The Extraordinary Journey of Yogi Berra

In 90 years, the Yankee legend lived many lives: war veteran, humorist, manager and baseball’s greatest catcher

Yogi Berra Dies at 90

Baseball player, pitchman, philosopher and Hall of Famer Yogi Berra dies at the age of 90.

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New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra poses at spring training in Florida, in this undated file photo. Mr. Berra, the Yankees Hall of Fame catcher died Tuesday. He was 90. ASSOCIATED PRESS …

A grinning Mr. Berra, center, being congratulated by other players at the American Baseball Academy in New York on Nov. 7, 1951, after learning that he would be named as the Most Valuable Player in the American League for 1951. From left to right are Sid Gordon, Boston Braves; Ed Lopat, Yankees; Yogi Berra; Gil Hodges, Brooklyn Dodgers; Gil McDougald, Yankees. Mr. Berra won the first of his three MVP titles that year, batting .294 with 27 home runs and 88 runs batted in. JOHN ROONEY/ASSOCIATED PRESS …

Mr. Berra swinging the bat during a game in the 1950s. He helped his New York Yankees reach 14 World Series during his 18 years on the team. GETTY IMAGES …

Yogi Berra and pitcher Don Larsen embracing at the end of Game 5 of baseball's World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers at New York’s Yankee Stadium in this Oct. 8, 1956, photo. Mr. Larsen had just completed the only perfect game in World Series history. ASSOCIATED PRESS …

Umpire Bill Summers’s decision to rule Jackie Robinson safe on a steal of home enraged Mr. Berra during the World Series opener at New York's Yankee Stadium on Sept. 28, 1955. The ‘55 fall classic was the only one the Yankees lost to the Dodgers. ASSOCIATED PRESS …

Yogi Berra shakes hands with former Yankee legend Babe Ruth on Babe Ruth Day at Sportsman’'s Park in St. Louis. Bettmann/CORBIS …

Mr. Berra letting a foul ball drop into the pocket of his glove in the second inning against the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium on June 22, 1957. The White Sox’s Nellie Fox, at bat with the bases loaded, had fouled off a pitch from Yankee pitcher Don Larsen. Mr. Berra caught the ball for the second out, but Chicago scored three runs in the inning. New York would go on to win the pennant. HARRY HARRIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS …

Yogi Berra, who became manager of the New York Mets after his playing days were over, in his office in New York, on Oct. 18, 1973. The Mets won their division and the National League that season, his second as skipper, but fell in seven games to the Oakland Athletics in the World Series. ASSOCIATED PRESS …

From left, Yankees legends Mickey Mantle, Mr. Berra, Whitey Ford, Joe DiMaggio and Casey Stengel on the steps of Shea Stadium in New York before an Old Timers game on Aug. 3, 1974. RAY STUBBLEBINE/ASSOCIATED PRESS …

Mr. Berra advising New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Canó, before the start of a spring training baseball game against the Houston Astros on March 6, 2011, in Kissimmee, Fla. DAVID GOLDMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS …

Mr. Berra at home plate during ceremonies marking the final game to be played at the old Yankee Stadium on Sept. 21, 2008. DAVID L. POKRESS/NEWSDAY/MCT/ZUMA PRESS …

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Jason Gay

The Wall Street Journal

CANCEL

Biography Jason Gay
@jasongay
Jason.Gay@wsj.com

Updated Sept. 23, 2015 2:18 p.m. ET

89 COMMENTS

He was a spectacular baseball player. That sometimes gets forgotten in all the folksy warmth surrounding Yogi Berra, who died Tuesday at age 90. The numbers are staggering, almost supernatural, something out of a comic book: 18 seasons as a catcher for the New York Yankees, 10 World Series rings, 14 Series appearances, 15 All-Star Games and three most valuable player awards. There’s never been a career like it, before or since. I once emailed the groundbreaking statistician (and “Moneyball” godfather) Bill James about Berra’s rank among baseball’s all-timers, and his response was instant and unequivocal:

“I certainly think that Yogi was the greatest catcher who ever lived,” James wrote. “I have no doubt of this, honestly.”

Statistics tell only a fraction of his story. Berra was the son of immigrants, a World War II veteran who had left a Yankees farm club to join the Navy and served at D-Day, a gunner’s mate on a landing craft support vessel. “I think his military service has been a little overlooked, because men like him really didn’t talk about it much,” Carmen Berra, Yogi’s wife of 65 years, told the Star-Ledger a year before her death in 2014. “It wasn’t a big thing to him…it was just what they had to do.”

