Berra, Yogi

Born: May 12, 1925

Baseball player and manager.
Born in St. Louis, USA.

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra is a former catcher and manager in Major League Baseball who played almost his entire career for the New York Yankees. He is 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. He currently lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

Born in an area of St. Louis called "The Hill", Berra was originally nicknamed Lawdie, a diminutive of his name Lawrence. He picked up his nickname from a friend who said he resembled a Hindu holy man (yogi) that they had seen in a movie. Young Mr. Berra apparently liked to sit on the ground while waiting for his turn to bat with his arms and legs crossed in a yoga-like position. (The Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Yogi Bear was named after Berra.) He began playing baseball in local American Legion leagues, where he learned the basics of play as a catcher. After rejecting an offer from the St. Louis Cardinals, he signed with the Yankees in 1942. His childhood friend Joe Garagiola was considered a better prospect by the Cardinals and was offered a better bonus, which led to the rejection.

He is generally considered to be one of the best catchers in history. In two recent (2004) approaches by sabermetricians Berra is ranked first by the Bill James Win Shares method and third by the Total Baseball Total Player Rating method.

Berra is also quite famous for his tendency toward malapropism and fracturing the English language in highly provocative, interesting ways; see Yogiisms.

Yogi was named Wisest Fool of the Past 50 Years by the Economist magazine in January 2005.

Taken from Wikipedia

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