Legendary Yankees catcher Yogi Berra passed away on Tuesday due to natural causes at his home in Montclair, N.J. He was 90.
His family had this to say in a statement released by the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center:
"While we mourn the loss of our father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, we know he is at peace with Mom. We celebrate his remarkable life, and are thankful he meant so much to so many. He will truly be missed.”
In 18 seasons with the Yankees, Berra helped lead the team to an amazing 14 American League pennants and 10 World Series titles. Because of that, it should come as no surprise that he has played in moreWorld Series games than anybody else in MLB history. Despite a hunched 5-foot-7 frame that you'd be unlikely to associate with a world class athlete, Berra won three AL MVP awards (1951, 1954, and 1955) to go alongside his 15 All-Star Game selections. He retired as a player in 1965 with a career batting average of .285 to go along with his prodigious totals of 358 home runs and 1,430 RBI. In 1972, he was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame and had his jersey number 8 retired by the Yankees.
Yogi's days in New York dugouts didn't end after he retired as a player. Instead, he returned as a coach for both the Yankees and Mets. In 1964, he managed the Yankees to the World Series where they lost in seven games to the Cardinals. In 1969, he was the first base coach for the 1969 "Miracle Mets" squad that stunned the world and won the World Series. He later went on to manage the team to another NL pennant in 1973.
In addition to his numerous contributions on the field, Berra was also known for many ridiculous quotations off it. Berra's sayings (also known as "Yogiisms") could explode your head with their mind-bending paradoxes. A few brief examples include:
On baseball: "90% of the game is half-mental."
When asked the process of how he came up with his Yogiisms, Berra once said:
"When I'm sittin' down to dinner with the family, stuff just pops out. And they'll say, 'Dad, you just said another one.' And I don't even know what the heck I said."
Berra represented not only one of the greatest players to ever play the game of baseball but also one of its biggest characters. When he was once asked by his wife if he wanted to be buried in his birthplace of St. Louis, Montclair, or New York, Berra reportedly replied, "I don't know. Why don't you surprise me?"
R.I.P.
[via ESPN]
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