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Yogi Berra stands at home plate during ceremonies marking the final game to be played at the old Yankee Stadium on Sept. 21, 2008. Photo: ZUMAPRESS.com

Such humility defined his life. Yogi Berra was not a pretentious man. His exceptional talent didn’t yield the type of payday that is now customary for ballplayers today—Berra never made more than $65,000 in a season, and never had more than a one-year contract. His easygoing style and proclivity for malapropisms—actually, it’s not fair to call them malapropisms; they’re Yogi-isms, sui generis, many of them brilliant (“Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical,” not even Twain was that good)—made him a beloved figure even to those who hated the mighty Yankees. Berra returned the laughs with a twinkle of self-awareness: Yogi made people chuckle, but he always got to be in on the joke.

He had lives as a manager, a commercial pitchman, an actor (that’s Yogi, with Mickey Mantle, Cary Grant and Doris Day in 1962’s “That Touch of Mink,” which they filmed during a Yankees West Coast trip). Berra had his battles—there was a memorable feud with George Steinbrenner that lasted for nearly a decade and a half after the Yankee owner dismissed Berra as manager in 1985. (Steinbrenner, acting on advice from Joe DiMaggio, eventually visited Berra to apologize, leading to an overdue thawing.)

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New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, left, and Yogi Berra joke around by the batting cage before the Yankees spring training game in 2008. Photo: Kathy Willens/Associated Press

As often with cherished public figures, the best stories about Yogi Berra are the quieter ones. This past May in the Journal, David Kaplan, the director of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center near Berra’s town of Montclair, N.J., gave a remarkable account of Berra’s relationship with a once-troubled local teenager named Carlos Lejnieks whom he mentored and helped get into Brown University. Today, Lejnieks is the CEO of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program in Newark.

The legendary baseball catcher Yogi Berra, who died Tuesday, was famed for his record 10 World Series championships with the New York Yankees. But he was just as well known for “Yogisms”—his figures of speech—like “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.” Photo: AP

I spoke to Lejnieks Wednesday. While he said that Berra had made a significant positive impact upon his life, he also knew he was not alone. “I know he did it in so many quiet ways for so many other people,” he said. “He was so understated.”

I met Berra once. In 2011 I went to go see the movie “Moneyball” with him. I don’t remember how I came up with the idea, but I know it took a long time to put together—Kaplan had asked if it might be possible to screen it in the museum’s screening room, but the movie studio was struggling to get a copy to us, and it looked like it would fall apart. At the last minute, we wound up seeing the Brad Pitt film at the old Bellevue Theater on Bellevue Avenue in Montclair. It was late afternoon. Carmen came, too. Yogi got a bag of popcorn and settled in the back of the theater.

I recall two things vividly about the screening: 1) Berra was friends with Art Howe, the manager of the Oakland A’s in the time “Moneyball” is set, and while he thought Philip Seymour Hoffman was a good actor, Yogi felt he looked nothing like Art Howe. The other thing—and this I didn’t know was coming—was that there’s a key scene in the movie in which the A’s reel off a record 20 game winning streak. And in the moment, they show real-life footage of the last American League team that had won 19 games—the 1947 New York Yankees, for whom Yogi played his first full season in the major leagues.

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Berra, center, is congratulated by fellow players after winning the American League MVP in 1951. Photo: AP

“I’d almost forgotten,” Yogi said afterward. “You get old, you know? But we did win 19 in a row.”

We all went to dinner at a restaurant around the corner. Yogi ordered scallops, and a vodka with extra ice. He talked about his early playing days and his first contract ($90 a month) and what they served the Yankees between games of a doubleheader (“a hardboiled egg”). He talked about going to Toots Shor’s with DiMaggio and knowing Connie Francis and Spencer Tracy. He talked humbly about those World Series titles and he reached over and showed me his 1953 ring, which was the only championship one he wore.

“I was very lucky,” he said.

He spoke about these indelible moments like they’d happened only weeks ago, and weren’t the memories of an extraordinary American life. To Yogi Berra, these were just fortunate things that had happened along the way. He didn’t view his life as extraordinary, which only makes it more so.

Write to Jason Gay at Jason.Gay@wsj.com

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89 comments

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r rodriguez subscriber

Yogi was a great American first. He also happened to be the greatest catcher in baseball; and so humble that most people today only know him for his folksy saying. I hope you enjoy the rest of the game with Carmen after the 7th inning stretch.

