1955 YOGI BERRA RED MAN TOBACCO #16 PSA 8.5 NM-MT+ RARE

Yogi Berra bio

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra (born May 12, 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri) is a former Major League Baseball player and manager. He played almost his entire career for the New York Yankees and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. Arguably the most beloved baseball player since Babe Ruth, Berra was one of only four players to be named the Most Valuable Player of the American League three times, and one of only six managers to lead both American and National League teams to the World Series.

Berra, who quit school in the eighth grade, has a tendency toward malapropism and fracturing the English language in highly provocative, interesting ways. Simultaneously denying and confirming his reputation, Berra once stated, "I didn't really say everything I said."

Born in a primarily Italian neighborhood of St. Louis called "The Hill", Berra was the son of Pietro and Paulina Berra, immigrants from Italy. Pietro, originally from Milan in northern Italy, arrived at Ellis Island on October 18, 1909 at the age of 23, and later met Paulina in the U.S.  Yogi's parents originally nicknamed him "Lawdie," derived from his mother's difficulty pronouncing "Lawrence" or "Larry" correctly. He grew up on Elizabeth Avenue, just across the street from his boyhood friend and later competitor Joe Garagiola (that block, also home to the late baseball broadcaster Jack Buck, has subsequently been renamed "Hall of Fame Place"). Yogi and Joe also attended the same High School, South Side Catholic, now called St. Mary's High School, in South St. Louis. Berra has been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

He picked up his more famous nickname from a friend, Bobby Hofman, who said he resembled a Hindu holy man (yogi) they had seen in a movie, whenever Berra sat around with arms and legs crossed waiting to bat, or while looking sad after a losing game.  Years later, the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Yogi Bear was named after Berra, something Berra did not appreciate after he started being periodically addressed as "Yogi Bear."

He began playing baseball in local American Legion leagues, where he learned the basics of play as a catcher. Berra also played for a Cranston, RI team under an assumed name.

In 1942 the St. Louis Cardinals spurned Berra in favor of his boyhood best friend, Joe Garagiola. On the surface, the Cardinals seemed to think Garagiola the superior prospect -- but team president Branch Rickey actually had an ulterior motive: knowing he was soon to leave St. Louis to take over the operation of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and more impressed with Berra than he let on, Rickey apparently planned to hold Berra off until he could sign him for the Dodgers. The plan was ruined when the Yankees got to him first, signing him for the same $500 bonus the Cardinals offered Garagiola.

Berra is widely regarded as one of the greatest catchers in baseball history. According to the win shares formula developed by sabermetrician Bill James, Berra is the greatest catcher of all time and the 52nd greatest non-pitcher in major-league history. Late in his career, some sportswriters and baseball announcers affectionately nicknamed Berra "The Little Squat Man."

Yogi Berra's number 8 was retired by the New York Yankees in 1972

Following a stint in the U.S. Navy during World War II where he served as a Gunner's Mate in the D-Day invasion, Berra played minor league baseball with the Newark Bears before being called up for seven games in the major leagues in 1946 and was taught under the mentorship of Hall of Famer Bill Dickey, whose number Berra took. The following season he played 86 games for the Yankees, and he would play more than a hundred in each of the following fourteen years.

During his nineteen-year career as a Yankee, Berra's teams dominated baseball. Berra appeared in fourteen World Series, winning ten championships, both of which are records. Because Berra's playing career coincided with the Yankees' most consistent period, it enabled him to establish the major league records for World Series games (75), at-bats (259), hits (71), doubles (10), singles (49), games caught (63), and catcher putouts (457). In Game 3 of the 1947 World Series, Berra hit the first pinch-hit home run in World Series history off Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca (who later served up Bobby Thomson's famous home run in 1951). Though Berra played in 14 World Series, he played a full game in just nine of them, one fewer than Joe DiMaggio, who played full games in all ten of his Series appearances.

Berra has become a beloved figure in American sport, which in some ways has obscured his immense talents as a competitive athlete. Berra was a fifteen-time All-Star, and won the league's MVP award three times, in 1951, 1954 and 1955. From 1950 to 1957, Berra never finished lower than 4th in the voting. He received MVP votes in fifteen consecutive seasons, tied with Barry Bonds and second only to Hank Aaron's nineteen straight seasons with MVP support. (Ted Williams also received MVP votes in every year of his career, but it was twice interrupted by military service.) Between 1949 and 1955, on a team filled with stars such as Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, it was Berra who led the Yankees in RBI for seven consecutive seasons.