogi in a movie they saw. Berra, who attended school until the 8th grade, first served in the Navy during World War II and fought during the D-Day invasion of Normandy, despite signing with the Yankees in 1943. Berra decides to enlist before putting on the pinstripes in the fall of 1946.
The oft-quoted Yankee legend and beloved Hall of Famer was known for saying “When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” among other phrases that mistook the use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one. He also gave us the phrase, “It’s Déjà vu all over again” and “It ain’t over til its over.”
In 1950, he struckout just 12 times in 597 at-bats, and in five of his 19 seasons he had more home runs than strikeouts.
“If I can see it, I can hit it,” Berra once plainly said. He also went 148 games without making a single error.