Joseph McElroy subscriber

You'll be missed until I see ya...

TODD SAUTER subscriber

Say Hi to Shoeless Joe, will ya? We'll miss you.

Robert Decker subscriber

Yogi Berra earned his fame by just going to work every day and doing his best, long before cable TV and multi-million deals for athletes.

MAUREEN SIMONELLI subscriber

Yogi is the reason we call his generation the "greatest" generation. They are, they were, they will always be.

Sudip Datta subscriber

Yogi without you "The future ain't what it used to be." RIP.

bruce miller subscriber

Thank you, Mr. Gay.

A uniquely American story of a uniquely American hero. Son of immigrants, war vet, sports star and, in the best American tradition, quietly helping others. A true role model for our troubled times.

Eric Daly subscriber

When Yogi gets to that heavenly fork in the road, he will surely take it. RIP Mr. Berra

Tom Tierney subscriber

If they do a "Field of Dreams II", Yogi needs to come out of the corn field at some point:

"I just want to thank everyone who made this day necessary."

Charles Aulbach subscriber

A good man. It was a privilege to watch him play, even if only on TV. We were certainly blessed to have him so long with us. I am sure that he is blessed where he plays now. A very good man.

William Palmer subscriber

Let's all think about Ron Guidry tonight.

He spent a lot of time with Yogi over the last decade or so.

Read the book, Driving Mr. Yogi.

It is well worth your time.

Ward Reed subscriber

@Alex Weil: The year that Roger Maris hit 61 home runs, Mickey Mantle, batting right behind Maris in the order, hit 57. It was said that Mantle prevented pitchers from intentionally walking Maris; they had to pitch to him. But largely forgotten, in that same year the Yankee catching staff -- Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, and John Blanchard (mostly used as a pinch hitter) -- hit 63 home runs.

JONATHAN HAINS subscriber

American

Hero

Icon

Wit

All-Star

Philosopher

Legend

Mr Berra would you like your pizza cut in 6 slices or 8?

Yogi: Better make it 6, I dont think I can eat 8.

Joseph Weigel subscriber

How many people live 90 years, and at the end, have never been spoken ill of? That is the measure of this man, and it speaks not of his military service, or his unequivocal greatness as a baseball player, but of the most important of all human qualities, humility. Thank you Yogi, for teaching us what humans can, at their best, truly be.

Mac Brachman subscriber

Yogi once said that nobody ate at a certain restaurant anymore because it was too crowded. Heaven has one more member now, and here in the mortal world without Yogi (and so many others of grace, talent, intelligence and humility) it seems all too crowded with all the wrong people. R.I.P. Yogi: miss you.

BRENDAN O'SULLIVAN subscriber

Yogi Berra -Yankee, father, husband, baseball legend, patriot, mensch, great example, wit - he defined the 'right stuff' .

David Ecale user

I can just see it. On the front of his headstone, after the required name & dates:

"See the other side for my last profound statement."

And on the backside:

JOE VANDEN PLAS subscriber

A life well lived by a charming man. I might have to revise my belief that Johnny Bench is the best catcher ever.

NED WALTON subscriber

@JOE VANDEN PLAS

Some years ago I happened to turn on the Tim Russet show and his guests were Yogi, Bench, Carter and Fisk. What a treat!

Lan Sluder subscriber

Wonderful piece, Mr. Gay. Thanks.

Tom Blackwell subscriber

Yogi Berra is what every kid dreams of becoming when growing up and wishes they had been when they're old.

An icon among icons

Jake Haulk subscriber

They threw away the mold after old Yogi came along.

Unbelievable career,

ALAN MOSS subscriber

One more comment about the great players who also played with Yogi.

As far as I can figure out. Whitey Ford may be the only one left still alive.

Anyone know different?

RIP Yogi! I am missing you already!!! :-(

Steve Timble staff

Aw jeez. I did such a good job today of not crying. Until now.

Thank You Jason Gay. This made my day.

David Knudsen subscriber

I think I remember that 19 in a row; if I remember correctly, I was thinking that the next game after the 19 was against the then lowest team in the League and the Yankees should win easily and continue the streak. I am not sure about the name of that team, but I want to say St. Louis Browns.

jon holstine subscriber

@David Knudsen It was the Browns.

John Quattrocchi subscriber

Yogi was a terrific baseball player, on a terrific team, who won regular world series, in his career. Yet, it is so easy to forgot or fail to really appreciate his professional accomplishments because of his personal qualities.

