Baseball great Yogi Berra dies at 90
Yogi Berra, the Hall of Fame catcher renowned as much for his dizzying malapropisms as his record 10 World Series championships with the New York Yankees, has died. He was 90.
Berra died of natural causes Tuesday at his home in New Jersey, according to Dave Kaplan, the director of the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center.
When former Yankees general manager Larry MacPhail first saw Yogi Berra, he said the squat, goofy-looking catcher reminded him of "the bottom man on an unemployed acrobatic team."
At 5'8" with a paunchy body and mischievous smirk, Berra seemed an unlikely baseball hero. But the oft-quoted New York Yankees legend, who won three American League MVP awards and 10 World Series titles, is remembered as a clutch hitter and one of the greatest catchers of all time. He died Tuesday at the age of 90. No cause of death was immediately given.
Berra's death was confirmed in a Tweet from the Yogi Berry Museum, the New Jersey-based nonprofit that bears his name.
The beloved Hall of Famer -- who memorably uttered "When you come to a fork in the road, take it," among other malapropisms and contradictory phrases -- was an essential part of the Yankees dynasty that dominated Major League Baseball from the late 1940s to the early 1960s and included other greats like Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.
Partly due to the Yankees' success during that era, Berra, who was also a 15-time All-Star, established several Fall Classic records, including most games played, most at-bats and most hits. In 1957, he became the first World Series pinch-hitter to hit a home run.
Proving, as he said, "It ain't over 'til it's over," Berra maintained a presence in the major leagues as a coach and manager -- he is one of only six managers to lead an American League and National League team to the World Series -- and became a symbol of New York baseball, past and present.
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 only attended school until eighth grade, after which he worked to help support his family and played American Legion ball. Though he signed with the Yankees in 1943, Berra first served in the Navy during World War II and fought during the D-Day invasion of Normandy before putting on the pinstripes in the fall of 1946.
As a hitter, Berra would prove to have excellent coverage of the strike zone and incredible control of the bat. In five of his 19 seasons, he had more home runs than strikeouts and in 1950, he struck out just 12 times in 597 at-bats. He once explained, "If I can see it, I can hit it."
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