In the words of Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over till it’s over”.
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Berra’s family also issued a statement saying that he will be “truly missed”.
He won the American League’s Most Valuable Player award three times in the 1950s, was a 15-time All Star and entered baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1972.
I wonder if he knew where he’d end up, because when he was once asked by his wife where he wanted to be buried, Yogi replied, “I don’t know”.
Berra wrote an op-ed in The New York Times in 2003 after the Devils’ third Stanley Cup in nine seasons, praising the franchise’s success, defending the team against critics and comparing the organization to the Yankees.
Berra’s museum announced his death “with a profound sense of loss and heartfelt sorrow”. Also that year, his signature No. 8 jersey was retired by the Yankees. Berra enlisted in the Navy and later returned to baseball in 1946.
The video below, made in 2009 by the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame to honor Berra, includes footage of his first major league at-bat – in which he hit a home run.
Berra had an unmatched 10 World Series championships with the Yankees and his record of accomplishment on the field was extraordinary. Upon his return from his service, he often played in the substantial shadows of Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, and yet he quietly became no less than one of the most accomplished players in baseball history himself. “If you come to a fork in the road, take it” was his too. And he would manage the Yankees and New York Mets and lead both to the World Series.
“Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.”
Eight of them – including the enduring “You can observe a lot by watching” – appear alongside those from Shakespeare and the Bible in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations.
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“You should always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise, they won’t come to yours.”
