Yankees Icon Yogi Berra Dies At 90

By Daniel Hubbard (Patch Staff)

Yogi Berra, one of baseball’s greatest catchers and a beloved New York Yankee, died of natural causes Tuesday. He was 90.

His death was announced by the Yankees and by the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in Little Falls.

“Yogi conducted his life with unwavering integrity, humility and a contagious good humor that elevated him from baseball legend to beloved national icon,” a post on the center’s Facebook page states.

Before moving to an assisted living facility in West Caldwell, in 2012, Berra had lived for many years in nearby Montclair, The New York Times reported.

Yogi Berra Stadium, home of the New Jersey Jackals minor league baseball team, is located on the campus of Montclair State University.

Lawrence Peter Berra was born May 12, 1925 in St. Louis, MO, he signed with the Yankees as a free agent in 1943 and played in his first game with the club in 1946, according to baseball-reference.com.

An all-star for 15 consecutive seasons, Berra played for New York teams for 19 years, 18 with the Yankees and one, his final season, with the Mets in 1965.

The Yankees organization posted about Berra’s death on Twitter early Wednesday morning. The team also changed its Twitter profile picture to Berra’s Yankees No. 8.

He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972, won 10 World Series championships with the Yankees between 1947 and 1962, and was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player three times in the 1950s.

Berra was perhaps just as well known, if not more, for his demeanor off the field than his play on it. His “nonsensical and sagacious” pronouncements, known colloquially as ”Yogisms,” were well received.

“You can observe a lot just by watching,” he allegedly once said as a manager, and “It ain’t over till it’s over,” he said as the Mets’ manager.

Berra was named Yankees’ manager in 1984 and the team finished third that year. Then-owner George Steinbrenner fired Berra just 16 games into the next season after the team went 6-10, the Times reported.

The Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center on the Montclair State University, which awarded Berra and honorary doctorate of humanities in 1996, pays tribute to Berra and runs programs for children.

Images courtesy of the Yogi Berra Museum Facebook page.

Main photo signed at Henry’s Fine Foods In Verona in 2007