Yogi Berra

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra is a Major League Baseball Hall of Fame catcher and manager, who spent most of his playing career on the New York Yankees.

He was born on May 12, 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri. Berra was signed as an amateur free agent by the New York Yankees in 1943 and made his major league debut on September 22, 1946. Yogi played the final game of his career on May 9, 1965.

During his career Berra won 3 Most Valuable Player awards and played in 14 World Series. He was also selected to play in 18 All Star games. In his 7,555 official trips to the plate, Yogi fanned only 414 times; an amazing statistic. He finished his career with 358 Home Runs, 1,430 RBIs and 1,175 runs scored. He also hit 12 Home Runs, knocked in 29 runs and scored 41 in World Series play.http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/berrayo01.shtml

Berra spent his entire 19 season career in New York, playing 18 seasons with the Yankees and 1 season (a total of 4 games) with the cross town rival New York Mets.

Yogi Berra was Inducted into the Hall of Fame by BBWAA as Player in 1972, garnering votes on 339 of 396 ballots.

After retiring he had 2 stints as manager of the New York Yankees. In 1964 he managed the team to the American League pennant in a 1 year job as manager. He didn't manage again until 8 years later when the New York Mets called. Taking over as their manager in 1972, he then led them to the National League pennant in 1973. During the 1975 season his stint with the Mets ended. Nine years later the Yankees once again came calling. He managed the team in 1984 to an 87 -75 record and then16 games into the 1985 season with the Yanks sitting at 6 - 10, he and the Yankees parted ways.http://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/berrayo01.shtml

Yogi was also known for his great quotes which earned the name of "Yogiisms". One such quote "It gets late early out there." refers to the left field area of Yankee Stadium; that is, the conditions of the sun. Baseball fans will know that that shadows can be cast over whole sections of the outfield, making it a challenge to play.http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/208761/great_yogi_berra_quotes_are_called.html

A few interesting facts about Yogi: 1. Was nicknamed "Yogi" for resemblance to a movie snake charmer 2. Joined the Navy at 18 and participated in the D-Day invasion at Omaha Beach 3. Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Yogi Bear was named after Berra 4. Best friend was St. Louis Cardinals catcher and NBC announcer Joe Garagiola

Yogi was a tremendous player and one of the best hitting catchers in the history of the game. In 1954 as a New York Yankee he walloped 22 home runs and drove in 125 runs. He carried a .307 batting average and was voted the American League Most Valuable Player. He also scored 88 runs and contributed 28 doubles and 6 triples. Amazingly he struck out only 29 times in 584 at bats. Berra was also selected to the American League All Star team for a 7th consecutive season.

For the Yankees 1954 was a bad year. They had appeared in the World Series from 1949 through 1953, and then again from 1955 through 1958, winning 7 of them. During his 18 seasons with the Yankees, Yogi appeared in 14 World Series. ].