Yogi lived a few blocks from my home. I ran into him at the local dry cleaners one saturday and introduced him to my 9 year old daughter. I said "she'd like to shake your hand, Mr. Berra" And his response was, "Well, I'd like to shake your hand, young lady."

That is our memory of the great, Yogi.

Mr. Berra - the Field of Dreams has been waiting for you.

John Kunstadter subscriber

@John Quattrocchi Beautiful. Thank you.

In 1950, Mr. Berra struck out 12 times in 597 at bats.

Think about that for a moment, and if you don’t know much about baseball, ask someone who knows something about baseball how significant those numbers are.

From all the reading I’ve done about “Laudie” (his childhood nickname) over years, he was also a man with enormous class and humility who happened to be an astounding baseball talent.

God bless you Laudie.

You will be greatly missed.

JOHN VOLK subscriber

Yogi's best friend lived across the street from him in St. Louis - baseball catcher Joe Garagiola. Imagine that sandlot team!!!! "Garagiola once said, "Not only was I not the best catcher in the Major Leagues, I wasn't even the best catcher on my street!" And he was considered the better prospect of the two as teenagers.

The four guys I admired most in baseball, for personal reasons, not necessarily the best, were:

Lou Gehrig

Yogi Berra

Stan Musial

George Brett

Thomas Donahue subscriberprofilePrivate

Ditto on the Cleveland Indian memories. Hating the Yankees came with your mother's milk. But, we still did respect the Yankees and no one could really hate Yogi.

A 5'8 dynamo, one of the best baseball players of all and an absolute wonderful man. Player, manager, husband, Dad, WWII veteran-truly one of the greatest of the 'greatest generation'.

bob goodof subscriber

...Just wonderful...and while he was all of the above, he wasn't just a catcher! On that 1961 Yankee team - with Maris (61), Mantle (54), all three catchers hit over 20. And Yogi played a fair amount of left field -- better than some higher priced, so-called outfielders today!!

I love watching the film of him jump into Don Larsen's arms after Larsen's perfect game. It will never get old.

R.I.P.

Dana Messina profilePrivatesubscriber

Certainly a life well led.

THOMAS MULHOLLAND subscriber

A warm and touching tribute to a gentle giant. Thank you.

Mark Fyten subscriber

Yogi will be missed by baseball fans around the world. Rest in Peace.

William Sheridan subscriber

The Say What Kid …

He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious.

I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.

If people don't want to come to the ballpark, how are you going to stop them?

I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four.

Yes, Yogi, and may you rest in peace.

@RICHARD SZABO @William Sheridan He was referring to the legendary Yankee hangout -Toots Shor's, another great name.

RICHARD SZABO subscriber

@William Sheridan Nobody goes there anymore - it's too crowded.

Lawrence Schnapf subscriberprofilePrivate

I couldnt believe it at the 2015 All-Star game when Bench was named as one of the four greatest living players. How could they have overlooked Yogi? Borrowing form Sparky Anderson, dont ever embarrass anyone by trying to compare them to Yogi Berra. A great player but more importantly, a great human being. I am proud to share the same first two names with Lawrence Peter Berra.

Peter Mokhiber subscriber

Good Starting Line up in Heaven today. Casey Stengel said " I never managed without my guy" (Ken Burns Baseball) Yogi Berra

Louis Sillstrop subscriber

Thank you so much Yogi Berra. Heaven is richer today!

Jim Miller subscriber

in the middle of the online article is a photo of four ballplayers congratulating yogi for winning the 1951 a.l. m.v.p. award. anyone know who the other players are?

@Jim Miller Just a guess, but I think the guy on the left might be Ted Williams.

Roger Gordon subscriber

@Jim Miller

Gil Hodges is second from the right.

JIM NOVEROSKE user

@Jim Miller I would guess they might be Gene Woodling, Hank Bauer and an infielder (Gil McDougal , Doc Brown or?)

SHELDON HECHTMAN subscriber

@Jim Miller Joe Gordon, Ed Lopat, Gil Hodges and Gil MacDougal

JOSEPH M SHEEHAN user

Words fail me. There are no athletes like Yogi these days.

peter Garrison subscriber

A class act.

Thank you, Yogi.

RONALD MUSTO subscriber

I saw Yogi a couple of times as a kid playing the Tigers at Briggs Stadium. Mantle was the 'hero' but Yogi was the draw for this Italian-American kid.

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