Yogi 10/4/15

The baseball community suffered a great loss. On September 22, 2015, Yogi Berra passed away of natural causes. An all-around great person, Yogi is one of the greatest catchers in baseball history, known for his prowess behind the plate and his unique power in the batter’s box. But there’s more to Yogi than just assertions made by analysts. His stats and personality were just plain amazing.

Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra played his entire 19-year career from 1946-1963, 1965 with New York teams: the Yankees and Mets. The 18-time All Star clobbered 358 homers out of the park and drove in 1,430 runs. Berra was in the top 25 for MVP voting for 15 straight years from 1947-1961 and won it three times (1951, 1954, and 1955). He was less known for his batting average but still batted .285 lifetime with 2,150 base hits. Although he never led the league in any batting categories, Berra still did his part to lead the Yankees to 14 World Series, winning ten of them, making Berra the player with the most World Series championships in baseball history. Because of all these astonishing accolades, he was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1972.

But the stats don’t tell the whole story of Yogi. He had a very large and famous personality. He was known to talk to batters about their personal lives while he was catching. He was a big promoter of Yoo-hoo drinks and his name was synonymous with the products. Most of all, Berra had some awesome quotes. The quotes usually didn’t make any sense, which is why they are so famously funny. My favorite “Yogi-ism,” as they are nicknamed, is “Always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise they won’t go to yours,” but there are so many other good ones, like “It ain’t over til it’s over.” or “Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.” These quirky quotes made Berra the lovable icon he was. What a guy.

Yogi Berra will forever live in Yankee lore because of his outstanding play on the field and his charisma off it. He will be dearly missed by baseball fans all across the nation and the world. Thanks for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed it. Check back soon for more of “all the buzz on what wuzz.”